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

SDE - 1

IBM
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3 rounds | 4 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 3 months
Topics: Data Structures, Algorithms, OOPs, DBMS, SQL, Web Development.
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Practice questions on arrays and strings manipulation. There is no exact number of questions you have to solve but solve each question with understanding.
Tip 2 : If you have some problem in aptitude focus on this first as only after you clear this round you could go to the next one. You can refer IndiaBix for aptitude.
Tip 3: Resume building is very important. Structure your resume well and mention only those things you know. Also, mention at least two IT projects in your resume, it adds up to your chances.

Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: Above 7 CGPA
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Structure your resume well if you have good in hand projects do mention them first on the top of your resume. Please do not mention your academics on top if you have poor academics performance.
Tip 2 : Do not lie and put false things on your resume. In TCS Resume is very important your interview will move around based on your resume and if they found something suspicious your chances of getting selected would be very low.
Tips 3 : It is a bonus tip which is applicable to every firm. Prepare your introduction well make sure you put everything in the right blend trust me this trick really helps.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Easy
Video Call
Duration45 minutes
Interview date4 Jun 2022
Coding problem2

1. Next Smaller Element

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

You are given an array 'ARR' of integers of length N. Your task is to find the next smaller element for each of the array elements.

Next Smaller Element for an array element is the first element to the right of that element which has a value strictly smaller than that element.

If for any array element the next smaller element does not exist, you should print -1 for that array element.

For Example:

If the given array is [ 2, 3, 1], we need to return [1, 1, -1]. Because for  2, 1 is the Next Smaller element. For 3, 1 is the Next Smaller element and for 1, there is no next smaller element hence the answer for this element is -1.
Problem approach

Given an array find the next smallest element for each element of the array

Try solving now

2. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock with Transaction Fee

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

You are given an array 'prices' of size 'n', denoting the price of stocks on 'n' days.


Rahul can buy one stock at a time, and he must sell it before buying stock on another day.


The entire transaction of selling and buying the stock requires some transaction fee, given as 'fee'.


Find the maximum profit Rahul can achieve by trading on the stocks.


Example :
Input: 'prices' =  [1, 2, 3] and 'fee' = 1

Output: 1

Explanation: We can generate the maximum profit of 1 by buying the stock on the first day for price = 1 and then selling it on the third day for price = 3.

The profit will be: 3 - 1 - 1(transaction fee) = 1
Problem approach

Given chocolate and its prices change each day. Rahul can buy one chocolate at a time, and he must sell it before buying chocolate on another day.

Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration45 minutes
Interview date10 Jun 2022
Coding problem1

1. Word Break-1

Hard
36m average time
55% success
0/120
Asked in companies
IBMAmazonMicrosoft

You are given a string 's', and a dictionary of words 'dict' containing 'n' words. Your task is to add spaces in 's' to form valid sentences, where each word is a word from the dictionary.


You need to return all possible sentences that can be formed using the given dictionary.


Note :
The same word from a dictionary can be used as many times as possible to make sentences.
Problem approach

You are given a list of “N” strings A. Your task is to check whether you can form a given target string using a combination of one or more strings of A.

Try solving now
03
Round
Easy
HR Round
Duration45 minutes
Interview date1 Jul 2022
Coding problem1

1. Basic HR Questions

Tell us about yourself.

Why should we hire you?

What are your expectations?

Problem approach

Tip 1 : The cross-questioning can go intense sometimes, think before you speak.
Tip 2 : Be open-minded and answer whatever you are thinking in these rounds, I feel it is important to have an opinion.
Tip 3 : Since everybody in the interview panel is from a tech background, here too you can expect some technical questions. No coding in most of the cases but some discussions over the design can surely happen.

Here's your problem of the day

Solving this problem will increase your chance to get selected in this company

Skill covered: Programming

How do you remove whitespace from the start of a string?

Choose another skill to practice
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