TikTok Product Manager Interview (Process, Questions, Prep)

PM interviews at TikTok can be really challenging. Having experienced a rapid global rise in popularity since 2020, the company’s evolving interview process remains a “black box” to many candidates.

That’s why we’ve scoured interview reports across the internet, putting together this ultimate guide to TikTok product manager interviews.

We’ll outline the company’s hiring process, interview questions, and key preparation resources to help you maximize your chances of success.

Here's what we’ll cover:

• Role and salary
• Interview process and timeline
• Example questions
  • Leadership interview questions
  • Product sense interview questions
  • Execution interview questions
  • Technical interview questions
• Preparation tips

Click here to practice 1-on-1 with TikTok ex-interviewers

 1. TikTok Product Manager Role and Salary↑

Before we cover your product manager interviews at TikTok, let's take a quick look at the company and the PM role itself. 

ByteDance Ltd., a Chinese technology company that developed new video-sharing social networking applications, owns TikTok.

Headquartered in Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands, ByteDance also owns Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and Toutiao, a news and information content platform with a content recommendation engine. It also owns several other apps through mergers and acquisitions, such as Musical.ly, News Republic, Helo, and Vigo Video.

1.1 What does a TikTok Product Manager do?

Product managers at TikTok are responsible for identifying product opportunities, defining product problems, and driving product solutions across TikTok’s ecosystem.

The TikTok product manager role can be broken down into 3 parts: 

• Setting the strategy and vision for what that feature or product is going to be like
• Determining what success looks like and how to measure it
• Execution and building

Applying to a product manager position at TikTok allows you to explore different specializations. Some specializations include managing content, customer products, data products, inventory, marketing automation, privacy and responsibility, responsible AI, search, seller acquisition, seller transactions, seller growth, seller risk, TikTok Effect, TikTok Shop recommendations, and vertical ad platforms.

According to Melody Chu, a former TikTok product manager, TikTok gives PMs big scope regardless of years of experience. “At TikTok, if you think it, you can (usually) build it... TikTok takes chances on first-time PMs,” she explains. 

What skills are required to be a Tiktok Product Manager?

To be a successful product manager at TikTok, you need a combination of product management, communication, collaborative, and role-related technical skills. We’ve examined several TikTok job posts for different product manager roles, and they emphasize these skills over and over.

You’ll need a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field with at least three years of experience in the area of the role you’re applying for. You’ll need to demonstrate a good grasp of product management concepts and tools, as well as the TikTok business model and how it applies to your potential role as product manager.

You'll need to demonstrate that you are strategic and analytical, with a strong user-centric focus, with good market awareness, interpersonal relations skills, communication skills, problem-solving skills, and leadership skills. 

You’ll also need to show that you’re adept at cross-functional collaboration, as TikTok PMs are expected to work with technical and non-technical teams alike across their ecosystem.

1.2 How much does a TikTok Product Manager make?

To have an idea of the differences in salaries across product manager role levels, here are the annual total compensation of five different product manager role levels at ByteDance (since there are no levels data for TikTok at the time of writing), based on Levels.fyi data:

• Level 2-1: $229.7K
• Level 2-2: $306.6K
• Level 3-1: $451.7K
• Level 3-2: $486.8K
• Level 4-1: $573.3K

Where you’re located will impact your salary, too. TikTok has 10 offices and more than 10,000 employees worldwide, with two in the United States (Los Angeles headquarters and New York office) and the rest spread across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. 

Ultimately, how you do in your interviews will help determine what you’ll be offered. Remember, compensation packages are always negotiable, even at TikTok. 

So, if you do get an offer, don’t be afraid to ask for more. If you need help negotiating, consider booking one of our salary negotiation coaches to get expert advice. You can also prepare for it yourself by reading our salary negotiation guide. 

2. Interview process and timeline ↑

The interview process for TikTok PMs typically takes about one to three months to complete.

Here’s a quick overview of the steps you may face along the way:

• Resume, cover letter, and referrals
• Recruiter phone screen (30-45 min)
• Hiring manager phone screen (45-60 min)
• PM interviews (2-3 rounds, 45-60 min each)
• [In some cases] Engineering interview (1 round, 45-60 min)
• Final HR interview (1 round, 45-60 min)

TikTok’s interview process is very different from other major tech companies like Meta, Amazon, or Google. Firstly, TikTok’s interviews do not typically culminate with an in-person or virtual onsite loop. Instead, candidates have a series of progressive interviews, which are usually conducted over video call.

Additionally, each of TikTok’s interview rounds is eliminatory, meaning that you have to pass each individual round to move on to the next. At other companies, you may be able to make up for one “just ok” round with a stellar performance at the others, but at TikTok, you’ll need to ace every interview in order to continue.

