TikTok

Software Engineer Interview Experience - United States

September 1, 2025

Neutral ExperienceNo Offer

Process

The interviewer started with an introduction, followed by 30 minutes of technical questions.

For example:

Why does a slow query occur, and how can these problems be solved?
What are some of the benefits of indexing?
Benefits of GraphQL?
Solution to the N+1 problem?

This was then followed by a LeetCode medium problem.

Questions

Why does a slow query occur, and how can these kinds of problems be solved?

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 380 interview experiences for the TikTok Software Engineer role in United States.

Success Rate

Pass Rate

TikTok's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in the United States is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive31%

Neutral46%

Negative23%

Candidates reported having mixed feelings for TikTok's Software Engineer interview process in United States.

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