Process
30 minutes of ML basics based on my resume, including what a Transformer is and how attention operates.
In the second round, the interviewer asked a more open-ended question: "How would you approach a situation if a vision-language model ignored the vision modality?"
Another 30 minutes were allocated for a standard LeetCode problem.
Questions
How do you pretrain BERT? Describe the procedure.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 125 interview experiences for the TikTok Machine Learning Engineer role in United States.
Success Rate
TikTok's interview process for their Machine Learning Engineer roles in the United States is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having good feelings for TikTok's Machine Learning Engineer interview process in United States.
TikTok Work Experiences
- 3.0Bad work-life balanceMachine Learning Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Jose, California, United StatesJanuary 23, 2025Pros: Learned a lot. Good compensation. Allows you a lot of work travel flexibility.Cons: If you don't speak Chinese, you are at a severe disadvantage. I spoke Chinese and was still majorly disadvantaged. There is no support for new employees. The onboarding process has very little structure.
- 3.0Hard work, working hardMachine Learning Engineer • Current EmployeeSingapore, SingaporeSeptember 21, 2023Pros: Challenging work and smart colleagues.Cons: Working hours are insane. People in China work at least 12 hours per day.
- 2.0Brilliant Colleagues, Poor BalanceMachine Learning Engineer • Current EmployeeOctober 30, 2022Pros: best colleagues who are brilliantCons: Not enough money, no work-life balance.
TikTok Interview Questions
