Debugging & Refactoring

In a debug or a Premium question, the code you get mostly works. A teammate's cache passes the test they wrote. A helper handles the easy case but times out on long transcripts, and a quota check works until two workers hit the same tenant at once. Your job is to find the defect before you fix it. Some onsite loops also include a refactor task on roughly a hundred lines of someone else's messy code. The beta agentic round scores the same habit of proving code works before you accept it, so the practice carries over.

If you delete the class and retype the textbook version, you lose twenty minutes and still can't say what was wrong with the original. So work in a fixed order. Write a test that fails, make the smallest change that makes it pass, and clean up only after that. The bug usually sits in behavior the existing test skips, so ask what the author never tried and run that first. Once you have a failing case, the fix is often a line or two, and the failing case is your proof for the interviewer.

OpenAIPremium lesson · Coding round

The 3 OpenAI problems are below.

1. 1A Premium questionCoding · Medium · Frequently asked
2. 2A Premium questionCoding · Medium · Frequently asked
3. 3A Premium questionCoding · Medium

Each with hints, the follow-up and a tested solution.

Get the OpenAI questions

$49 a year · all 100 companies · cancel anytime

From 20,000+ candidate reports, forum threads behind logins and write-ups in Chinese.

Read a free OpenAI lesson firstAlready a member? Sign in