Software Engineer at OpenAI

The candidate initiated contact via cold outreach and a referral, eventually securing an initial recruiter screen followed by two same-day phone interviews focusing on coding and system design. The onsite portion consisted of four interviews: coding, system design, a deep dive into their past projects, and a behavioral assessment. They noted the coding challenges were significantly more demanding than typical big tech interviews, comparable to Anthropic's, while system design and behavioral questions were more standard. The candidate was awaiting a decision and highlighted interviewer variability as a key factor.