In the hearts of North American students, OpenAI is the mecca for job hunting in the AI field. This tech giant, which leads the world with cutting-edge technology, hardcore projects and innovative culture, is famous for its phenomenal products such as ChatGPT, and its talent selection mechanism has attracted a lot of attention as well.We have received several interviews with OpenAI, and we are going to share some super practical interview experience with OpenAI today to help you get the offer!
OpenAI Interview Process
Application and Resume Screening
After submitting your application and resume, the hiring team will typically review it within a week. If the application materials are bright enough, you will be able to move on to the next stage.
Recruiter Phone Screen (RPS)
This is an approximately 30-minute phone interview with a recruiter. It focuses on your resume, personal background, and motivation for applying to OpenAI, with frequently asked questions such as "Tell me about yourself" and "Why do you want to work at OpenAI". Before the interview, it is recommended to learn about OpenAI's latest projects through its research blogs and news, so that your answers fully reflect your knowledge of the company and identification with its values.
Technical Screen or Hiring Manager Call
- Technical Positions: Usually arrange online coding test, which is about 1 hour in length, with medium-easy difficulty, mostly on platforms such as Codility or Hackerrank. The main test is about coding skills and understanding of basic data structures and algorithms (e.g. dynamic programming, graph traversal, sorting problems, etc.).
- Non-Technical Positions: A 30-60 minute video call with a department manager may be conducted, focusing on your knowledge of the area related to the position, past experience, and problem solving skills.
On-site Interviews or Video Interviews (On-site Interviews)
This is the final stage of the interview process, with some candidates traveling to OpenAI's headquarters in San Francisco for 3-6 rounds of on-site interviews, and many using video interviews. Each round lasts about 30 minutes and is conducted by a different team member. The structure of the interviews varies by position, but each position has a domain-specific assessment.
- Behavioral Interview: Focuses on assessing how well you identify with the company's mission and your ability to work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. Frequently asked questions such as "Describe your experience of disagreements with members in a team project, and how you resolved the disagreements and moved the project forward" are answered with the recommended use of the STAR method.
- Technical Interview: Different positions have different focuses. Engineering positions may involve algorithms and data structure issues, or even require on-site code writing; research positions may require detailed work, self-reflection, and future direction if there are dissertation results; system design positions may require the design of an end-to-end ML system, such as a recommendation engine or a real-time sentiment analysis pipeline, and so on.
Interview results and follow-up
Interview results are usually announced within a week of the final round of interviews. During this time, the recruiter may ask you to provide references. The entire interview process usually lasts about a month and may sometimes be extended.
OpenAI Interview Classic Questions
I. Coding
Given a binary sequence containing only 0 and 1, it is required to convert it to a standard set of note tenses (whole note, half note, quarter note, eighth note, sixteenth note, etc.).
- A "1" indicates the onset of the note, followed by a "0" for sustain.
- In sixteenth notes (
A16) is the smallest time value unit: if there is only "1", it takes up 1 minimum unit (1/16 shot); "1 0" takes up 2 minimum units, and so on. - In the final output, the total time value corresponding to each "1" and subsequent consecutive "0" is decomposed into standard note time values.
II. Machine Learning Theory Questions
- Problem: Explain in detail the math of the attention mechanism in Transformer and show how it addresses the shortcomings of RNNs when dealing with long sequences.
- Problem: causes of gradient vanishing and gradient explosion and at least three solutions in deep learning.
III. System design questions
- Problem: Design a conversation generation system similar to ChatGPT, with detailed design in terms of data collection, model training, service deployment, high concurrency, and privacy protection.
- Problem: Design a distributed AI model training platform for OpenAI that supports hyper-scale parallel training, fault tolerance and scaling, describe the overall architecture and key components.
IV. Behavioral interview questions
- Problem: Tell us about an experience where a disagreement with a teammate over a technical route was resolved through communication, and what was the outcome?
- Problem: Share your experience of working in a high-pressure, uncertain environment and how you ensure quality and progress?
- Problem: Describe a case where a new AI technology was actively learned and successfully applied to a project.
The final secret to breaking into OpenAI
The PROGRAMHELP team is dedicated to helping you succeed in your interviews, a team of 7 experts who have graduated from top universities in China and abroad. We are a team of 7 experts who graduated from top colleges and universities in China and abroad, with rich experience in interviewing for big factories, and are committed to providing you with comprehensive interview coaching and support. The services we provide include:
- Interview coaching and VO assistance: real-time coaching techniques and behavioral interviewing.
- OA proxy and remote interview support: Ensure clarity of thought and smooth links.
- Interviewing and Code Writing: Mock interviews, code writing and other services are available to help you pass the written and interview sessions.
- Entrance interview coaching and test proctoring: We provide services such as tutoring for entrance interviews for studying abroad and test proctoring for academic exams.
Start your interview preparation journey by contacting us today!