Finally, one or multiple of your rounds may take place with a member of the team in China. This means that you’ll have to be flexible with your schedule to accommodate a Chinese time zone, and your interviewer may not be a native English speaker.

Now, let’s get into each step of the TikTok interview process. There is some variation in past candidates’ experiences, so we’ll cover the most frequently mentioned steps that have been reported on Glassdoor, Blind, and Rooftop Slushie.

If you are interviewing for a product leadership position (VP, Director, Group PM), learn more about the process and how to prepare in this product leader interview prep guide.

2.1 Resume, cover letter, referrals

First, recruiters will look at your resume and assess if your experience matches the open position. This is the most competitive step in the process, as millions of candidates do not make it past this stage.

You can use this free guide to help tailor your product manager resume to the specific position you’re targeting. 

And if you’re looking for expert feedback, you can also get input from our team of ex-FAANG recruiters, who will cover what achievements to focus on (or ignore), how to fine tune your bullet points, and more.

2.2 Recruiter phone screen

Next, you'll usually start your interview process by talking to an HR recruiter on the phone. They are looking to confirm that you've got a chance of getting the job at all, so be prepared to explain your background and why you’re a good fit at TikTok. 

You should expect typical behavioral and resume questions like, "Tell me about yourself," "Why TikTok?" or "Tell me about a product you launched from start to finish."

This would also be a good time to ask for any clarifying information you need to know for the interviews moving forward. The recruiter will be your point person for the rest of the process. 

2.3 Hiring manager phone screen

After talking with the recruiter, your next step is a roughly 45-minute call with a hiring manager.

During this interview, expect a deep dive on the experiences that you’ve listed on your resume. It is likely that the interviewer will pick one to two projects and ask detailed questions about your impact, so prepare key talking points on your past projects.

This phone screen might end with a 10-15-minute case study testing your product design and strategy skills. The case study will represent an everyday problem faced at TikTok.

If you pass this round, then you’ll move on to the PM interviews. 

2.4 PM interviews

After the hiring manager screen, you’ll have two to three interviews with TikTok PMs. They may come from the team you’re applying to join, from other teams that you’ll need to collaborate with, or they may be product leaders that you’ll be reporting to. 

You can expect these interviews to have the rigor of onsite interview rounds at other big tech companies, even though they’ll be happening progressively, with hours or days between each round. As we mentioned before, you must pass each individual interview before moving on to the next.

The interviewers will ask you a mix of behavioral, product sense, and execution questions. We’ll dive deeper into these types of questions and how to prepare for them in Sections 2 and 3.

2.5 [In some cases] Engineering interview

Some candidates report an interview with the engineering team that they’ll be working with if hired. This may take place before or in-between the PM interview rounds.

The engineering interview is meant to test your cross-functional collaboration and technical skills. You’ll likely be asked to explain specific technical concepts or to solve basic technical problems.

The exact technical questions that you’ll be asked will depend on your background. It is unlikely that you will have to code in one of these sessions, although you may have to write pseudocode. 

We’ll give you more information about technical questions in PM interviews in Section 2.

2.6 Final HR interview

Finally, if you pass each of the previous interviews, you’ll be scheduled for one last interview with TikTok’s HR team.

If you make it to this round, it is very likely that you will receive an offer, although there are rare cases of candidates getting rejections after completing this interview.

You will be asked a few more behavioral questions to test your cultural fit with TikTok, as well as what you expect out of the role. They may ask for feedback on the previous interview rounds as well as your salary expectations. 

After this interview is finished, all you have to do is wait until you (hopefully) receive your offer. And if you need help negotiating your offer, you might want to get help from our salary negotiation coaches. 

3. Example questions ↑

Now that you have an idea of the interview process at TikTok, let’s dive into the four types of questions that you can expect. The question categories are very similar to those in Meta’s PM interview process, with the addition of technical questions for some candidates. We've had a couple of candidates reporting that they were given a case, but it seems to be rare.

While each of the Meta PM interview rounds focus on one category at a time, the TikTok interview rounds typically include a mix of questions from two or more categories (e.g. product sense and execution).

Here are the categories:

We've analyzed questions reported by former TikTok PM candidates on Glassdoor and Blind, and we’ve categorized the real questions asked for each interview type, listed below. 

Note that some questions have been edited for clarity or grammar.

Let’s get started.

3.1 Leadership interview questions (55%) ↑

PMs must collaborate with a variety of different teams (e.g. engineers, data analysts, designers, etc.) in order to reach project and organizational goals. To do this, they have to be able to motivate others, address conflicts, and build relationships. 

