Opendoor fullround interview experience
Summary
I interviewed for a senior full‑stack engineer role at Opendoor in Seattle, completing recruiter, technical, two React, system design, and behavioral rounds, but ultimately failed due to insufficient CSS knowledge.
Full Experience
I applied for a senior fullstack position in Seattle
Recruiter Screen:
Literally asked me nothing, just talked about the interview process
Tech screen:
Part 1) Build a key value store that supports operations add, update, delete
Part 2) Support operations isExpired, sleep(time), setTTL(ttl)
Interviewer seemed to hate his life.
React Interview 1:
Build a react app that makes a web request for a list of images and renders rows and columns dynamically as window size changes while keeping images the same size.
Very CSS focused which I wasn't prepared for since I am a mobile dev.
React Interview 2:
Part 1) Debug a rendering issue with the scabble board. It's a css margin issue on the p tag.
Part 2) Make a network request for game data and render the scrabble board. They asked me to implement the first two buttons here https://scrabble-interview.vercel.app/frontend/game
System Design:
Design Job Queue for Opendoor ops tasks (essentially design Jira).
Imagine 100s of people using the same Jira board. If someone marks a task complete, everyone else should see the changes in real time.
Behavioral:
Very conversational, none of that "Tell me about a time you..." STAR bullsh*t. Mainly just talking about a couple projects I worked on.
Result:
FAILED. I don't know css at all, I didn't think the react interviews would be so focused on css. I know react very well, but in a mobile context only, so no css.
Interview Questions (5)
Implement a Key-Value Store with TTL Operations
Build a key‑value store that supports the basic operations add, update, and delete. In addition, implement the following TTL‑related operations: isExpired, sleep(time), and setTTL(ttl).
Responsive Image Grid React App
Build a React application that performs a web request to retrieve a list of images, then renders those images in rows and columns that automatically adjust as the browser window size changes, while keeping each image the same size.
Debug CSS Margin Issue in Scrabble Board Rendering
Identify and fix a CSS margin problem on a <p> tag that causes incorrect rendering of a Scrabble board UI.
Implement Scrabble Board Data Fetch and Button Functionality
Create a network request to fetch game data and render a Scrabble board. Additionally, implement the first two buttons as demonstrated in the provided frontend demo.
Design a Real-Time Job Queue System for Ops Tasks
Design a job‑queue system (similar to Jira) for Opendoor operations tasks. The system should support hundreds of concurrent users, and when a task is marked complete, the change must be reflected to all users in real time.