Do Job Applications Ask for GPA? We Opened 3,756 AI Job Forms and 30 Did (Oct. 20, 2026)
Rarely, at the AI companies we track: on October 20, 2026, we opened 3,756 application forms on 19 AI company job boards and 30 of them, 0.8%, asked for a GPA. All 30 were at three employers, xAI, Sierra and Cursor. 24 made the answer required, and 14 xAI forms used a required GPA dropdown with no way to say “not applicable.”
That is the form itself, not the job ad. A posting can say “strong academic record” and never ask, and a form can ask for a number the posting never mentions. So we read the questions an applicant actually has to answer, field by field, on the employer’s own application page.
What we opened on October 20, 2026
- 3,838 open jobs on the 19 boards behind our AI jobs tracker: OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Scale AI, Mercor, Perplexity, Cohere, Sierra, ElevenLabs, Cursor, Cognition, Replit, Figure AI, Apptronik, Agility Robotics, 1X, Physical Intelligence, Waymo and Nuro.
- For each job we pulled the application form from the employer’s public Greenhouse or Ashby feed and kept every question label in full. 3,756 forms were read. 82 could not be read (OpenAI 53, Sierra 10, Cursor 8, ElevenLabs 4, Cognition 4, Cohere 2, Replit 1); those are counted as unread, not as “no GPA question.”
- A form counts when a question label contains “GPA.” We read every matched label by eye and dropped look-alikes, such as a federal “grade/rank” question and “enterprise-grade” in a skills question.
- We did not submit any application or contact any employer. The voluntary survey section that some forms add after submission is not part of this count.
Written and checked by Prof. H. An AI assistant helped draft this piece and run the form reads; every quote was read on the source’s own page on October 20, 2026.
Do job applications ask for GPA at AI companies?
Only 30 of the 3,756 AI job application forms we opened on October 20, 2026 had a GPA question, and 16 of the 19 employers had none on any form we could read. That includes OpenAI’s 754 readable forms, Anthropic’s 667 and Waymo’s 366. xAI had 24 GPA forms out of 306, Sierra 5 of 177 and Cursor 1 of 126.
The broader employer surveys point the same way. The National Association of Colleges and Employers, in its Job Outlook 2025 Spring Update published April 2025 and read October 20, 2026, ran the heading “Less than 40% of employers will screen candidates by GPA.” NACE surveys employers that recruit new college graduates, so its share covers a different group from the 19 boards here.
Which AI jobs asked for a GPA on October 20, 2026?
19 of xAI’s 24 GPA forms were for jobs with “Memphis” in the title, mostly data center, power and construction engineering roles around its Colossus site. The rest were four 2027 internships in Palo Alto and New York and one site reliability engineer job in Memphis and Southaven, Miss. Sierra and Cursor asked only on new-grad and internship forms.
| Employer and job | Location | GPA question | Pay range on posting |
|---|---|---|---|
| xAI, IT Network Engineer | Memphis | Required dropdown, no N/A | Range not published |
| xAI, Hardware Failure Analysis Engineer | Southaven, Miss.; Memphis | Required dropdown, no N/A | Range not published |
| xAI, Power Generation Engineer | Southaven, Miss.; Memphis | Three required: undergraduate, graduate, doctorate, each with N/A | Range not published |
| xAI, Spring 2027 Software Engineering Internship/Co-op | Palo Alto, Calif. | Required text box, “N/A” allowed | Range not published |
| xAI, Sr. Construction Project Manager, Electrical Infrastructure | Memphis | Optional | Range not published |
| Sierra, Software Engineer, Agent (New Grad 2027) | San Francisco | Optional number | $150,000 to $180,000 |
| Sierra, Software Engineer, Agent (New Grad 2027) | Singapore | Required number | Range not published |
| Cursor, Software Engineer, New Grad 2027 | San Francisco | Required text, all degrees | Range not published |
Pay columns come from the same public feeds on October 20, 2026. The xAI postings above show no pay range in the feed we read; that is not the same as no pay range anywhere, so check the posting page before you rely on it.
What if a required GPA question has no not-applicable option?
On 14 xAI forms we opened on October 20, 2026, the GPA question was required and its dropdown ran from “4.0 out of 4.0” to “Below 3.0 out of 4.0,” with no choice for someone who has no college GPA. One of them, the IT Network Engineer job in Memphis, lists “5+ years of professional network engineering experience in lieu of a degree” as an accepted path in the same posting.
Two more of those 14, the Hardware Failure Analysis Engineer and the Site Reliability Engineer jobs, say a bachelor’s degree “(or equivalent experience)” in their basic qualifications. Yet the form still requires a GPA pick. We cannot see how xAI scores that answer, and the form does not say. Our read is only that the form and the stated qualifications do not line up.
xAI’s own forms show a fix is possible. Its Power Generation Engineer and Structural Engineer forms add “Not Applicable/Do Not Recall,” and the description says to choose it “if you do not have or do not remember” the GPA. Its four 2027 internship forms use a text box and say to write “N/A” if you have no undergraduate GPA.
If you hit one of these, the honest choice is what we would point to: answer truthfully, and if no choice fits, say so where the form gives you room, such as a cover note or an open text question. Do not pick a number you did not earn. We have not tested what a recruiter does with that answer.
Do entry-level and internship forms ask for GPA more often?