At TikTok, you’ll be given a great deal of autonomy to make plans, advocate for them, and push the plans through. So interviewers will ask you questions to test whether you can act in ambiguous circumstances and unite people around your ideas.

This is the most frequently reported type of question asked in TikTok interviews, so come with a list of stories from your past experience that you can use to answer questions such as the ones below.

For more information, take a look at our behavioral interview guide, which is targeted at Facebook but contains a method that is applicable everywhere.

3.2 Product sense interview questions (31%) ↑

TikTok PMs pinpoint which problems are the most important to solve, then help design solutions for them. This requires strong product sense.

This is an important part of the interview to show your familiarity with TikTok’s products, their main challenges, and how you would address them as PM. Your interviewers want to see that you can tackle the kinds of problems that they face every day, concentrating on a great user experience.

Expect to play the role of a PM at TikTok, calling the shots for a team. This may come in the form of open-ended questions or more in-depth case studies. In both cases, practice explaining your reasoning out loud to give your interviewer a clear idea of your approach and working style.

In the questions below, you’ll find a mix of product design, product improvement, product strategy, and estimation questions, although there were very few estimation questions reported by candidates. We recommend studying the articles we've written on each topic to learn how to answer these questions in a structured and impactful way.

Right, let’s get to some questions.

To look at the product sense interview in a bit more detail, check out our comprehensive product manager interview guide. Although this guide focuses on Meta, the guidelines could apply to any company.

3.3 Execution interview questions (12%) ↑

Once PMs have nailed down their strategy, settled on their product design, and decided which problems to solve, it's time to execute. 

TikTok asks execution questions to test how you analyze the success of a product or feature, and how you prioritize important tasks. Show how you find and measure the most relevant data in order to solve problems.

Below, we’ve listed the real execution questions that past candidates have reported on Glassdoor. You’ll notice product metric and prioritization questions in the mix, so practice a framework to answer these questions with precision.

To learn more, check out our comprehensive guide on how to answer execution interview questions. This guide focuses on Meta but could apply to any company. 

3.4 Technical interview questions, in some cases (2%) ↑

Finally, PMs must work with teams of engineers to achieve project goals. Interviewers test your ability to do this by asking a mix of technical questions.

This is the least common type of question at TikTok, as it seems to be reserved for the candidates who are assigned an interview round with an engineering team. These questions are not frequently reported in the PM or hiring manager interview rounds.

If asked a technical question, it is unlikely that you will have to write actual code. Instead, interviewers will test your technical knowledge by asking you to explain a technical concept or to solve a problem using pseudocode.

The first question below is a real TikTok PM interview question reported on Glassdoor. The rest are technical PM interview questions asked at companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon, which we’ve included to help round out your practice.

You can learn a step-by-step process for solving this type of question and find additional practice questions by reading our guide on how to answer technical questions in PM interviews.

4. TikTok interview preparation tips ↑

Now that you know what questions to expect, let's focus on preparation. 

Below, you’ll find links to free resources and thirteen introductory steps to help you prepare for your TikTok PM interviews.

4.1 Deep dive into the product / organization

As you can see from the questions above, it will be very difficult to secure an offer from TikTok if you come to the interviews without having researched the company first. The questions will frequently center around real-life problems the TikTok product team is facing now or has faced in the past.

So you’ll need to do homework before your interviews.

Study TikTok’s culture guide. When answering leadership interview questions, share stories from past experiences that align with TikTok’s core values. When designing a product or a strategy, consider how your answer aligns with these values.

Additionally, here are some resources to get you started on the right track:

• TikTok's newsroom (by TikTok)
• TikTok revenue and usage statistics (by BusinessforApps)
• TikTok’s business model (by Business Model Toolbox)
• TikTok stats (by Viralyft)

4.2 Learn a consistent method for answering PM interview questions

As mentioned previously, TikTok will ask you questions that fall into certain categories like behavioral, design, strategy, estimation, and metric questions. Approaching each question with a predefined method will enable you to build strong interview habits.

Then, when it comes time for your interviews, these habits will reduce your stress and help you to make a great impression.

If you’re just looking for a jumping-off point, you can start learning about the different question types you’ll need to master in the following blog articles:

• Product sense interview (can apply to any company)
  • Product design questions
  • Product improvement questions
  • Product strategy questions
• Meta execution interview (can apply to any company)
  • Metric questions
  • Prioritization questions
• Meta behavioral questions (can apply to any company)

Once you understand how to answer each question type, you also need to be able to communicate your answers clearly under the pressure of interview conditions. That’s where practice comes into play.

4.3 Ask clarifying questions

Some of the questions you will be asked will be quite ambiguous. In those cases, you’ll need to ask clarifying questions to get more information about the problem and to reduce its scope.

