Changelog

What’s new in the AceOffer interview question catalog each month

Every month, AceOffer adds new interview questions reconstructed from new candidate reports, and refreshes existing questions when new reports change the follow-up patterns or canonical answer. This page lists what shipped each month. Catalog total: 142 questions across Anthropic and OpenAI — plus the free Waymo catalog and the xAI and new Perplexity catalogs.

New company — July 2026

Perplexity joins the catalog: 4 questionsreconstructed from 29+ candidate reports — the OA-style multi-part coding rounds Perplexity is known for (in-memory Unix file system, an “Implement ToDo list for AI” task DAG with cascade failure, the stop-words streaming problem), plus a codex-fact-checked Design Mint.com system-design walkthrough, all with harness-tested solutions. The in-memory file system question is free — no account required.

New company — July 2026

xAI joins the catalog: 8 questions reconstructed from 80+ candidate reports — the staged in-memory database with nested transactions (reported 9 times), the complete 15-minute phone-screen script, a lazy-refill rate-limiter system-design walkthrough, and six harness-tested coding solutions. The phone-screen guide and the in-memory database question are free — no account required. More xAI questions ship in the coming weeks.

New company — July 2026

Waymo joins the catalog: 28 questions reconstructed from 55+ candidate reports — real technical phone screens (BFS/graph, pure-Python data processing), AV-flavored system design (evaluation systems, inference at 100M DAU), six coding solutions, and full system-design walkthroughs. The entire Waymo catalog is free — no account required.

Latest refresh — July 2026

4 new questions and 42 questions refreshed with new candidate reports.

Culture Fit / Behavioral Questions+14File Deduplication+6Banking System (OA)+6Inference API System Design+5Why Anthropic?+5Prompt Playground System Design+5AI Safety Culture Fit+4Most Impactful Project / HM Behavioral+4Project Deep Dive / Technical Presentation+4Image Processing Pipeline+4

How the monthly refresh works

  • New questions — added when at least two independent candidate reports describe the same question; one report alone is held as a draft until a second confirms.
  • Refreshed questions— existing questions are updated when a new candidate report introduces a new follow-up, edge case, or shifts the common-mistake pattern. The question’s last-reported date moves forward; history is preserved internally.
  • Retired questions— if a question hasn’t been reported in 12+ months, it’s flagged as ‘cold’ on the question card but stays in the catalog for reference.
  • Source quality gate — reports are auto-graded by an LLM for structure and detail before they qualify for the catalog.

June 2026

New questions (1)
Anthropic · 1
  • Bootloader with Loop Detection
Refreshed (24)
Anthropic · 13
OpenAI · 11

May 2026

New questions (3)
OpenAI · 3
  • 1-Nearest Neighbor Implementation
  • Matrix Cumulative Product with Hillis-Steele Scan
  • System Design - Real-time Sensor System (End-to-End)
Refreshed (24)
Anthropic · 6
  • Distributed Mode/Median
  • ML Model Distribution / Deployment System Design
  • Batch Inference System Design
  • File Systems OA (Multi-Part)
  • NumPy Debugging
  • Task Management System
OpenAI · 18
  • Key-Value Store Design and Implementation
  • System Design: Slack
  • Toy Language: Type Inference and AST
  • Classifier Training and Analysis
  • IP Address / CIDR Iterator
  • ML Coding: MLP/RNN Forward/Backward Propagation
  • System Design: Online IDE / Sandbox Cloud IDE
  • Behavioral / Culture Fit Questions
  • Chatbot / Bot Message Router Refactoring
  • Novel Data Mining from Large Unlabeled Datasets
  • System Design: Crossword Puzzle Solver Service
  • KV Cache Implementation for Inference
  • System Design: YouTube / Video Publishing & Streaming
  • Cross-Functional PM Collaboration / Culture
  • Behavioral: Conflict Resolution
  • Jetpack Compose / UI Components Implementation
  • Human Annotation with High-Dimensional Input
  • Rate Limiter Implementation

April 2026

New questions (9)
Anthropic · 3
  • System Design Doc Review
  • Sample-Aspect Double Descent Experiment Design
  • Amusement Park / Sharing System Product Design
OpenAI · 6
  • Text Editor (Buffer, Undo/Redo, Autocomplete, Collaboration)
  • AI Playground System Design
  • Load Balancing with Multi-Tag Constraints
  • Entropy Calculation with Numerical Stability and Streaming
  • Coffee Shop Ordering System Design
  • FP8/BF16 Mixed Precision Training & Numerical Overflow
Refreshed (14)
Anthropic · 4
OpenAI · 10
  • Transformer Debugging
  • System Design: ChatGPT / GPT Interactive Chat UI
  • Python Dependency Version Control
  • NumPy Puzzle / Vectorization
  • System Design: URL Shortener
  • LLM Decoding Stopping Time / Probability Distributions
  • File/Folder Deduplication and Navigation
  • Multiprocessing / Distributed Neural Network Debugging
  • Dynamic Human Labeling / Task Scheduling
  • System Design: Image Sharing with Deduplication

March 2026

New questions (6)
Anthropic · 1
  • Open-Source AI Safety / Community Benefit Discussion
OpenAI · 5
  • Human Annotation with High-Dimensional Input
  • Dynamic Human Labeling / Task Scheduling
  • Multi-Shard Data Management Architecture
  • Implement ChatGPT-like React Interface with Streaming
  • ML Config / Configuration System
Refreshed (8)
Anthropic · 2
OpenAI · 6
  • ML Search / RAG System Design
  • Backpropagation
  • Applied Statistics and Probability
  • HM / HR Phone Screen (Hiring Manager or Recruiter Chat)
  • Memory Allocator Implementation
  • RL Bug Finding / Debugging

