I applied online. I interviewed at TikTok in Feb 2025
Interview
The interview process is recruiter call, followed by 3 technical rounds (each with a leetcode problem, resume overview, and ML questions), and a final HR round. Each technical round lasts around one hour, and I received a mix of medium and hard leetcode questions. For the ML portion, I was asked to mathematically derive the cross entropy loss, and code a Transformer block.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Leetcode: Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum, Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree, Search in Rotated Sorted Array
Started with a recruiter screen with simple checks. Then went through 3 rounds of interviews. First 2 rounds were live coding with deep dive on previous projects. 2nd round went really deep of every previous work I did from MLE perspective with being questioned of every possible decision choice. Last was interview with team manager.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Recommendation system questions. Coding problems were I remember leetcode medium level.
three rounds, each has coding + ml basic + resume related questions
understand all the details in resume is important, since might go very deep down the project you have worked on
The first round was mainly a CV walkthrough.
The second round focused in depth on one specific project.
Both rounds also included LeetCode medium-level problems.
The third round was with the hiring manager with both project and problems for their business.