OpenAI Interview Trend Analysis — Q2 2026

Overall Trend

OpenAI continues aggressive hiring in early 2026, with interview posts covering SWE, MLE/RE, Mobile, and other roles. The interview process typically starts with a Phone Screen (two back-to-back 60-minute rounds: Coding + System Design), followed by an Onsite (Coding + SD + Behavioral + Technical Deep Dive + HM Chat). The bar is extremely high — many well-prepared candidates still get rejected. [hidden]

Coding rounds feature custom, practical problems (not traditional LeetCode), with multiple progressive parts to complete within 60-75 minutes. ML roles include additional ML Coding rounds (Transformer debugging, NumPy implementations) and Math Reasoning. [hidden]

Question Type Distribution

Top 10 High-Frequency Topics

Difficulty Trends

The overall difficulty remains extremely high. Coding questions don't focus on algorithmic complexity but demand speed and engineering execution.

• Plant Infection is the undisputed #1 high-frequency question, [hidden]
• GPU Credits as the second most frequent Coding question, [hidden]
• System Design leans heavily toward practical scenarios, [hidden]
• ML Coding is significantly challenging, [hidden]

Notable Changes

1. New Coding questions keep emerging: [hidden]
2. SD topics shifting toward AI infrastructure: [hidden]
3. Interview format variations appearing: [hidden]
4. Cooldown period extended to one year: [hidden]
5. Fullstack track emerging: [hidden]