IBM Interview Experience for Software Developer | On-Campus 2021

Round 1: Cognitive Ability Assessment

The assessment consisted of 5 games that are designed to assess an individual's aptitude, numeric ability, and problem-solving.

The games were simple and almost all of the participants qualified for the next round

Round 2:  Coding Round

This round comprised of 3 Coding Questions followed by 10 MCQ's

1. Check if a string is a pangram or not - https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python-program-to-check-if-given-string-is-pangram/
2. Given a string, find the longest palindromic substring - https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/longest-palindrome-substring-set-1/

I can't remember the last one but it was based on String operations as well. The MCQ's were based on concepts like OOPs, DBMS, OS, CNS 

Round 3: Technical + HR Interview

Around 80 people were shortlisted for this round. It was a panel interview with 2 people and went on for about 50 minutes. The interviewers were very nice and friendly.

Technical Question :

• Firstly, they asked me to introduce myself and specifically asked me what my technical strengths were. Be confident in what you answer because the rest of the interview will depend on this.
• Since C programming and Python were mentioned in my Resume', they asked me why Python is an Object-Oriented language and C is not.
• They gave me a real-world scenario and asked me how Polymorphism could be implemented in it.
• I was asked about Shell and Shell scripts. When a command is entered in the terminal and when you press Enter, how does the command get executed?
• They asked me some basic Linux commands
• What does a header file in C consist of and where is it stored?
• Difference between linker and loader
• He asked me to share my screen and write the representation of a Linked list, Recursive Implementation of linked list.
• He then asked me that if recursion uses a Stack and you implement a linked list using recursion, does the top of the stack contain a pointer to the head or the last node? (It points to the head)
• I was then asked about Sorting Algorithms, which was the best one, and about their Time Complexities.
• What is a BST and what are its real-world applications?
• Normalization in DBMS

HR Questions: 

• When was a time you faced a challenge while working on something and how did you overcome it?
• How will you acquire a skill that you're not exposed to?
• What are your hobbies and they also asked me about my final year project

Overall, it was a good experience and it was more like an in-depth discussion rather than being asked straightforward questions. The interviewer was picking up on whatever I answered and continued to question me based on that. A lot of focus was on Data Structures and OS. 

Be very strong with your basics, they only want to test you on what you've learned in your previous semesters and not something very advanced or complicated. Be confident while answering and show them that you're willing to learn. If you don't know something, be honest about it.

I hope this helps. All the best!