I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at TikTok (Sydney) in Mar 2024
Interview
A TikTok recruiter approached me on LinkedIn. The initial interview with the recruiter was positive. She was friendly and spent time patiently explaining the upcoming interview processes. She mentioned that the next coding interview can be scheduled anytime when I am comfortable even if it's scheduled a month later.
I scheduled the coding interview about 3 weeks after my initial interview (due to personal reason - work, kids, etc I needed longer time to prep for the coding interview, I'm currently working in DevOps so usually don't do as much coding like SDE).
After 3 weeks of preparation, a night before the coding interview, another recruiter informed me that they are on a hiring freeze and canceled the interview.
I rated the overall experience neutral, because the recruiter who spoken to me was super friendly and professional. Personally I've gained a lot from doing Leetcode everyday. But still, it wasn't a nice thing to cancel interview last minute.
The interview difficulty is based on the initial talk with the recruiter.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about yourself.
Why do you want to work for TikTok?
1. Hacker rank - Standard leetcode questions that is around medium to hard standard
2. Tech Lead Interview - Test on linux OS on the different commands inclusive of networking and devops practices
3. Manager Interview
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at TikTok in Sept 2025
Interview
The process includes two rounds:
Round 1 – 30 minutes of technical questions based on your resume, followed by 30 minutes of live coding on HackerRank.
Round 2 – 30-minute technical interview focusing on problem-solving and advanced concepts.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
explain the work u did in your previous job in detail?
Got a Leetcode Hard about strings on my first round for an entry level role. Interviewer was nice and helped me debug my code and I went extremely over time but solved it in the end. Still in the process.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What technical challenge did you face and how did you solve it?