Jumping straight in without asking questions first will be a red flag to the interviewer and will hinder your answer.

For instance, if you were asked, “What would be your 10-year strategy if you were CEO?” you can respond by asking some questions about the company’s current situation and any business objectives the interviewer may have in mind. This way, you’ll have a better understanding of what the company needs in the coming years and have more information from which to build a strategy.

4.4 Justify your choices

TikTok wants to see the reasoning behind your answer, so make sure to justify each decision you make. You'll need to make plenty of trade-offs as you arrive at a solution, so be sure to call them out.

4.5 Be data-driven, but not too data-driven

TikTok is looking for product managers who can make decisions based on data and can judge everything they do by relevant metrics.

In an interview situation, it's okay to make assumptions because you might not have access to the facts and data. But you need to make it clear that in real life, you would seek out that data and that your approach would be highly data-driven.

4.6 Demonstrate user empathy

TikTok wants product managers who can empathize with its users.

When answering a PM interview question, your first instinct should be to focus on the user. Identify who uses the product, why, and what the use cases are. Avoid designing a product based solely on personal preferences.

As part of your prep, think hard about the different kinds of users across TikTok’s ecosystem and be prepared to divide them into segments.

4.7 Check in with your interviewer

Interviewers differ in their willingness to provide hints. Some may wait for you to ask about customer or product details, while others expect you to make assumptions on your own.

Gauge this by asking a direct question or specifying your assumptions. If the interviewer tends to offer specifics, they’ll engage. If not, limit additional questions to demonstrate your ability to make decisions independently.

4.8 Answer methodically by using a framework

Like other tech companies, TikTok wants you to solve a problem methodically. You can use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) framework when answering behavioral questions.

We also recommend the SPSIL (Situation-Problem-Solution-Impact-Lessons) framework for leadership and behavioral questions, the BUS (Business Objective-UserProblems-Solutions) framework for product sense questions, the GAME and DEC frameworks for product execution questions, and the CEC framework for technical questions.

4.9 Don’t get stuck in a framework

As we just said above, frameworks are extremely helpful. However, some of our successful candidates have mentioned that excessive reliance on frameworks may hinder your performance.

During the interview, trust your instinct, and don’t be afraid to deviate from the framework if needed. A framework is there to help you craft a better answer, not make you twist your answer to fit the framework. 

4.10 Treat the interview like a conversation

Keep in mind that the interview is a two-way discovery process. While the interviewer assesses if you’re a good fit for TikTok, you’re also evaluating if the company aligns with your aspirations and preferences.

4.11 Save questions and feedback for your interviewer

You’ll have a few minutes to ask your interviewer questions as the interview wraps up. Arriving without questions may suggest a lack of interest in the company or the role.

Prepare thoughtful questions that go beyond what you could have found out online. You can ask about career growth opportunities or specific ways of working in the company. It's your chance to showcase genuine curiosity and investment in the conversation.

 

5. How to prepare for TikTok PM interviews

 

We've coached more than 15,000 people for interviews since 2018. There are essentially three activities you can do to practice for interviews. Here’s what we've learned about each of them.

5.1 Learn by yourself

Learning by yourself is an essential first step. We recommend you make full use of the free prep resources on this blog and also watch some mock interviews on our product management YouTube channel. That way you can see what an excellent answer looks like.

Once you’re in command of the subject matter, you’ll want to practice answering questions. But by yourself, you can’t simulate thinking on your feet or the pressure of performing in front of a stranger. Plus, there are no unexpected follow-up questions and no feedback.

That’s why many candidates try to practice with friends or peers.

5.2 Practice with peers

If you have friends or peers who can do mock interviews with you, that's an option worth trying. It’s free, but be warned, you may come up against the following problems:

• It’s hard to know if the feedback you get is accurate
• They’re unlikely to have insider knowledge of interviews at your target company
• On peer platforms, people often waste your time by not showing up

For those reasons, many candidates skip peer mock interviews and go straight to mock interviews with an expert. 

5.3 Practice with experienced PM interviewers

In our experience, practicing real interviews with experts who can give you company-specific feedback makes a huge difference.

Find a TikTok product manager interview coach so you can:

• Test yourself under real interview conditions
• Get accurate feedback from a real expert
• Build your confidence
• Get company-specific insights
• Learn how to tell the right stories, better.
• Save time by focusing your preparation

Landing a job at a big tech company often results in a $50,000 per year or more increase in total compensation. In our experience, three or four coaching sessions worth ~$500 make a significant difference in your ability to land the job. That’s an ROI of 100x!

Click here to book product manager mock interviews with experienced PM interviewers