TikTok/ByteDance | Front-end engineer | California | December [Offer]

I recently interviewed at TikTok for the New grad front end software engineer role. This was my first interview experience, so I was naturally nervous. I had been preparing for technical interviews full time since the summer, and had done close to 300 Leetcode problems, so I felt somewhat confident.

The initial online assessment was very challenging, and I only managed to partially solve all the questions. I was surprised and delighted when I received an email from a TikTok recruiter. I immediately started revising all the data structures and algorithms concepts and prepared myself mentally to solve Leetcode hard problems. The interview process was fast-tracked, and I received results of my interviews within one working day. All rounds focused on coding.

The first interview was with a chill and easy-going interviewer. We spent the first 10 minutes discussing my resume, and then he gave me a Leetcode medium question. I was relieved, and I was able to explain, write, and test the code successfully.

The second interview was a similar experience. It went well, and I was secretly expecting to receive a positive email.

The manager interview was with a highly qualified and experienced interviewer. He spent the first 5 minutes telling me about life at TikTok, the kind of projects the team does, etc. Then we proceeded to project/resume questions followed by a couple of behavioral questions. Next, I got a coding question. I struggled at the beginning, but the interviewer was understanding and gave me plenty of hints to arrive at an optimized solution. I explained the final solution and wrote running code.

Unlike the last two rounds, I was really nervous about the results of this round. I was very happy when I learned that my last interviewer had given positive feedback despite my feeling that I had an okay performance in the interview.

I want to say that an interview is a team effort where you solve the question together with the interviewer. Communication is key! Remember to "think out loud" when you're stuck, let the interviewer know what you're thinking so that they can help you pivot in the right direction.