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Walk into OpenAI prepared.
OpenAI interview preparation
OpenAI
openai.comWalk into OpenAI prepared.
Know what it looks for.
AI research company building general-purpose artificial intelligence systems, creator of ChatGPT and GPT models.
What we know about OpenAI
- 10 audio episodes, about 2 hours of listening, 1 free
- System design round: 60 minutes
- Project deep dive round: 45 minutes
- Read from 1 source
- Mock interviews for every round, with a written report
Your preparation, in four steps
Take them in order, or start where you need help most.
What OpenAI's rounds look like
System design at OpenAI
- Length
- 60 minutes
- Tracks
- System Design Screen, System design (onsite)
- Levels
- L4, L5, L6
- Tool
- Excalidraw (2026 reports)
Known to ask
- Design a payment system
- Design a job scheduler
- Design Slack, with follow-ups on scaling by 100x and 1000x
- Design the OpenAI Playground for developers, from UI through architecture
- Design ChatGPT
- Design online chess
From OpenAI's hiring pages and candidate reports, read 2026-10-29.
The project deep dive at OpenAI
- Called
- Project presentation
- Length
- 45 minutes
- Materials
- Slides
- Who leads
- You lead
What they press on
- Technical aspects of the work
- Business impact
- Your individual contribution versus the team's
- Tradeoffs you made
- How the team was structured
From OpenAI's hiring pages and candidate reports, read 2026-10-29.
What our brief for OpenAI draws on
- Our notesCompany knowledge baseread October 28, 2026
Our interviewer, resume writer and Story Bank use what we learned from these, in our own words.