Yes, by our October 20, 2026 count: 10 of 204 entry-level and internship forms asked for a GPA, 4.9%, against 20 of the other 3,552 forms, about 0.6%. Every Sierra and Cursor GPA question was on a new-grad or intern form. xAI was the only employer that asked mid-career and senior applicants, including the senior construction roles in Memphis, where it was optional.
“Entry-level” here is the tracker’s label from words in the job title, such as intern, new grad, co-op, fellowship, junior and technician. It is our classification, not the employer’s. For pay at that level, see how much software engineering interns make.
Do job applications ask for SAT scores or transcripts too?
14 of the 3,756 forms we opened on October 20, 2026 asked for an SAT or ACT score, all of them xAI or Cursor, and only one asked for a transcript upload. xAI asked SAT and ACT on 13 forms, including its 2027 internships and senior construction jobs in Memphis. Cursor’s new-grad form asked for an “SAT / ACT / GRE Score.”
All 13 xAI score forms gave an out: a “Did not take” or “Do not recall / Not applicable” choice, or an instruction to write “Did not take.” Many of its GPA dropdowns did not. The one transcript request was Perplexity’s Research Fellowship in San Francisco, a required “Academic Transcripts” file upload on a job listed at $180,000 to $220,000.
Should you put your GPA on a job application if it is optional?
No rule says you must, and on the 6 optional GPA questions we found on October 20, 2026, leaving it blank is allowed by the form. The question is what the blank signals, and no employer in our count explains how it reads one. So we give the decision points, not a promise.
- Read the posting first. If it names a minimum GPA, an empty optional box will not hide a shortfall. None of the 30 GPA postings in our count named a minimum in the question label we read.
- Check the scale. xAI asks you to convert to 4.0. If your school used another scale, convert honestly and keep the original on hand.
- Never round up. A transcript request can come later in hiring, even when the form never asked for one.
- Use the rest of the form. Experience, project and link questions are where you can show what one GPA box cannot.
Degree wording is its own puzzle; we counted it in what “bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience” means and whether to apply if you miss a requirement.
Two career videos on whether GPA still matters
Coursera’s short video on GPA and resumes had 791 views and Zach Star’s “Does College GPA Matter?” had 62,137 when we checked on October 20, 2026. Both talk about resumes and hiring in general, not the 19 AI employers counted here.
We are not recruiters. We take no money from employers, and postings can close at any time; the employer’s official page wins. Never pay to apply, never deposit a check and send money back, a text message is not a job offer, and apply only on the employer’s own site. More at the Jobs Desk sources.
More form-by-form counts from the same 19 boards
All 3,838 jobs open on October 20, 2026 are on our AI jobs board, where you can browse every open role and apply on the employer’s site; the daily AI jobs tracker counts them by company. Each listing links to the employer’s own page.
We have opened these same forms for other questions: whether you need a cover letter, the voluntary self-identification section, the desired salary box and the “why do you want to work here” question.
Screening rules come up in whether you can opt out of AI resume screening and whether tech companies drug test. For first jobs, see entry-level AI jobs with no experience and why entry-level jobs ask for experience.
Company reads cover xAI jobs in Memphis, OpenAI, Anthropic and how to get a job at OpenAI or Anthropic.
We will reopen the 14 xAI forms on November 17, 2026 and report whether a not-applicable choice was added. Stuck on a form question? Ask the Jobs Desk, or start at the Jobs Desk hub.
Do job applications ask for GPA?
Rarely at AI companies. On October 20, 2026, 30 of 3,756 application forms on 19 AI company job boards asked for a GPA, 0.8%. All 30 were at xAI, Sierra and Cursor, and 24 made it required.
Do employers check your GPA?
The forms we read do not say whether answers are checked. One of 3,756 forms, a Perplexity research fellowship, required a transcript upload on October 20, 2026. Answer truthfully, since a transcript can be requested later.
Can I lie about my GPA on a job application?
Do not. A false answer can surface if a transcript or degree check is requested later in hiring. On the forms we read on October 20, 2026, an honest Below 3.0 or N/A choice existed on many GPA questions but not all.
What if I do not have a GPA?
Look for an N/A choice or instruction. On October 20, 2026, 14 xAI forms had a required GPA dropdown with no such choice, while two other xAI dropdowns and four xAI internship forms allowed N/A.
Do companies ask for GPA for internships?
More often than for other jobs. On October 20, 2026, 10 of 204 entry-level and internship forms on 19 AI company boards asked for a GPA, 4.9%, compared with about 0.6% of all other forms.
Sources
- Public Greenhouse job board API (questions) and Ashby job posting application forms for 19 company boards: OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Scale AI, Mercor, Perplexity, Cohere, Sierra, ElevenLabs, Cursor, Cognition, Replit, Figure AI, Apptronik, Agility Robotics, 1X, Physical Intelligence, Waymo, Nuro; read October 20, 2026. 82 forms unread.
- xAI postings re-opened October 20, 2026: IT Network Engineer – Memphis, Civil Engineer, SpaceXAI Battery Storage – Memphis, Power Generation Engineer – Memphis.
- National Association of Colleges and Employers, Job Outlook 2025 Spring Update, published April 2025; read October 20, 2026.
- Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Columbus Public Schools report card, 1891-92 (public domain); Columbus Public Schools grade card, 1914-15 (public domain); Arlington State College graduation ceremony (University of Texas at Arlington Photograph Collection, CC BY 4.0). Featured image: Winslow Homer, Country School, 1873, public domain.
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