PayPal vs TikTok Interview Questions
PayPal lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while TikTok lists 351. They share 61 problems — 58% of PayPal's bank and 17% of TikTok's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 44 PayPal-only and 290 TikTok-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 61 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both PayPal and TikTok.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add PayPal-specific problems like Zigzag Conversion, Minimum Absolute Difference, Count Vowel Strings in Ranges 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
61 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both PayPal and TikTok.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Longest Increasing Subsequence | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Word Search | Medium |
| Maximal Square | Medium |
| Coin Change | Medium |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Group Anagrams | Medium |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Search in Rotated Sorted Array | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Find Median from Data Stream | Hard |
| Pairs of Songs With Total Durations Divisible by 60 | Medium |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Maximum Number of Events That Can Be Attended | Medium |
| House Robber | Medium |
| Asteroid Collision | Medium |
| Top K Frequent Elements | Medium |
| Random Pick with Weight | Medium |
| Longest Consecutive Sequence | Medium |
| 3Sum Smaller | Medium |
| Subarray Sum Equals K | Medium |
| Valid Sudoku | Medium |
| Koko Eating Bananas | Medium |
| Minimum Increment to Make Array Unique | Medium |
| Spiral Matrix | Medium |
| Find Peak Element | Medium |
| Subsets | Medium |
| Container With Most Water | Medium |
Showing top 30 of 61 shared problems.
Unique to PayPal (44)
Problems in PayPal's list that do not appear at TikTok.
Unique to TikTok (290)
Problems in TikTok's list that do not appear at PayPal.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Number of Distinct Islands | Medium |
| Meeting Rooms II | Medium |
| Course Schedule II | Medium |
| Subarray With Elements Greater Than Varying Threshold | Hard |
| Decode String | Medium |
| N-Queens | Hard |
| Minimum Window Substring | Hard |
| Minimum Swaps to Group All 1's Together | Medium |
| Sqrt(x) | Easy |
| Making A Large Island | Hard |
| Maximum Value at a Given Index in a Bounded Array | Medium |
| Merge k Sorted Lists | Hard |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do PayPal and TikTok share?
PayPal and TikTok share 61 LeetCode interview questions. 44 problems appear only in PayPal's list and 290 appear only in TikTok's list.
What topics overlap most between PayPal and TikTok?
The most common shared topics between PayPal and TikTok are Array (27 shared questions), Hash Table (9 shared questions), Sorting (7 shared questions), Binary Search (6 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (6 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: PayPal or TikTok?
PayPal has 19 Easy, 69 Medium, and 17 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 PayPal and TikTok?
Start with the 61 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 PayPal-specific and 20 TikTok-specific questions to round out your prep.