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Senior Backend Engineer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California

January 29, 2024
Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

There was a very long wait between every stage.

It took three weeks to get on the phone with a recruiter, where all they did was confirm I would work in person and don’t need sponsorship (which I had already stated in their form).

Another two-plus weeks passed until the first technical interview, followed by another week to speak with a recruiter again, then several weeks until an onsite interview, and finally a week until the decision.

The holidays explained some of this delay, but other companies I applied to during the same time were much faster.

The interviews themselves were fine, though the first round coding question included what I would describe as “graph algo trivia,” which I see as bad practice.

The onsite experience was grueling and uncomfortable.

There were no bathroom breaks and only a half-hour, at an odd time, to eat lunch (lunch was also not provided).

They offered API credits to learn about the opportunity in an invite email, but ignored my request to actually get them.

Two of the interviews required time-consuming preparation.

If you have a job, good luck finding the time to prepare for this process. If you don’t have a job, you better have months of savings stocked up because it’s not going to be quick.

Perhaps if you tell them you have expiring offers, they will try harder; I don’t know.

One thing I liked about the process was the hints they gave ahead of the technical rounds to help you prepare, like “brush up on graphs.” Take them seriously.

Questions

Design a POI app that lets you search for places nearby.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the OpenAI Senior Backend Engineer role in San Francisco, California.

Success Rate

0%
Pass Rate

OpenAI's interview process for their Senior Backend Engineer roles in San Francisco, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive0%
Neutral0%
Negative100%

Candidates reported having very negative feelings for OpenAI's Senior Backend Engineer interview process in San Francisco, California.

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