OpenAI Software Engineer Interview Experience — Positive Feedback, Rejected for a Better Background Match

OpenAI·Software Engineer·Sep 2026
OnsiteTechnical ScreenOtherRejectedmedium

Interview experience for an OpenAI team-specific hire. Just giving a little back to the forum.

Phone screen:

  • Coding: GPU Credit 2
  • System Design: Payment System

About a week after the phone screen I had an HM chat, and after that I moved on to the onsite.

Onsite:

  • Coding: Plant Infection
  • System Design: Design Steam
  • Deep Dive
  • HM Chat (with a neighboring team)

The Deep Dive and the HM Chat were both pretty standard. We mostly talked about projects I had done before, technical decisions, and some behavioral questions.

Overall the interview feedback was positive, but since this was hiring for an infra team, the team ended up running into a candidate whose background was a better match. After waiting about three weeks I got the rejection letter.

That's the whole process. Good luck everyone.

Published

Curated and edited by PracHub

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Interview at a glance

Company
OpenAI
Role
Software Engineer
Rounds
Technical Screen → Other → Onsite
Outcome
Rejected
Difficulty
medium
Interview date
Sep 2026
Questions from this interview
2 questions

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