01
Coding
Solve and explain a timed problem
THE 75-DAY MISSION
BUILD THE MAN
YOUR FUTURE NEEDS.
A private daily progress system for keeping your word: body, faith, family, energy, and the engineering craft needed to earn an OpenAI SWE role.
CURRENT MISSIONDAY 01OF 75
01
DAILY COMMAND CENTER
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23 · PHASE 1: MEET THE BAR
02
ACTIVITY LOG
DAY 01 · SYNCING
03
OPENAI SWE PRACTICE
0MINUTES0/7AREAS COMPLETE
Track deliberate evidence of improvement. You do not need all seven areas every day—complete the day’s assigned work deeply, then rotate across the full bar during the week.
02
System design
Design for scale and failure
03
Production build
Ship proof—not a tutorial
04
Debug + performance
Find, measure, and fix
05
Communication + mock
Think clearly out loud
06
OpenAI study
Know the mission and work
07
Application pipeline
Create the opportunity
Brisk walk
45 MIN · OUTDOORS
Full-body strength A
45 MIN · SEPARATE SESSION
Meet the OpenAI bar
Strengthen coding, systems, testing and technical communication.
60 MINUTES · PHONE AWAY“Let all that you do be done in love.”
1 CORINTHIANS 16:14
- What promise did I keep?
- What did I learn?
- What is tomorrow’s first move?
04
THE 75-DAY ROADMAP
ONE MISSION · FOUR PHASES
MEET THE BAR
Baseline algorithms, system design and production judgment. Study OpenAI’s mission, engineering work and interview expectations. Close the largest fundamentals gap first.
BUILD THE PROOF
Ship an OpenAI-caliber system: real users, clean APIs, evals, tests, observability, failure handling, latency and cost measurements, safety boundaries and a production deployment.
PASS THE LOOP
Train pair coding, system design, debugging and project deep dives. Produce high-quality tested solutions while explaining tradeoffs clearly—with and without AI tools.
EARN THE INTERVIEW
Match your proof to current OpenAI SWE roles. Tailor the résumé, build genuine relationships, apply precisely and keep rehearsing until your performance is repeatable.
05
EXECUTION BLUEPRINT
EXACT WORK · PROOF · EXIT TESTS
The overview gives direction. This is the operating plan. Each block ends with artifacts another engineer can inspect—not a feeling that you studied hard.
01DAYS 01—15
MEET THE BAR
Find the real gap between your current ability and an OpenAI engineering loop. Build disciplined fundamentals before optimizing for volume.
01—03
Run the diagnostic
Complete one 60-minute coding assessment without AI, one system-design prompt, and one project deep-dive recording. Score correctness, code quality, tests, performance reasoning, and communication.
04—07
Raise code quality
Practice arrays, maps, trees, graphs, recursion, concurrency basics, and complexity. Every solution needs tests, edge cases, clean names, and a spoken explanation—not just an accepted answer.
08—11
Build systems judgment
Design four systems using requirements, capacity estimates, APIs, data model, bottlenecks, failure modes, observability, security, and explicit latency/cost/reliability tradeoffs.
12—15
Map the target
Study the OpenAI Charter, interview guide, current engineering work, and 8–12 relevant SWE postings. Build a requirements matrix and write the design brief for one flagship system.
REQUIRED PROOF
- Baseline scorecard
- 20 explained coding reps
- 4 system designs
- Role requirements matrix
- Flagship project brief
EXIT TEST
You can solve a medium problem in 35 minutes with tests, explain a system for 30 minutes, and name the three gaps Phase 2 must prove you can close.
02DAYS 16—35
BUILD THE PROOF
Create one deployed system that demonstrates engineering judgment under real constraints. Depth, measurement, and ownership matter more than feature count.
16—20
Ship the thin slice
Define the user and success metric. Build the smallest end-to-end path: interface, API, data model, authentication, structured errors, tests, continuous integration, and deployment.
21—25
Make quality measurable
Add an evaluation dataset, pass/fail criteria, regression suite, tracing, dashboards, and cost accounting. Record the baseline before changing anything.
