TikTok

Backend Engineer Interview Experience - San Jose, California

September 1, 2025

Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

Design a map system. Started by linear probing and then LRU. I clearly got feedback that it works. However, finally it said I did not solve the problem, which is completely opposite from reality. Don't know what is happening.

Questions

Design a map system by yourself.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 4 interview experiences for the TikTok Backend Engineer role in San Jose, California.

Success Rate

Pass Rate

TikTok's interview process for their Backend Engineer roles in San Jose, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive25%

Neutral50%

Negative25%

Candidates reported having mixed feelings for TikTok's Backend Engineer interview process in San Jose, California.

TikTok Interview Questions

Subarray Sum Equals K

Medium

Determine the total number of continuous subarrays within a given array that sum up to a specific target value, k.

ArraysSliding Windows

Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters

Medium

Find the length of the longest substring within a given string that contains no repeating characters. The substring must be contiguous.

StringsSliding Windows

Generate Parentheses

Medium

Given a number 'n', generate all possible well-formed (balanced) parentheses strings of length 2*n. For instance, if n=3, you need to create all valid combinations like '((()))', '(()())', etc.

RecursionStrings