I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at TikTok (San Jose, CA) in Mar 2024
Interview
We had a short discussion about my resume and then went through a coding interview. I was confident that I provided the best solution, but the interviewer insisted that his approach was more optimized. I even consulted with some genius friends, and they all agreed with me. However, the work-life balance at the company seems terrible based on the interview. The interview was scheduled for 1 pm, and the interviewer had just woken up because he worked from 9 am to 3 am the previous night. He had only been with TikTok for less than three months and was already responsible for interviewing candidates.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Simple introduction and one medium leetcode question
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at TikTok
Interview
- recruiter asked me to speak in Chinese for latter half of screen
- 1st round was algo interview
- 2nd round was algo and system design
- didn't move forward after second round
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
- 1st round was simple 1D dp problem
- 2nd round was graph problem (Djikstra's) and ML system design
2 rounds coding a lot of background questions very strange behavior from interviewer camera was off and asked questions in mandarin, leetcode medium-hard and very very slow communication from recruiters based in asia for an english role
OA - 1 arrays Medium, 1 Trie Hard. I had 45 minutes to complete that. I was able to do the medium in about 15-20 minutes but I am not that great with trie ds so I was not able to finish.