I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at TikTok (Shanghai, Shanghai) in June 2023
Interview
3 rounds
1. HR call, a quick CV screening
2. Hiring Manager 1:1 video interview. CV screening + 2 SQL questions. SQL difficulty was easy + medium.
3. Skip Manager 1:1 video interview. CV screening + 2 python questions. Python difficulty was easy + medium. Followed by complexity analysis and code optimization.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about yourself.
Why this team (TikTok E-commerce)?
SQL basic question.
SQL question with Window Function.
Tell me about one of the recent challenge you solved in project A on your CV.
Tell me about a situation where you have to solve a conflict within the team.
Python basic question on string manipulation.
Python question on dichotomy.
a little difficult. the interview last 60 mins, will ask the projects and leetcode, need to anser in 25mins [dynamic programming, array, linked list, and also ask the time complexity and space complexity.]
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at TikTok in July 2025
Interview
3 tech + 1Hr, however, I only had 2 tech, one with hiring manager, interview is intense, done within one week. usually its cv deep dive and leetcode: dp and dfs for me.
The interviewer is very knowledgeable and asked related questions regarding algorithm and machine learning techniques. Some were easy and some were quite in depth. No follow up from them after my second round even after sending them an email