Software Engineer New Grad Interview Experience - San Jose, California
Process
For the first round interview, the interviewer gave me a problem that was almost impossible to solve within the minimum time for cats to catch all the fish. The hint was to use binary search.
Questions
For the first round interview, the interviewer gave me a problem that was almost on the minimum time for cats to catch all the fish. The hint was to use binary search.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 4 interview experiences for the TikTok Software Engineer New Grad role in San Jose, California.
Success Rate
TikTok's interview process for their Software Engineer New Grad roles in San Jose, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having mixed feelings for TikTok's Software Engineer New Grad interview process in San Jose, California.
TikTok Work Experiences
- 5.0Friendly Team, Time Zone ChallengesSoftware Development Engineer (SDE) • Former EmployeeSan Jose, California, United StatesNovember 23, 2025Pros: The people here are friendly, and the food is good.Cons: You need to get a meeting with the team based in another country.
- 3.0Impactful Work, Little BalanceSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Jose, California, United StatesNovember 2, 2025Pros: Great impact, large project, grow fast.Cons: Low work-life balance. Low work-life balance. Low work-life balance.
- 3.0Scale Fast, Docs SlowBackend Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Jose, California, United StatesOctober 30, 2025Pros: Operates at an impressive scale. Iterate quickly and fail fast to build successful features.Cons: Fast growth results in a slightly disorganized ecosystem. Lots of technical documentation is fragmented, repeated, and often outdated. Additionally, it is usually written in Chinese, with algorithmic translations available or a translated version of the doc (sometimes outdated!) also available.
TikTok Interview Questions
