Interview Experiences

Real candidates, real loops: every round, what was asked, and how it ended.

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52 stories

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OpenAISoftware Engineer
Mar 2026

Distributed Node-Counting System Design Question

I've interviewed with OpenAI several times recently. This question gives you a root node and an initial API, sendAsyncMessage(nodeId, message). You need to implement receiveMessage(fromNodeId, message) yourself, and ultimately count how many nodes exist in the whole network. On the surface it looks a bit like DFS, but it's dressed up as a more realistic distributed scenario. Each node can be thou…

Technical Screen0
OpenAISoftware Engineer
Feb 2026

A Toy Language Coding Question and a Crossword Puzzle System Design

Locked — open it to unlock the full story with XP.

RejectedTechnical ScreenXP0
OpenAISoftware Engineer
Jan 2026

Strong Feedback Every Round, Still Rejected

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RejectedOnsiteXP0
OpenAISoftware Engineer
Jan 2026

Four Rounds: Math Reasoning, Two AI Coding, and a Load-Balancing Problem

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RejectedOnsiteXP0
OpenAISoftware Engineer
Jan 2026

Skipped the Phone Screen, Rejected After the Onsite

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RejectedOnsiteXP0
OpenAISoftware Engineer
Dec 2025

Coding and System Design in One Screen, Rejected After a Week

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RejectedTechnical ScreenXP0
OpenAISoftware Engineer
Dec 2025

Two Phone Screens, Five-Round Onsite, No Offer

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RejectedOnsiteXP0
OpenAISoftware Engineer
Dec 2025

Felt Locked In, Rejected the Next Day

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RejectedOnsiteXP0
OpenAISoftware Engineer
Nov 2025

Choked on the System Design Round

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RejectedTechnical ScreenXP0
OpenAISoftware Engineer
Oct 2025

A Crossword-Puzzle System Design Question

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Technical ScreenXP0
OpenAISoftware Engineer
Aug 2025

a Referral Bump, a Rushed KV Store Round, and a CI/CD System Design

This was for an infra engineer role on the data platform team. We chatted briefly, compared backgrounds, and it seemed like a good match. He then asked if I had any connections at OpenAI. I checked LinkedIn and found two former coworkers who worked there, so I gave him their names. I'm guessing he used them as references, because two days later I got an email moving me into the phone screen stage…

RejectedTechnical Screen0
OpenAISoftware Engineer
Jul 2025

A GPU Credit Coding Question, Then a Surprise Fullstack Design Round

The coding round was the GPU credit problem, and it was actually pretty simple — the whole thing was only about 30-40 lines of code. add_credit subtract get_balance Three functions. I used two heaps to maintain the credit entities and the subtraction events. The first two functions were just simple heappush calls. get_balance was a little more complex — mainly because subtract needs to prioritize…

In progressOnsite0

What are interview experiences?

An interview experience is a candidate's own account of a hiring loop — not a question bank entry. It tells you the shape of the process: how many rounds there were, what each round actually tested, how long the gaps between them ran, and what the recruiter said at the end. That context is the part a question list cannot give you.

How to read them

Weight recent write-ups more heavily — interview loops change, often within a year. Read several for the same company and role rather than one: a single account tells you what one interviewer asked, while five tell you what the bar is. Note the outcome badge too, since a rejection write-up usually explains the gap far more precisely than an offer one.

Share your own

Every published experience earns 50 XP, and each of the first 3 likes it receives in a day earns you 10 XP more. Likes must come from established accounts; like-for-like swaps and likes from your own second account are not paid. Write it while the details are fresh — the round order, the exact prompts, and how much time you were given are what the next reader needs.

Share your experience to earn XP