TikTok Shop Software Engineer Interview Experience: A disputed reasoning path

I started strongly in the sense that I solved the main LeetCode problem as well as I could, but the interview quickly became uncomfortable. The interviewer kept pulling me into the details of what I said and how I justified it.

What threw me off was that, after I gave what felt like a solid answer, the interviewer pushed a sub-optimal approach as the right direction. The repeated follow-ups made it hard to trust that correctness and efficiency were being evaluated fairly at the same time.

I did not get an offer. My honest takeaway is that it felt as though I was being tested for alignment with one very specific reasoning path, rather than simply for problem-solving ability.

Location: United States. Overall feedback: negative. Offer status: no offer.