OpenAI Interview Prep
OpenAI Coding Interview
How the coding round works at OpenAI: Practical, real-world coding — often building something runnable.
Start a free OpenAI coding mockWhat this round tests
- Data structures and algorithms
- Pattern recognition (two pointers, BFS/DFS, DP, etc.)
- Edge-case handling
- Clean, correct code and complexity analysis
How to prepare for OpenAI's coding round
- Master the core patterns rather than memorizing problems.
- Practice talking through your approach before coding.
- Always state time and space complexity.
- Do timed problems in a real editor and run against tests.
Sample questions
Asked at OpenAI
- Build a small in-memory key-value store with TTL.
- Implement a token bucket rate limiter.
More coding practice
- Two Sum and its variants (three sum, k-sum).
- Find the number of islands in a grid (BFS/DFS).
- Longest substring without repeating characters (sliding window).
FAQ
Does OpenAI have a coding round?
Yes. In the OpenAI loop this shows up as "Coding": Practical, real-world coding — often building something runnable.
How many problems should I practice?
Quality over quantity — deeply understanding ~150 problems across the core patterns beats grinding 500 shallowly. The goal is to recognize the pattern, not recall the exact problem.
Should I talk while coding?
Yes. Interviewers score communication. Narrate your approach, tradeoffs, and edge cases as you go — silent correct code scores worse than communicated correct code.
Ready to practice?
Practice OpenAI's coding round with an AI interviewer. No signup — see your score in 3 minutes.
Start a free OpenAI coding mock