ByteDance vs TikTok Interview Questions
ByteDance lists 64 LeetCode interview questions while TikTok lists 351. They share 53 problems — 83% of ByteDance's bank and 15% of TikTok's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 11 ByteDance-only and 298 TikTok-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 53 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both ByteDance and TikTok.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add ByteDance-specific problems like Smallest Subsequence of Distinct Characters, First Day Where You Have Been in All the Rooms, Delete Node in a BST and TikTok-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: TikTok skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
53 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both ByteDance and TikTok.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Remove Duplicate Letters | Medium |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Course Schedule | Medium |
| Combination Sum | Medium |
| Basic Calculator II | Medium |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Shortest Bridge | Medium |
| House Robber | Medium |
| Maximal Square | Medium |
| Regular Expression Matching | Hard |
| Top K Frequent Elements | Medium |
| Design Memory Allocator | Medium |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Word Ladder | Hard |
| Longest Increasing Subsequence | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Search in Rotated Sorted Array | Medium |
| Combination Sum II | Medium |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| Longest Common Subsequence | Medium |
| Add Two Numbers | Medium |
| Basic Calculator | Hard |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Maximum Width of Binary Tree | Medium |
| Multiply Strings | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Restore IP Addresses | Medium |
| Decode String | Medium |
| Accounts Merge | Medium |
Showing top 30 of 53 shared problems.
Unique to ByteDance (11)
Problems in ByteDance's list that do not appear at TikTok.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Smallest Subsequence of Distinct Characters | Medium |
| First Day Where You Have Been in All the Rooms | Medium |
| Delete Node in a BST | Medium |
| Single Element in a Sorted Array | Medium |
| Minimum Area Rectangle | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water II | Hard |
| Longest Repeating Character Replacement | Medium |
| Remove Zero Sum Consecutive Nodes from Linked List | Medium |
| Clone Graph | Medium |
| 3Sum Closest | Medium |
| Linked List Cycle II | Medium |
Unique to TikTok (298)
Problems in TikTok's list that do not appear at ByteDance.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Number of Distinct Islands | Medium |
| Meeting Rooms II | Medium |
| Course Schedule II | Medium |
| Subarray With Elements Greater Than Varying Threshold | Hard |
| Word Search | Medium |
| N-Queens | Hard |
| Minimum Window Substring | Hard |
| 3Sum | Medium |
| Minimum Swaps to Group All 1's Together | Medium |
| Sqrt(x) | Easy |
| Coin Change | Medium |
| Spiral Matrix | Medium |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do ByteDance and TikTok share?
ByteDance and TikTok share 53 LeetCode interview questions. 11 problems appear only in ByteDance's list and 298 appear only in TikTok's list.
What topics overlap most between ByteDance and TikTok?
The most common shared topics between ByteDance and TikTok are Array (17 shared questions), String (10 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (8 shared questions), Breadth-First Search (7 shared questions), Hash Table (6 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: ByteDance or TikTok?
ByteDance has 4 Easy, 51 Medium, and 9 Hard questions. TikTok has 34 Easy, 245 Medium, and 72 Hard questions. TikTok has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both ByteDance and TikTok?
Start with the 53 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 11 ByteDance-specific and 20 TikTok-specific questions to round out your prep.