AI / Core OpenAI Codex Application Fundamentals Interview Questions
What is the OpenAI Assistants API and what is its deprecation timeline?
The Assistants API was OpenAI's original high-level framework for building stateful, multi-turn AI assistants with persistent threads, file handling, and built-in tools. It introduced key concepts like Threads (conversation state), Runs (execution instances), and Vector Stores (document retrieval).
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Assistant | A configured AI model with instructions, tools, and optional files |
| Thread | A persistent conversation history (persisted server-side) |
| Run | An execution of an assistant on a thread - produces a response |
| Message | A single turn added to a Thread |
| Vector Store | A server-side store of embedded documents for file search |
Deprecation timeline: OpenAI formally announced the Assistants API deprecation in 2025. The planned sunset date is mid-2026, once full feature parity is achieved in the Responses API. Key migration points:
- Threads - replaced by
previous_response_idchaining or the Conversations API in Responses - Vector Stores - now a standalone resource, still used with
file_searchtool in Responses API - Code Interpreter - available as a built-in tool in Responses API
- Assistant objects - replaced by the system instructions field in Responses calls
Recommendation: all new projects should use the Responses API with the Agents SDK. Existing Assistants API integrations should plan migration before mid-2026 to avoid disruption.
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