26—30
Engineer for failure
Add timeouts, retries with backoff, idempotency, rate limits, queues or backpressure, graceful degradation, privacy/security boundaries, and a written threat/failure model.
31—35
Prove and explain
Load test it. Profile the bottleneck. Improve p50/p95 latency or throughput. Recruit real users, document feedback, publish architecture and tradeoffs, and write a blameless incident-style postmortem.
REQUIRED PROOF
- Live production URL
- Test + eval suite
- Observability dashboard
- Benchmark before/after
- Architecture decision record
- User feedback + postmortem
EXIT TEST
A senior engineer can inspect the repository, reproduce the system, see measured quality and performance, trigger a failure safely, and understand every major tradeoff you made.
03DAYS 36—55
PASS THE LOOP
Turn knowledge into repeatable interview performance. Train independent reasoning, collaboration, clean implementation, and calm communication under time pressure.
36—40
Pair-code deliberately
Run five 45-minute sessions. Clarify first, state invariants, implement in small steps, test aloud, analyze complexity, and accept feedback without becoming defensive.
41—45
Design under ambiguity
Run five 45-minute designs across product, API, data, distributed systems, and reliability. Lead with requirements and close with bottlenecks, rollout, observability, and failure recovery.
46—50
Debug and defend
Practice unfamiliar-code debugging, profiling, test repair, and production incidents. Rehearse the flagship project at 30-second, 5-minute, and 30-minute depth, including mistakes.
51—55
Simulate the loop
Complete two multi-round mock loops. Include coding, design, project depth, and behavioral collaboration. Convert every miss into a named drill and repeat it within 48 hours.
REQUIRED PROOF
- 10 timed coding sessions
- 8 system-design recordings
- 5 debugging drills
- 6 behavioral stories
- 2 full mock loops
- Feedback-to-drill ledger
EXIT TEST
Across two mocks, you produce correct tested code, structure ambiguous designs, defend tradeoffs with evidence, and communicate your thinking without needing rescue.
04DAYS 56—75
EARN THE INTERVIEW
Convert demonstrated ability into credible applications and warm professional context while protecting the technical sharpness you built.
56—60
Package the evidence
Create a one-page impact résumé, a concise portfolio case study, a clean GitHub landing page, and project explanations at three depths. Every claim should link to evidence or a measurable outcome.
61—65
Build genuine context
Identify engineers, alumni, researchers, and recruiters connected to relevant work. Send specific, respectful messages based on their work; ask for insight before asking for a referral.
66—70
Apply with precision
Prioritize roles with strong evidence fit. Tailor the top third of the résumé, project emphasis, and short note to each role. Track application, contact, follow-up date, and response.
71—75
Stay interview-ready
Maintain daily coding or design, run one final mock loop, prepare questions for each team, rehearse mission and motivation, and build a two-week continuation plan beyond Day 75.
REQUIRED PROOF
- Evidence-based résumé
- Portfolio case study
- Target-role matrix
- 20 thoughtful conversations
- 10–20 precise applications
- Final mock + continuation plan
EXIT TEST
You can show why your experience fits a current role, prove your strongest claims, pass a realistic mock loop, and continue the search without losing momentum after Day 75.
06
WEEKLY TRAINING
SUSTAINABLE INTENSITY · CONSISTENT ACTION
MONOUTDOOR
Brisk walk
SECONDFull-body strength A
TUEOUTDOOR
Easy walk
SECONDMobility + core
WEDOUTDOOR
Brisk walk
SECONDFull-body strength B
THUOUTDOOR
Easy walk
SECONDYoga / recovery ride
FRIOUTDOOR
Brisk walk
SECONDFull-body strength A
SATOUTDOOR
Family walk / hike
SECONDLight conditioning
SUNOUTDOOR
Gentle walk
SECONDMobility + stretching
TRAIN WITH JUDGMENT. Most outdoor sessions should be brisk walks. Stop for chest pain, dizziness, or unusual breathlessness. Fluid needs vary; seek clinical guidance if you have kidney, heart, electrolyte, or medication concerns.