OpenAI·Software Engineer

OpenAI Software Engineer interview experience

No offer

Medium

Positive

San Francisco, CAPosted Nov 2024 · Candidate report, summarized by Dataford

I interviewed at OpenAI through a sequence that centered on system design and a coding interview, plus a hiring manager conversation and a quick chat with the Head of Product.

The overall process felt enjoyable, but it also had one notable gap: I skipped the initial technical screen.

The coding interview felt unclear to me in terms of what they were aiming for. They asked me to refactor some bad code, but I couldn’t tell what the end goal was supposed to be beyond improving the code quality. Even with that uncertainty, the rest of the communication felt relatively friendly, and I appreciated the human side of the process.

I didn’t end up getting an offer. My main takeaway was that the technical refactoring task would’ve landed better with clearer context for

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