TikTok

Software Engineer (Internship) Interview Experience - San Jose, California

September 19, 2023

Neutral ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I took their OAs and they were very hard. Remember to thoroughly review LeetCode before you start doing their OAs. Also, for the interviews, there are several rounds, and each of them is long.

Questions

Look through your resume and ask for details about the tech stacks you've put on your resume.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 30 interview experiences for the TikTok Software Engineer (Internship) role in San Jose, California.

Success Rate

13%

Pass Rate

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

Experience Rating

Positive43%

Neutral57%

Negative0%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for TikTok's Software Engineer (Internship) interview process in San Jose, California.

TikTok Work Experiences

Fast Paced Chinese Startup

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Former Employee

San Jose, California, United States

Pros: Work fast with little structure and find the best way to help the company. Good food and social atmosphere. Great perks, such as free charging (while it lasted). Good if you can speak Chinese.

Cons: Poor if you can't speak Chinese, as everyone needs to work with the China teams and you will be relying on auto-translate for your meetings. Stressful culture with high expectations but ill-defined processes to get there. Many nice, helpful people, however.

Fast Paced Chinese Startup

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Former Employee

San Jose, California, United States

Pros: Work fast with little structure and find the best way to help the company. Good food and social atmosphere. Great perks, such as free charging (while it lasted). Good if you can speak Chinese.

Cons: Poor if you can't speak Chinese, as everyone needs to work with the China teams and you will be relying on auto-translate for your meetings. Stressful culture with high expectations but ill-defined processes to get there. Many nice, helpful people, however.

Fast Growth, Late Nights

Software Engineer Intern • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

October 27, 2025

Pros: Growth is fast. I learn a lot.

Cons: Poor work-life balance. Late-night work.

Fast Growth, Late Nights

Software Engineer Intern • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

October 27, 2025

Pros: Growth is fast. I learn a lot.

Cons: Poor work-life balance. Late-night work.

Great Pay, Late Nights

Machine Learning • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

February 26, 2025

Pros: Some good things: great pay & benefits.

Cons: Late night meetings and a lot of work.

Great Pay, Late Nights

Machine Learning • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

February 26, 2025

Pros: Some good things: great pay & benefits.

Cons: Late night meetings and a lot of work.

Fast Paced Chinese Startup

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Former Employee

San Jose, California, United States

Pros: Work fast with little structure and find the best way to help the company. Good food and social atmosphere. Great perks, such as free charging (while it lasted). Good if you can speak Chinese.

Cons: Poor if you can't speak Chinese, as everyone needs to work with the China teams and you will be relying on auto-translate for your meetings. Stressful culture with high expectations but ill-defined processes to get there. Many nice, helpful people, however.

4.0
Fast Paced Chinese Startup
Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Former Employee
San Jose, California, United States
May 15, 2024
Pros: Work fast with little structure and find the best way to help the company. Good food and social atmosphere. Great perks, such as free charging (while it lasted). Good if you can speak Chinese.
Cons: Poor if you can't speak Chinese, as everyone needs to work with the China teams and you will be relying on auto-translate for your meetings. Stressful culture with high expectations but ill-defined processes to get there. Many nice, helpful people, however.

Fast Growth, Late Nights

Software Engineer Intern • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

October 27, 2025

Pros: Growth is fast. I learn a lot.

Cons: Poor work-life balance. Late-night work.

3.0
Fast Growth, Late Nights
Software Engineer Intern • Current Employee
San Jose, California, United States
October 27, 2025
Pros: Growth is fast. I learn a lot.
Cons: Poor work-life balance. Late-night work.

Great Pay, Late Nights

Machine Learning • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

February 26, 2025

Pros: Some good things: great pay & benefits.

Cons: Late night meetings and a lot of work.

2.0
Great Pay, Late Nights
Machine Learning • Current Employee
San Jose, California, United States
February 26, 2025
Pros: Some good things: great pay & benefits.
Cons: Late night meetings and a lot of work.

TikTok Interview Questions

Generate Parentheses

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

Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters

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

StringsTwo PointersSliding Windows

Search in Rotated Sorted Array

You're given a sorted array that has been rotated, and a target value. Find the index of the target value in the rotated array, or return -1 if it's not present.

ArraysBinary Search

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