ByteDance Backend Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 57 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at ByteDance.
ByteDance
Backend Software Engineer Intern
Intern Difficult Negative experience No offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Take home Technical screen
Interview formats
Coding Technical Other
First, there was a standard online assessment on CodeSignal with two easy questions, then one implementation-heavy question, and finally an easy-medium question. Second, I had a technical interview with an engineer where we discussed a lot of computer science theory, including networks, databases, and operating systems.
Confirmed questions1 question
- What are the strategies for maintaining consistency between Redis and a database?
ByteDance
Backend Engineer
Mid Average Positive experience No offer 3 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Technical screen Technical screen
Interview formats
Behavioral Technical Coding
They have this multi-stage interview process that's pretty similar across different levels. The first two stages were actually a three-part deal. You'd start by talking about your past projects and experiences. Then, they hit you with some open-ended technical questions related to the job, and finally, you'd do a live coding exercise.
Confirmed questions1 question
- Can you tell me about some of your past projects, the tools you used, and why you chose those specific tools?
ByteDance
Backend Software Engineer
Mid Easy Negative experience No offer 4 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Technical screen Technical screen
Interview formats
Behavioral Coding Technical Technical
So the interview had 1 HR call and then 3-4 tech interviews. I thought the tech interviews were pretty rough. The interviewer had a really thick Chinese accent, same for the HR person who sounded like she was just reading off a script. It was also annoying with loud Chinese chatter in the background. Beyond the accent issues, they asked a lot about how my current company's systems and architecture are designed. Then there was a LeetCode problem, which I messed up the first time. The interviewer tried to run my C++ code in Lark, but we hit an error in Lark even before I had any code in. I had to screen share to prove my code worked. Finally, there was a simple SQL question that took me three tries to understand because of the accent. Honestly, it wasn't a super hard interview, but the language barrier made it tough to be sure about anything. I found out I didn't get the job 4 days later.
Confirmed questions4 questions
- Can you tell me about the setup at your current company?
- Could you describe the architecture at your current company?
- Leetcode 3. Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters
ByteDance Backend Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from ByteDance interview reports.
“What is the smallest palindrome number greater than a given number n?”
Read reports →“How would you find the single duplicate number in an array of length n containing numbers from 1 to n?”
Read reports →“What are the strategies for maintaining consistency between Redis and a database?”
Read reports →“Could you implement a graph and determine if the provided vertices form a cycle?”
Read reports →“Could you solve the problem of finding the longest common substring?”
Read report →“Can you describe the whole process that occurs when you run an executable that retrieves data from a website on linux?”
Read report →“Could you elaborate on specific components of the OSI model, and explain the mechanisms behind HTTPS and DNS?”
Read report →“Could you write a SQL query to find specific entries without consulting any language documentation?”
Read report →“Can you tell me about Java specifics like JVM, JDK, and Java Libraries?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 57 ByteDance interview reports.