IBM interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview

SDE - Intern

IBM
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3 rounds | 5 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
I'm Harshith, currently working as SDE Intern at IBM. I was not a pro coding initially, I joined B.Tech with no prior knowledge of coding and programming languages, initially it was tough for me to break the barrier of solving a problem without seeing the solution but later on I kept practicing DSA as much I can. I started my actual preparation of DSA after my first year and got to know the basics of how to solve a problem and later on by practicing I was able to solve problems much more faster and trust me only "DSA" helped me to crack IBM.It was an off campus pool drive, I applied and cleared the coding rounds and an interview.
Application story
I won't say it is a complete off campus drive, IBM has conducted a pool drive for all the major colleges in South India, our college forwarded the link to apply. So there were 2 coding rounds (hackerrank based) and 1 technical interview. Once you clear these rounds then you are selected.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I had a good grip on DSA and problem solving, they tested me in problem solving skills in their first two rounds and I was interested in full stack development ,I did some good projects on full stack dev, those projects helped me to portray my skills to the interviewers.
Preparation
Duration: 6 months
Topics: Data Structures and Algorithms, Python, Java, OOPS, DBMS
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Give priority to problem solving, solve as many problems you can
Tip 2 : Have 2 good projects in your resume

Application process
Where: Other
Eligibility: 65% throughout your Graduation and above 7 CGPA
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Include 2 good projects with brief description
Tip 2 : Mention your score in various coding platforms

Interview rounds

01
Round
Easy
Online Coding Interview
Duration60 minutes
Interview date28 Jul 2022
Coding problem2

1. All Prime Numbers less than or equal to N

Moderate
10m average time
90% success
0/80
Asked in companies
OptumIBMAmazon

You are given a positive integer 'N'. Your task is to return all the prime numbers less than or equal to the 'N'.

Note:

1) A prime number is a number that has only two factors: 1 and the number itself.

2) 1 is not a prime number.
Problem approach

Sieve of Eratosthenes approach I followed

Try solving now

2. Maximum Subarray Sum

Moderate
25m average time
75% success
0/80
Asked in companies
CultfitPayPalWalmart

Given an array of numbers, find the maximum sum of any contiguous subarray of the array.


For example, given the array [34, -50, 42, 14, -5, 86], the maximum sum would be 137, since we would take elements 42, 14, -5, and 86.


Given the array [-5, -1, -8, -9], the maximum sum would be -1.


Follow up: Do this in O(N) time.

Problem approach

Kadane's algorithm I followed

Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration100 minutes
Interview date28 Aug 2022
Coding problem2

1. Number Pattern

Easy
15m average time
80% success
0/40
Asked in companies
HSBCIBM

Ninja wants to build a number pattern for the given integer.

For example, If the given integer ‘N’ is 4 

Pattern:

1
23
345
4567
Problem approach

Basic logical programming

Try solving now

2. Maximum In Sliding Windows Of Size K

Moderate
20m average time
80% success
0/80
Asked in companies
AppleWalmartOYO

Given an array/list of integers of length ‘N’, there is a sliding window of size ‘K’ which moves from the beginning of the array, to the very end. You can only see the ‘K’ numbers in a particular window at a time. For each of the 'N'-'K'+1 different windows thus formed, you are supposed to return the maximum element in each of them, from the given array/list.

Problem approach

Sliding Window approach

Try solving now
03
Round
Easy
Face to Face
Duration40 minutes
Interview date30 Mar 2023
Coding problem1

1. Reverse List In K Groups

Hard
15m average time
85% success
0/120
Asked in companies
SAP LabsSamsungIBM

You are given a linked list of 'n' nodes and an integer 'k', where 'k' is less than or equal to 'n'.


Your task is to reverse the order of each group of 'k' consecutive nodes, if 'n' is not divisible by 'k', then the last group of nodes should remain unchanged.


For example, if the linked list is 1->2->3->4->5, and 'k' is 3, we have to reverse the first three elements, and leave the last two elements unchanged. Thus, the final linked list being 3->2->1->4->5.


Implement a function that performs this reversal, and returns the head of the modified linked list.


Example:
Input: 'list' = [1, 2, 3, 4], 'k' = 2

Output: 2 1 4 3

Explanation:
We have to reverse the given list 'k' at a time, which is 2 in this case. So we reverse the first 2 elements then the next 2 elements, giving us 2->1->4->3.


Note:
All the node values will be distinct.


Try solving now

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Skill covered: Programming

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