February 2026

New questions (7)
Anthropic · 1
  • Stream Large File to Many Machines
OpenAI · 6
  • Design Sora / Video Generation Scheduling System
  • System Design: YouTube / Video Publishing & Streaming
  • Overlapping Key Range / Shard Rebalancing
  • RL Bug Finding / Debugging
  • Project Ambiguity and Problem-Solving
  • GPU Infrastructure and Kubernetes
Refreshed (5)
OpenAI · 5

January 2026

New questions (5)
Anthropic · 2
  • NumPy Debugging
  • Task Management System
OpenAI · 3
  • System Design: Online IDE / Sandbox Cloud IDE
  • System Design: Online Chess Game
  • Stock Trading System Design (Robinhood-like)
Refreshed (1)
Anthropic · 1
  • In-Memory Database

December 2025

New questions (5)
Anthropic · 1
  • Most Challenging Project (Recruiter Chat)
OpenAI · 4
  • Disease/Epidemic Spreading Simulation
  • Social Network Follower/Followee with Temporal Queries
  • LLM Decoding Stopping Time / Probability Distributions
  • ML System Design: Image Extraction from Chat Logs
Refreshed (4)
Anthropic · 3
  • VLIW / TPU / Kernel Optimization Assignment
  • Roofline Model Analysis
  • Consecutive Event / Sample Detection
OpenAI · 1
  • Improve Tool / Image Recognition Model Training

November 2025

New questions (15)
Anthropic · 2
  • Recipe Manager
  • Chat System Design
OpenAI · 13
  • ML Coding: MLP/RNN Forward/Backward Propagation
  • System Design: Crossword Puzzle Solver Service
  • NumPy Puzzle / Vectorization
  • System Design: URL Shortener
  • Behavioral: Technical Depth / Hiring Manager Interview
  • Recommendation & Search System Design
  • System Design: Image Sharing with Deduplication
  • Rate Limiter Implementation
  • Minimum Steps to Target Number via Modular Addition
  • Game of Life
  • How Do You Measure Success in 6 Months
  • ML Fundamentals (Oral)
  • Shortest Path in Tree Network Visiting All Task Nodes
Refreshed (1)
OpenAI · 1
  • SQL Coding Problem

October 2025

New questions (12)
Anthropic · 3
OpenAI · 9
  • Two-Team Turn-Based Combat System
  • Chatbot / Bot Message Router Refactoring
  • Jetpack Compose / UI Components Implementation
  • System Design: Calendar Application
  • Shortest Path to Visit All Points on a Grid
  • Largest Sub-Grid in 2D Array
  • System Design: OpenAI Platform
  • GPU Credit Scheduling System Design
  • Database Scaling for Notification System
Refreshed (1)
OpenAI · 1
  • CD Directory Navigation

September 2025

New questions (8)
Anthropic · 3
OpenAI · 5
  • IP Address Account Registration / Fraud Detection
  • Design Functional Scalable Full-Stack Web App
  • Large Model Deployment System Design
  • Behavioral: Learning from Failure
  • Behavioral: Achievements
Refreshed (2)
Anthropic · 1
  • GPU Cluster / Inference Infrastructure System Design
OpenAI · 1
  • Behavioral: Achievements and Project Deep Dive

August 2025

New questions (4)
Anthropic · 2
  • ML Model Distribution / Deployment System Design
  • Consecutive Event / Sample Detection
OpenAI · 2
  • System Design: Place of Interest (POI) / Yelp Service
  • Binary Search / Version Search with Rate Limiting
Refreshed (1)
OpenAI · 1
  • Resumable List/File Iterator

July 2025

New questions (10)
Anthropic · 4
  • File Systems OA (Multi-Part)
  • Career Plan / Work Preferences
  • LLM-Based Binary Classifier Design
  • Attention Algorithm Implementation in PyTorch
OpenAI · 6
  • System Design: ChatGPT / GPT Interactive Chat UI
  • Behavioral / Culture Fit Questions
  • Memory Allocator Implementation
  • File/Folder Deduplication and Navigation
  • Cross-Functional PM Collaboration / Culture
  • Stack Trace / Profile Stack
Refreshed (3)
Anthropic · 2
  • Cloud File Storage System
  • Neural Network Forward and Backward Pass Implementation
OpenAI · 1
  • ML Model Debugging

June 2025

New questions (3)
Anthropic · 1
OpenAI · 2
  • IP Address / CIDR Iterator
  • Behavioral: Failed Project and Impact

May 2025

New questions (16)
Anthropic · 5
  • In-Memory Database
  • Project Feasibility / Failure BQ
  • Batch Inference System Design
  • Roofline Model Analysis
  • Neural Network Forward and Backward Pass Implementation
OpenAI · 11
Refreshed (1)
OpenAI · 1
  • Bitwise Operations

April 2025

New questions (3)
Anthropic · 3
Refreshed (1)
OpenAI · 1
  • Excel Sheet Cell Dependencies and Cycle Detection

February 2025

New questions (16)
Anthropic · 5
OpenAI · 11

Preparing for one of these interviews?

Every question above is reconstructed from real candidate reports, with verbatim follow-ups and the mistakes that sink people.

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