Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at OpenAI with 3.2 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 32% positive. To compare, the company-average is 38.4% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 26 days to get hired, when considering 37 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at OpenAI overall takes an average of 30 days.
Common stages of the interview process at OpenAI as a Software Engineer according to 37 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 38%
Skills test: 28%
One on one interview: 17%
Personality test: 7%
Group panel interview: 3%
Other: 3%
IQ intelligence test: 3%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
Set up with phone screen
System design + practical coding. I was told by the OpenAI recruiter that I would know what style of practical coding to expect (debugging, frontend vs backend), but this did not happen.
Biggest gripe about particularly the practical coding question: the interviewer sat in *silence* for minutes at a time. I would try to confirm assumptions, and would get back a non-answer or a confusing flip-flopping set of answers.
There were at least 2 parts, but I assume there were more
I applied online. I interviewed at OpenAI in Feb 2026
Interview
Applied online, advanced to a recruiter phone screen where I was asked technical questions. Unfortunately, I did not pass this stage and did not move forward in the interview process.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Standard recruiter questions + technical
How to handle multiple API requests?