Interview Experiences

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

Share yours, earn XP

12 stories

Likes earn the author +10 XP for the first 3 likes each day

OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
Sep 2026

Transformer Bug Hunt with KV Cache from Scratch and a Five-Part Plant Infection Problem

Hi, I am preparing for OpenAI's ML coding interview and have summarized the ML coding questions mentioned in the OpenAI/Anthropic interview rounds I have given so far. Anthropic Research Fundamentals Round: It was related to implementing an ML algo and discussing various research/mathematical aspects around it. OpenAI ML Coding (Transformer Debugging): Debugging 4-5 implanted bugs in the transfor…

Technical Screen0
OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
Jun 2026

Two Brand-New Coding Rounds, Now Waiting on the Onsite

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

In progressTechnical ScreenXP0
OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
May 2026

A 60-Minute Infection-Spread Simulation, Four Parts

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

Technical ScreenXP0
OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
Apr 2026

A malloc Phone Screen and a Surprise Debugging Round

Sharing an OpenAI interview report. Aside from the phone screen, everything was a question I'd already seen before — because I over-prepared from question banks and cared way too much about the outcome, I interviewed badly. I really regret it. The phone screen covered malloc, which others have already shared — the details aren't much different. There were two parts: first a naive first-fit soluti…

Onsite0
OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
Apr 2026

Seven-Part Research Onsite, Offer a Week Later

You can find my phone screen writeup in a separate post. Since this was a recruiter reach-out, once I passed the phone screen I went straight to onsite with the team that wanted to interview me. The onsite was split into the following parts: Collaboration interview — we talked about the current SOTA in my research direction, its pros and cons, whether I had relevant technical experience, and how…

OfferOnsite0
OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
Apr 2026

Task Scheduling and Monster Battle Simulation Coding Rounds

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

OnsiteXP0
OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
Apr 2026

Four One-Hour Rounds in a Single Phone Screen

Sharing my recent OpenAI Research phone screen. Round 1: general coding, 1hr Debug a distributed system. They gave me a buggy job scheduler written in Python — I had to check for data races, deadlocks, lock contention, and whether the rate limiter was implemented correctly. Partway through I had to write my own test cases to confirm the scheduler actually worked, then calculate how long the sched…

In progressTechnical Screen0
OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
Apr 2026

Four Technical Problems, Told Not a Match

Question 1: 1NN This one's got a lot of write-ups already on the forum, so I won't go into detail here. Question 2: Infectious disease The first three parts were exactly the same as what's already on the forum. The fourth part: at any given moment, for a plant that isn't dead yet, if it has >=K infected neighbors, it enters a dead countdown (dies after D days); if it has >=T but <K infected neigh…

RejectedOnsite0
OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
Mar 2026

A Text Editor That Grew Into Undo/Redo, Autocomplete, and Real-Time Collaboration

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

Technical ScreenXP0
OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
Oct 2025

A Simulation-Style Infectious Disease Question

I interviewed onsite for a completely new question I had never seen before -- five parts in total, and I only managed to finish three, so I definitely failed this round. The prompt was described as "simulation style." Beforehand, people on the forum said it would probably be GPU-related, so that is what I prepared for, but it turned out to be about infectious disease instead. Posting this so othe…

RejectedOnsite0
OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
Oct 2025

Onsite Dragged to November, Then Rejected

I applied in June, and they didn't reach out to schedule an interview until September. The phone screen went well, and they quickly set up the onsite (VO), but from there the scheduling turned into a mess — they kept changing the time on me, over and over, and it dragged all the way to November before I finished every round. Two weeks after that, I got the rejection. I won't go into every detail,…

RejectedOnsite0
OpenAIMachine Learning Engineer
Sep 2025

A Rate-Limited Dependency Version Search Problem

First question: the topic was dependency version check. Part 1: they give you a list of dependency versions, for example [103.003.02, 103.003.03, 203.003.02]. Each version may or may not support the current feature, and you need to find the earliest version that supports it. Part 2: they gave a bunch of corner test cases, and some of the cases actually expose more requirements — your earlier assu…

Technical Screen0

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