IBM Interview Experience for Software Engineer

IBM is one of the top well-known MNCs.

Round 1: ( coding test – 1)

• Round 1 is an Online coding test on the Hackerrank platform which consists of 3 coding questions (difficulty level: Easy to medium)
• Questions were modified versions of:
  • https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/stock-buy-sell/
  • https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/problems/reverse-a-linked-list/1

Tip: Since this is an online test, plagiarism is strictly prohibited. The uniqueness and logic of the solution have more weightage than the number of problems solved.

Round 2: (coding test – 2)

• After a couple of days, we got notified about round 2, an offline drive.
• The Recruitment process starts with an Online coding assignment which should be written in the respective center provided by the IBM’s team.
• The coding assignment was conducted on the Hackerrank platform which also consists of 3 coding questions (difficulty level: Easy to medium)
• Questions were like:
  • https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/number-subarrays-sum-exactly-equal-k/
  • https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/sort-an-array-of-0s-1s-and-2s/

Round-3: (Technical Interview)

• The next day, the results were out and I was on the list.
• The Technical interview mainly concentrated on Operating Systems and the basics of Linux
• The interviewer asked about some SQL queries like finding the second highest salary and asked to optimize the solution.
• Following that, I was asked a logical reasoning question: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/puzzle-9-find-the-fastest-3-horses/
• Following that, The interviewer asked me the full form of LINUX and some basic commands
• The Technical interview was concluded by asking some questions on OOPS concepts like inheritance, types, and important keywords.

Round-4: (HR/PDM interview)

• The interviewer asked me to explain my most recent project and started asking questions about the approach.
• After that, I was asked about my background and interests.
• Later, the interviewer tested my knowledge of current trends in the industry and the questions were about the difference between AI and generative AI.
• The interviewer explained the responsibilities of different roles and asked what I knew about IBM and why I wanted to join IBM ISDL specifically.
• The interview was concluded by asking about location preferences and interested roles.

This is how the offline drive of the IBM ISDL recruitment process concluded.

After one week, the results were out and very few members got the opportunity to work with IBM. Unfortunately, I’m not on the list. but, it’s a great experience.

Tips:

• Do not plagrise in online coding assignments. Some of my friends who solved all the questions were not shortlisted due to plagiarism.
• Every question they asked has some marks so, be focused.
• Thoroughly brush up your knowledge on Operating systems and Linux.