What candidates say the round looked like, summarised in our words, each linked to where it came from. OpenAI hasn’t confirmed these details unless the source says “Official page”.
read the files, write code (at least half of 1 reports)
Length
about 60 min (median of 1 reports)
The reports
Phone screen · October 2026
Senior · Python · 60 min
After the HR screen, the candidate was offered a choice for the technical screen. Option 1: a 60-minute traditional coding interview, frontend focused in their case, covering data structures, algorithms, testing and debugging. Option 2: a 60-minute agentic coding interview on a Python codebase with AI tools, focused on understanding unfamiliar code, planning, using AI well, making engineering decisions, validating output and owning the result. The prep guide says it’s not an algorithm memorisation exercise.
AI: Your own AI tools that could read the files, write code · Task: Extend existing code · Source: Blind thread