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Software Engineer Interview Experience - San Francisco, California

January 24, 2026
Positive ExperienceGot Offer

Process

I applied online. The process took 3 weeks.

I was given a question that was similar to Alien Dictionary on LeetCode. It was a graph-based question that was a LeetCode problem. I ended up passing since I had done it before.

Questions

The "Alien Dictionary" problem is a classic LeetCode question (specifically LeetCode Problem 269) that requires determining the alphabetical order of characters in a new language given a list of words sorted according to that language's rules.

This is typically solved using graph theory and topological sorting (Kahn's algorithm or DFS).

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 14 interview experiences for the OpenAI Software Engineer role in San Francisco, California.

Success Rate

7%
Pass Rate

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

Experience Rating

Positive64%
Neutral36%
Negative0%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for OpenAI's Software Engineer interview process in San Francisco, California.

OpenAI Work Experiences