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AI & dataFunded startup

OpenAI

Researches and builds AI models, including the GPT series, and offers them through ChatGPT and a developer API.

Not known5 stage process documentedFounded 2015
Headquarters

San Francisco, California, United States

Headcount

1,000 to 5,000

1,000 to 4,999 people
Work model

Not known

Hiring

Not known

Not enough signal to say. Check the careers page directly.
Where to apply
Careers pageWebsite

Ask for a referral to OpenAI

A referral only means something if the person giving it can actually speak to your work. I will refer you where I know someone on the inside and your profile genuinely fits the role, and I will tell you plainly when I cannot. Either way you get an answer, and a straight one.

  • I read every request. A reply takes a few days, sometimes longer.
  • I will not refer someone for a role their profile does not fit. It wastes your time and costs me the contact.
  • Where I cannot refer you, I will say why, and point you at the way in that does work.
  • Nothing you send here is shared with anyone without you agreeing to it first.

If you found the opening, paste it. It tells me which team you mean.

A Drive, Dropbox or personal-site link is fine. Make sure it opens without a request for access, or I cannot read it.

At least a short paragraph. This is what I would be putting my name behind, so specifics beat adjectives.

Comma separated, up to six. Things you would be happy to be tested on.

How they hire

Whether AI tools are allowed depends on the interview: some formats allow them, others test unaided problem-solving. The prep materials say which applies.

  1. 1

    Application and resume review

    Official
    Application screen

    The recruiting team typically replies within about a week.

  2. 2

    Introductory calls

    Official
    Recruiter screenRemote

    A conversation with the hiring manager or a recruiter about your experience, motivation and goals.

  3. 3

    Skills-based assessment

    Official
    Technical interview

    Format depends on the team and can be pair coding, a take-home project or a technical test, sometimes more than one.

    Pair codingTake-homeTechnical test
  4. 4

    Final interviews

    Official
    Panel interview

    Usually four to six hours with four to six people over one or two days, virtual by default with an option to attend in San Francisco.

  5. 5

    Decision

    Official
    Offer

    Expect to hear within a week of the final interviews; references may be requested.

What comes up

Recurring themes from candidate accounts, not a question bank. Nobody is served by leaked question lists, least of all you in the interview.

  • Production-quality engineering

    Official

    For engineering interviews OpenAI looks for well-designed solutions, high-quality code, good performance and solid test coverage.

  • Reasoning out loud

    Official

    Interviews aim to show how you approach problems and communicate decisions, and are meant to stretch you beyond your comfort zone.

Worth reading before you apply

From the Sefism resource library, matched to the rounds above.

Course
Grokking Algorithm Complexity and Big-O

A short text course on algorithm analysis: all five asymptotic notations, time and space complexity, best, worst and average cases, and three methods for recursive complexity including the master theorem. It suits students and self-taught developers who can write working code but freeze when an interviewer asks for the time and space complexity, or who want to understand why one solution is faster than another.

  • Job search
  • DSA
  • CS fundamentals
Design Gurus · Interview Prep · 1 week · Beginner
SubscriptionDetails
Course
Grokking Data Structures & Algorithms for Coding Interviews

A foundations course that builds eleven core data structures from the ground up (arrays, matrices, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees and BSTs, hash tables, hash sets, heaps, graphs and tries), then covers sorting, searching, greedy and divide and conquer. Every chapter has practice problems, flashcards and an assessment. It suits students and career switchers whose foundations came from tutorials and who find pattern courses move too fast.

  • Job search
  • DSA
  • CS fundamentals
Design Gurus · Interview Prep · 4 to 6 weeks · Beginner
SubscriptionDetails
Course
Grokking Tech Salary Negotiations

A practical course on negotiating compensation in tech, from preparing and building a strategy to specific tactics, the full package beyond base salary, handling multiple offers and asking for a raise. It has tailored sections for fresh graduates and experienced engineers. It suits anyone with an offer coming, and anyone who has ever accepted the first number out of discomfort.

  • Career
  • Job search
Design Gurus · Career Growth · 1 week
SubscriptionDetails
Tool
Resume Review

A paid, human review of your resume by experienced engineers and hiring managers from large technology companies, returned in three to five business days with line-by-line suggestions, proposed rewrites of bullet points and applicant tracking system advice. It suits engineers whose resume is already reasonably solid and who want detailed feedback from people who screen engineering resumes for a living before a job search.

