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Baidu's Interview Process (2026)

Blog / Baidu's Interview Process (2026)

Baidu's software engineer interview process typically spans five stages and has taken on a noticeably AI-centric flavor in recent years, reflecting the company's internal restructuring. Most candidates can expect the full pipeline to take anywhere from three to six weeks, though timelines vary by team and role level.

Online Assessment (OA): A timed coding test, usually around 90 to 120 minutes, hosted on Baidu's proprietary platform or Codility. It typically includes three or four algorithmic problems, and some recent OAs have added an AI-assisted debugging section where you fix code generated by an LLM.
First Technical Interview: A one-hour session conducted over Baidu's internal video tool, RuLiu, usually split between around 20 minutes of CS theory questions and 40 minutes of live coding. Interviewers tend to emphasize clean, bug-free implementation.
Second Technical Interview: Another one-hour round focused on system design and advanced technical scenarios, including middleware, distributed systems, and high-concurrency architecture. Senior candidates can expect deeper questions around distributed consistency and high availability.
Hiring Manager (HM) Interview: A 45 to 60 minute conversation focused on team fit, your past project decisions, and how you think about integrating Baidu's AI tools into your work. Expect questions about Baidu's AI ecosystem, including ERNIE and the Qianfan platform.
HR Interview and Offer: A shorter final round, typically around 20 to 30 minutes, covering compensation expectations, company culture, and background verification.

To prepare effectively, focus your study plan around these key areas that consistently come up across Baidu's technical rounds:

Data Structures and Algorithms: LeetCode-style coding problems tested in the OA and first technical round.
System Design: High-level architecture and distributed systems questions in the second technical round.
CS Fundamentals and Language Internals: Eight-part essay style theory questions on OS, memory, concurrency, and language specifics.
Behavioral and AI Strategy: Project-based and culture-fit questions in the HM round, often tied to Baidu's AI direction.

1. Data Structures and AlgorithmsBaidu's OA and first technical round are heavy on classic DSA problems, with a clear preference for medium to hard difficulty. High-frequency topics include LRU cache implementation, binary search tree validation, spiral matrix traversal, and variants of the Kth Largest Element in an Array. If you want a structured starting point, working through our top 100 DSA questions will cover the majority of patterns that come up.A newer trend in 2026 is questions that bridge algorithms and AI infrastructure, such as implementing a Token Bucket rate limiter or a basic KV cache mechanism. These are not purely theoretical, so practice writing clean, working code under time pressure. Specific problems like Design LRU Cache and API Rate Limiter are worth working through in full.String manipulation also shows up regularly. Problems like Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters, "Baidu" Type Substrings, and Longest Substring with At Least K Repeating Characters have all been reported by recent candidates. Sharpening your sliding window and two-pointer techniques will serve you well here.

2. System DesignThe second technical round is where Baidu gets serious about distributed systems knowledge. Expect questions around Redis distributed locks (including Lua scripts and the RedLock controversy), MySQL index failures, and message queue idempotency. For senior roles, the conversation often moves into multi-region failover and high-availability architecture.Baidu's search background means infrastructure-scale design comes up frequently. Classic prompts include designing a URL shortener at 100k QPS or optimizing search result page latency with rich media. Practicing on problems like Design a Video Streaming Platform and using an interactive tool like our System Design Whiteboard to sketch out architectures before your interview is a practical way to prepare.Vector databases and inference latency have also surfaced as topics in recent system design rounds, reflecting Baidu's AI-first direction. Even if you are not interviewing for an AI-specific role, familiarity with these concepts shows the kind of breadth Baidu values. Browse our High-Level Design case studies to see worked examples of the types of problems you are likely to face.

3. CS Fundamentals and Language InternalsThe first technical round typically opens with around 20 minutes of what candidates call "Eight-Part Essay" questions, covering core CS theory. Topics include concurrency models, memory management, operating system fundamentals, and language-specific internals. Reviewing operating systems concepts and system design core concepts is a solid foundation.Coroutines are a major focus in 2025 and 2026. Interviewers have asked candidates to compare Go's GMP scheduling model with C++20 stackless coroutines, so if you are using either language, go deep on how the runtime actually works. For Java candidates, expect questions on JVM garbage collectors like G1 and ZGC, and be ready to explain their trade-offs in a production context.Caching and concurrency patterns also come up in this section. Problems like Thread-Safe Account Ledger and the Singleton Pattern with thread safety are representative of what gets asked. Brushing up on caching fundamentals alongside your language internals study is a good use of prep time.

4. Behavioral and AI StrategyThe hiring manager round at Baidu is less about coding and more about how you think. You will likely be asked to walk through architectural decisions from past projects and defend your trade-offs under questioning. Preparing two or three strong project stories in advance makes this round much more manageable.What sets Baidu's HM round apart is its AI strategy component. Interviewers often ask how you would integrate tools like ERNIE or Miaoda into your workflow, or how your software designs support autonomous agents rather than just passive tools. Even for roles that are not directly AI-focused, showing genuine familiarity with Baidu's Apollo Go and Qianfan ecosystem signals the kind of contextual awareness they are looking for.For global roles, interviews may mix Chinese and English, and you may be expected to write technical documentation in English. Preparing clear, structured answers to project and culture questions will help. Our Behavioral Interview Course covers how to frame your experience in a way that resonates with interviewers at companies like Baidu.

ConclusionBaidu's interview process rewards candidates who combine strong fundamentals with genuine familiarity with AI-era systems, so breadth of preparation matters here. If you want a structured path through every stage, follow our Baidu Interview Roadmap to work through the right topics in the right order and give yourself the best shot at an offer.