By skyforbes 
Disclaimer: Before we start, let me be clear. I didn’t actually hack into TikTok’s servers or steal proprietary code. What I did was analyze how recommendation systems work in general, study publicly available research, and piece together the fundamental principles that drive every major algorithm — including TikTok’s. The “reverse engineering” here is understanding the logic, not breaking into systems.
That said, what I discovered will change how you think about social media forever.
After months of research into recommendation algorithms, machine learning papers, and behavioral psychology, I realized something that should have been obvious: the algorithm that keeps you scrolling for hours isn’t some mysterious AI magic. It’s embarrassingly simple math combined with an understanding of human psychology that’s older than the internet itself.
The Three-Second Truth
Here’s what shocked me most: TikTok’s algorithm makes its most important decision within the first three seconds of you watching a video.
Not three minutes. Not thirty seconds. Three seconds.
In those first three seconds, the algorithm is tracking:
- Did you scroll past…