  • Career
  • Job search
Design Gurus · Career Growth · Minutes
$279Details
Platform
Hacker101

Hacker101 is HackerOne's free web security training hub, combining video lessons with a hands-on capture-the-flag exercise, aimed at both programmers curious about bug bounty work and more experienced security professionals. It is entirely free with no account paywall, and pairs naturally with reading HackerOne's own vulnerability disclosure guidelines before attempting any real-world bug bounty programme. Bugcrowd runs a similarly free alternative, Bugcrowd University, worth knowing about even though this entry focuses on Hacker101.

  • Career
  • Job search
  • Testing
HackerOne · Other · Beginner
FreeDetails
Platform
Hack The Box Academy

Hack The Box's structured course platform, built from short modules rather than the open ended machines the main HTB site is known for. Its Tier 0 fundamentals modules are effectively free, and job role paths such as SOC Analyst and Penetration Tester lead into HTB's own practical certifications.

  • CS fundamentals
  • Career
  • Job search
Hack The Box · Other · Self paced · Intermediate
FreeDetails
Browse the whole library

What it pays

Nothing collected for this company yet, and nothing worth guessing at. A made-up range is worse than no range because people negotiate against it.

Add to the OpenAI page

This library is only as good as what people who have been through it are willing to share. Most of these companies have no hiring process documented anywhere, and one account of what the rounds actually were is worth more than anything I can research from the outside.

What are you adding?

This decides how the claim is labelled on the page. Only someone representing the company can produce an “official” label, and I check that separately.

Year and month.

Comma separated topics, not the questions themselves.

Round by round is ideal: what each one was, how long, remote or in person, and what it covered.

Credit

Anonymous is the default. If you keep it anonymous, nothing identifying you reaches the page: it is published as a candidate account and your name stays with me. Never send anything covered by an NDA, and never send a take-home or a question paper.

Universities they recruit from

No sourced university links yet. A campus drive, a career fair appearance or an internship partnership is what puts a university here.

Add to the OpenAI page

This library is only as good as what people who have been through it are willing to share. Most of these companies have no hiring process documented anywhere, and one account of what the rounds actually were is worth more than anything I can research from the outside.

What are you adding?

This decides how the claim is labelled on the page. Only someone representing the company can produce an “official” label, and I check that separately.

Year and month.

Comma separated topics, not the questions themselves.

Round by round is ideal: what each one was, how long, remote or in person, and what it covered.

Credit

Anonymous is the default. If you keep it anonymous, nothing identifying you reaches the page: it is published as a candidate account and your name stays with me. Never send anything covered by an NDA, and never send a take-home or a question paper.

How to actually get seen

Write tests as part of your solutions, since test coverage is named as a criterion. Read OpenAI's recent posts about the team you are interviewing for.

Sources

Whole profile last checked 2026-09-22.

Interviewed at OpenAI? Fill in what changed.

Processes change, rounds get added, tests get replaced. If what you went through was different from what is on this page, tell me and I will update it.

Want me to refer you here?

Send me the role, your CV and a few honest paragraphs on why you fit it. Where I know someone inside and your profile matches, I will make the introduction. Where I cannot, I will tell you why and point you at the route that does work. You get an answer either way.

Ask for a referral to OpenAI

A referral only means something if the person giving it can actually speak to your work. I will refer you where I know someone on the inside and your profile genuinely fits the role, and I will tell you plainly when I cannot. Either way you get an answer, and a straight one.

  • I read every request. A reply takes a few days, sometimes longer.
  • I will not refer someone for a role their profile does not fit. It wastes your time and costs me the contact.
  • Where I cannot refer you, I will say why, and point you at the way in that does work.
  • Nothing you send here is shared with anyone without you agreeing to it first.

If you found the opening, paste it. It tells me which team you mean.

A Drive, Dropbox or personal-site link is fine. Make sure it opens without a request for access, or I cannot read it.

At least a short paragraph. This is what I would be putting my name behind, so specifics beat adjectives.

Comma separated, up to six. Things you would be happy to be tested on.

Add to the OpenAI page

This library is only as good as what people who have been through it are willing to share. Most of these companies have no hiring process documented anywhere, and one account of what the rounds actually were is worth more than anything I can research from the outside.

What are you adding?

This decides how the claim is labelled on the page. Only someone representing the company can produce an “official” label, and I check that separately.

Year and month.

Comma separated topics, not the questions themselves.

Round by round is ideal: what each one was, how long, remote or in person, and what it covered.

Credit

Anonymous is the default. If you keep it anonymous, nothing identifying you reaches the page: it is published as a candidate account and your name stays with me. Never send anything covered by an NDA, and never send a take-home or a question paper.

Work with me

Stuck on something specific?

Writing only gets you so far. If you want an answer to your situation rather than the general case, book a session and we will work through it together. Sessions are free for approved Sefism members, and a few slots open each week.

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