OpenAI Interview Questions

OpenAI Interview Questions

Practice 274 real OpenAI interview questions for 2026 — real interview questions drawn from actual interviews with detailed solutions. OpenAI interview questions on this page span Coding & Algorithms, System Design, ML System Design, Machine Learning, and Data Manipulation (SQL/Python) and cover roles like Software Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, Data Scientist, Android Engineer, and Frontend Engineer. For interview preparation expect a focus on production ML systems, scalable services, numerical correctness, experimental design, and communication: interviewers evaluate architecture decisions, tradeoffs, measurable impact, and the ability to ship robust systems under uncertainty. The loop runs stage-by-stage: a recruiter screen, a technical phone screen (coding or design), a virtual onsite with focused rounds (practical coding, system and ML design, model/debug deep dives, and behavioral/mission-fit), then team match and offer; typical timeline is about 4–8 weeks and difficulty is high. Practical coding leans toward real-world engineering problems rather than pure LeetCode puzzles. Software-engineer themes include consistent-hashing sharding, GPU job scheduling for text-to-video, payment systems with exactly-once semantics, and video orchestration. ML tracks emphasize resumable iterators and checkpoint/restore, streaming-entropy numerical stability, 1-NN implementations and debugging model backprop; data science focuses on churn, free-trial A/B tests, and SQL retention analysis. Use project deep-dives and worked examples when you prep.

274 Questions 1 Company08.01.2026
Showing 20 results
Role
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Medium
Machine Learning Engineer Locked

Simulate Turn-Based Monster Battles

This question evaluates the ability to implement a turn-based battle simulation with correct state management, turn semantics, knockout handling, dama...

Coding & Algorithms
14
0
116 people solved
Mar 9, 2026
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Medium
Machine Learning Engineer

Design a Resumable Iterator with Checkpoint and Restore

Design a resumable iterator: an iterator that can serialize its current position into a compact, opaque checkpoint and later be reconstructed from tha...

Coding & Algorithms
2
0
15 people solved
Oct 18, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Hard
Software Engineer Locked

Design a Distributed Crossword Solver

This question evaluates proficiency in constraint-solving algorithms and distributed system architecture, including data representation, efficient sea...

System Design
29
0
414 people solved
Apr 7, 2026
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Design Restart Strategy for Oracle Solver

This question evaluates understanding of probabilistic runtime analysis and restart strategies for randomized (Las Vegas-style) solvers, including exp...

Machine Learning
9
0
78 people solved
Jan 13, 2026
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Design a payment system

This question evaluates a candidate's competency in designing secure, reliable payment architectures, covering API design, transaction lifecycle manag...

System Design
9
0
130 people solved
Jan 9, 2026
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Hard
Machine Learning Engineer Locked

Select high-quality math documents from crawls

This ML System Design question evaluates the ability to design scalable, production-grade pipelines for extracting and quality-scoring mathematical co...

ML System Design
14
0
137 people solved
Dec 15, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Medium
Data Scientist

Analyze A/B Test Results for Subscription Conversion Rates

Analyze A/B Test Results for Subscription Conversion Rates An A/B test offers free users a limited-time trial of the paid plan to see whether it incre...

Analytics & Experimentation
121
1
301 people solved
Jul 12, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Design a social network with snapshots

This question evaluates understanding of data structures, graph representations, immutability and snapshot/versioning strategies for in-memory systems...

Software Engineering Fundamentals
37
0
311 people solved
Nov 16, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Hard
Software Engineer

Design an online ads serving system

System Design: Low-Latency Targeted Ad Serving (≤100 ms E2E) You are designing an online advertising serving system for web/app inventory with a stric...

System Design
35
0
286 people solved
Sep 6, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Hard
Software Engineer

Design credit balance with vector-clock expirations

Credit Balance Service with Vector-Clock Expiries You are designing a backend service that maintains per-user promotional credits. Credits are granted...

System Design
13
0
149 people solved
Sep 6, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Hard
Software Engineer

Explain JS threading and useState vs useRef

Answer the following conceptual questions about JavaScript and React: 1. JavaScript and multithreading - How does JavaScript's execution model wo...

Software Engineering Fundamentals
10
0
115 people solved
Dec 6, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Design a multi-device calendar application

This question evaluates system design competency in scalable backend architecture, data modeling for time-range queries, synchronization and conflict-...

System Design
15
0
175 people solved
Nov 9, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Medium
Data Scientist

Write SQL to compute signup and retention lift

You are analyzing an A/B test for a marketing campaign that offers a free 1‑month trial. Assume all timestamps are in UTC. Tables experiment_assignmen...

Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
15
0
130 people solved
Oct 8, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Medium
Software Engineer Locked

Add Consecutive-Value Bonuses to Grid Paths

Extend the maximum-score grid path with bonuses for equal adjacent values and strictly increasing triples of visited cells. Dynamic programming must r...

