I applied online. I interviewed at ByteDance (Los Angeles, CA) in Oct 2023
Interview
It is a first-round video interview for a research scientist position at Bytedance. I am a PhD new graduate major in ECE, and I apply this position via a referral. The interview questions are not hard, but unfortunately I did not enter into the second round, and the HR cannot provide any feedback.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The first question is to find the shortest path for a knight from start location to the destination location in a square map. The knight has two types of movement, which are specified in the problem statement. The second problem is to implement a binary search to find the target number in an array without redundant elements. The next follow up question is to search in an array with redundant elements. The final follow up is about how to optimize the code to reduce the total number of comparison operations.
- easy leet code style code test
- ask about research experience
- talk a lot about view of current tech and future improvement
- ask the implementation of some basic algorithms
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at ByteDance (San Jose, CA) in Apr 2025
Interview
The interview process is very smooth, about 1-2 rounds per week with a total of 4 rounds. The first 3 are technical rounds that include both project deep-dive and leetcode questions. The last 1 is a hiring manager round and the HM introduced projects on the team.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How will you design an audio-visual AI system that mark the sound source in the video?
HR interview - HR gives overview about the interview process, introduces the team, and describes the role
Leet code - actual programming test
ML interviews - general ML and specific domain knowledge
Manager interview
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Leetcode question: dynamic programming for alignment
