ByteDance Software Engineer interview experience

The first interview was a coding session with a tech lead where I solved a word search problem using a coding pad. It reminded me of interviews at big tech—nothing overly strange in the format—and the tech lead’s English was clear. I focused on being ready for harder data-structure and algorithm questions, but I still felt the bar was high enough that preparation mattered.

After that, HR told me the position was filled, though they later reached out about other openings so I didn’t have to restart from scratch. The second round was a deep dive with the hiring manager, conducted in Chinese,