Coding & Algorithms
0
0
19 people solved
Jun 11, 2026
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Medium
Software Engineer

Simulate turn-based monster team battle

Design an object-oriented model and implement the core battle logic for a turn-based fight between two teams of monsters. The system should simulate t...

Coding & Algorithms
135
1
1097 people solved
Oct 30, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Hard
Machine Learning Engineer

Design a low-latency RAG system

Design a Low-Latency RAG System for Customer Support Problem Statement Design a production-grade retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system that powe...

ML System Design
18
0
243 people solved
Jul 27, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Hard
Software Engineer

Design an End-to-End ML System

Design an End-to-End ML System System Design: Real-Time Recommendation ML System Context You are tasked with designing an end-to-end machine-learning ...

ML System Design
9
0
110 people solved
Aug 4, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Medium
Data Scientist

Design Schema for Accurate Subscription State Tracking

subscription_events +----------+---------------------+-----------+-----------+ | user_id | event_ts | event_type| plan_type | +----------+...

Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
137
0
414 people solved
Aug 4, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Hard
Software Engineer

Design an enterprise RAG assistant for internal docs

Scenario Design an enterprise GPT-style assistant that allows employees to ask questions about internal company documents (policies, wikis, specs, tic...

ML System Design
7
0
114 people solved
Dec 7, 2025
OpenAI logo
OpenAI
Hard
Software Engineer Locked

Design reliable high-volume chatbot system

This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design scalable, highly available, and fault-tolerant backend architectures for stateful chatbot serv...

System Design
28
0
204 people solved
Dec 6, 2025

Frequently Asked Questions

How difficult are OpenAI interview questions for software and ML roles in 2026?
OpenAI interviews in 2026 are challenging but not purely puzzle-driven: they reward practical engineering, systems thinking, and domain depth. Expect coding rounds that favor real-world tasks (reading and modifying components, debugging, performance-minded implementations) over contrived LeetCode riddles, plus heavy system and ML design for senior roles. Difficulty varies by track: Software Engineer interviews emphasize scalable distributed systems and orchestration; Machine Learning and Research tracks dig deeper into math, experiment design, and paper-level reasoning. Overall the loop is selective; prepare for multi-hour virtual onsites and high bar on correctness, clarity, and tradeoff justification.
What is the OpenAI interview process stage by stage and where do different question types appear?
The process typically starts with a recruiter or sourcer screen (30 minutes) covering fit and logistics, then a technical phone screen or hiring manager call that mixes coding and role-specific questions. Many loops include a paid or take-home exercise in applied roles, then a virtual onsite of four to six rounds: coding/debugging, system or ML systems design, a technical deep dive on your past work, and behavioral/mission-alignment conversations, followed by team-match interviews. Coding and Algorithms and Data Manipulation show up in early screens and onsite coding rounds; System Design and ML System Design dominate senior SWE and MLE rounds; Data Scientist rounds focus more on SQL, experiments, and A/B analysis.
How should I schedule my preparation and what timeline is realistic before interviewing at OpenAI?
Plan a 4–8 week preparation block aligned to the role. Weeks 1–2: solidify fundamentals—data structures, Python or chosen language fluency, and SQL skills with joins, windows, and CTEs. Weeks 3–4: practice role-specific system problems and ML fundamentals—distributed systems, caching, consistency, and experiment design. Weeks 5–6: run mock onsites, do timed coding, and prepare technical deep dives (projects, papers, metrics). Final 1–2 weeks: polish behavioral stories, team-fit pitch, and revisit tricky system/ML topics like checkpointing, numerical stability, and orchestration. Allow extra time if you must rebuild ML coding from scratch or reproduce papers.
What specific subtopics and problem types recur for OpenAI roles (coding, system design, ML, and data)?
For Software Engineers expect distributed-systems themes such as consistent hashing rings with virtual nodes, GPU job schedulers for text-to-video workloads, exactly-once payment processing, versioned social follow graphs, and video generation orchestration. Machine Learning Engineers see resumable iterators with checkpoint/restore, streaming entropy and numerical stability, 1-NN implementations and matrix gradient tricks, debugging MiniGPT-style training, mining novel images, and noisy-annotator strategies. Data Scientists focus on SQL for repeat churn, free-month promotion A/B tests, signup/retention lift calculations, and experiment measurement. Mobile and frontend roles weight architecture (MVVM, Compose) and model-usage quotas.
What are standout preparation tips and common pitfalls to avoid for OpenAI interviews?
Emphasize production-ready thinking: write clear, testable code, explain failure modes, and design for observability and reproducibility. For ML/research tracks, be ready to discuss papers, experimental design, statistical power, and how you'd debug and reproduce training runs. Avoid over-optimizing for abstract puzzle tactics; interviewers want debugging instincts, tradeoff reasoning, and a path to shipable systems. Common pitfalls include ignoring edge cases (concurrency, exactly-once semantics), skimming data-quality implications in experiments, failing to justify metric choices, and not framing past work in terms of tradeoffs and measurable impact during technical deep dives and team-match conversations.

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