tiktok

TikTok (ByteDance) Product Designer Case Interview – Creator Onboarding & Safety-Conscious Growth

This 60-minute, portfolio-agnostic product design case mirrors TikTok’s fast, data-informed, safety-first culture. You’ll tackle a real-world TikTok problem in the short‑video ecosystem, reasoning from first principles, defining success metrics, and balancing creator growth with trust & safety and global constraints. Case focus areas at TikTok: - Ecosystem thinking: Viewers, creators, and the For You feed; cold start and recommendation constraints; creation vs. consumption trade-offs. - Safety by design: Minimizing abuse, spam, and harmful content; teen/guardian considerations; reporting and enforcement flows; transparent UX for policies. - Globalization & performance: Designing for many markets/languages, low-end devices, and variable networks; accessibility and inclusivity. - Experimentation & metrics: Defining North Star and guardrail metrics; A/B test design; phased rollout and live-ops iteration. - Collaboration: Partnering with PM, eng, data science, and policy teams; scoping v1 vs. v2; documenting decisions clearly and concisely. Suggested live format: - 0–5 min: Problem brief and clarifying questions. - 5–25 min: Problem framing, user segmentation (e.g., first‑time creators, returning viewers), JTBD, and opportunity sizing. - 25–40 min: Solution exploration and wireframes (entry points, core flows, empty/error states, safety surfaces). Call out recommendation-system implications and abuse vectors. - 40–55 min: Metrics, experiment plan, launch sequencing (alpha → country pilots → global), and risk mitigation. - 55–60 min: Q&A and trade-off recap. Sample prompt (representative of TikTok cases): "Design a TikTok feature that increases the percentage of new users who publish their first video within 24 hours, without degrading viewer satisfaction or increasing safety incidents." Constraints to address: (1) Keep average watch satisfaction stable or higher; (2) Do not increase policy violation rate per 1K videos; (3) Support minors/family accounts; (4) Work on low-end Android devices; (5) 1 quarter, ~10 engineers and 2 designers. What interviewers look for (scoring signals): - Clarity & structure: Sharp problem statement, explicit assumptions, and prioritized requirements. - Product craft: Intuitive flows, strong empty states, creator tools that reduce friction to first post, localized considerations. - Data rigor: Concrete success/guardrail metrics (e.g., creator activation rate, D1/D7 creator retention, completion rate, watch satisfaction, violation rate, report rate), and a credible A/B plan. - Safety mindset: Proactive mitigation (rate limits, content review entry points, on-device nudges, privacy controls) and fairness across markets. - TikTok nuance: Understanding of the For You feed dynamics, sounds/effects, LIVE/Shop surfaces, and the creation journey from capture → edit → publish → feedback. Deliverables during the session: succinct problem brief, key personas/segments, annotated low‑fi wireframes of the core flow, success metrics & guardrails, experiment/rollout plan, and top risks with mitigations.

engineering

60 minutes

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About This Interview

Interview Type

PRODUCT SENSE

Difficulty Level

4/5

Interview Tips

• Research the company thoroughly

• Practice common questions

• Prepare your STAR method responses

• Dress appropriately for the role