Byte Dance

Role: SDE2 (Backend Infrastructure)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: Late 2022 / Early 2023

Interview Type: Full-Time (Recruiter reached out on LinkedIn)

Result: Not Specified (Implied positive outcome given detailed sharing of preparation and process)

Difficulty: Hard (Way harder than Amazon/Microsoft, not as hard as Netflix)

Rounds: Initial HR call, 2 Coding rounds, 1 On-site System Design round

Topics Asked: Data Structures (Graph, Tree), Algorithms (DFS, BFS), System Design (High-level, Distributed Systems, Infrastructure, Latency Reduction, Load Reduction, Fault Tolerance)

Experience:

The candidate was reached out to by a recruiter on LinkedIn for an SDE2 Backend Infrastructure role. The initial call with the recruiter involved discussing experience, expectations, and the team/location. The preparation took about two months, focusing on design and coding skills. LeetCode problems, primarily medium to hard, were practiced, along with a curated list like Blind 75 and Top Questions 120. For system design, resources like "Grokking the System Design Interview" and "Interviewer Premier" were used, along with mock interviews on Pramp.

• First Round (Coding - 2 hours, split into two 1-hour segments):
  • Problem 1: LeetCode medium related to Graph Traversal (e.g., DFS, BFS).
  • Problem 2: A tree problem, described as "a little bit harder than LeetCode hard." It started as an easy LeetCode problem, and constraints were added to increase difficulty.
• On-site Interview (System Design - 1 hour with Hiring Manager): Focused on high-level system design, specifically for backend infrastructure. Questions covered topics like designing Netflix, Snapchat, Twitter, or Facebook Messenger, with an emphasis on reducing latency, reducing load, and fault tolerance.

The overall difficulty was perceived as significantly harder than Amazon or Microsoft interviews but not as hard as Netflix.