What is the interview process like at IBM?

IBM's entry-level hiring, especially its very large India campus and off-campus intake, runs as a long chain of individually eliminating gates rather than a short interview loop: a short HackerRank coding test, a game-based cognitive assessment (Cognify) and/or a psychometric personality questionnaire, an English or spoken-communication assessment, often a written behavioural essay and a group discussion, and only then a technical interview plus a managerial/PDM conversation. The technical bar is moderate by big-tech standards (easy-to-medium DSA, plus OS, DBMS/SQL, OOP and Linux fundamentals) and the interview is heavily resume- and project-driven, with the panel usually coming from the specific team that requested the headcount. Outside India the shape differs: IBM's own careers material describes CV screen, a recorded one-way video assessment, a recruiter screen and then a case interview (consulting) or client-team interviews (sales), and UK graduate hiring historically ran an IPAT aptitude test followed by an assessment centre and a separate role-matching stage.

What topics does IBM test in interviews?

Commonly reported topics include Swift, Objective-C, Explaining a topic of the candidate's choice, Public APIs, Design choices, Code review or pair programming.

IBM Interview Questions & Experience

iOS developer

Not selected

unknown. 1 round. Shared by cableshaft on hn, 2016-09-26

1Technical interviewTechnicalGrilled on Swift-specific questions. Had strong Objective-C experience but only hobby-level Swift experience, cited as the reason for rejection.Covered: Swift, Objective-C

Web Developer

Not selected

unknown. 2 rounds. Shared by pfarnsworth on hn, 2016-03-21

1Aptitude testOnline assessmentScored among the highest the interviewer had ever seen on an aptitude test.
2Multiple interview roundsPanelAdvanced through several rounds before ultimately being rejected for insufficient experience.

Role not stated

Received an offer

unknown. 2 rounds. Shared by b112 on hn, 2026-10-09

1Phone interviewPhone screenOne-hour interview by phone.
2Second interviewFinalAnother one-hour interview, after which an offer followed.

Internet Consultant

Not selected

New grad. 2 rounds. Shared by freediddy on hn, 2026-08-04

1Aptitude testAssessment centreScored very highly on an aptitude test.
2Hiring managerHiring managerTurned down for lack of experience.

Role not stated

Not selected

New grad. 2 rounds. Shared by remote_phone on hn, 2023-02-05

1Aptitude testAssessment centreAchieved an exceptionally high aptitude score.
2DecisionHiring managerNot hired due to limited programming experience.

Software Engineer

Outcome not shared

unknown. 3 rounds. Shared by Stratoscope on hn, 2025-02-03

1Open discussionBehavioralInterview opened with the candidate's own questions and general conversation.
2Teach me somethingPresentationCandidate taught the interviewer about any topic, often non-technical, to show communication skill.Covered: Explaining a topic of the candidate's choice
3API coding challengeTechnicalProblem using several public APIs, done ahead as a take-home with code review or live as pair programming.Covered: Public APIs, Design choices, Code review or pair programming

Role not stated

Outcome not shared

New grad. 1 round. Shared by acangiano on hn, 2017-09-03

1Technical conversation (as interviewer)TechnicalConceptual discussion of web APIs and past projects instead of algorithm puzzles or take-home work.Covered: REST, HTTP status codes, GraphQL, Past projects

Co-op student

Received an offer

Internship. 1 round. Shared by MarkusWandel on hn, 2021-05-05

1Campus recruitingBehavioralGeneric campus recruiters hired co-op students and assigned them to teams afterwards.

Role not stated

Outcome not shared

unknown. 1 round. Shared by cmars232 on hn, 2007-10-06

1Aptitude test batteryAssessment centreTimed tests of manual arithmetic and next-in-sequence puzzles, with results kept on file but not shared.Covered: Arithmetic, Pattern sequences

Role not stated

Outcome not shared

unknown. 1 round. Shared by netcraft on hn, 2018-10-29

1InterviewsTechnicalThree interviews. The first two went well.

Role not stated

Received an offer

unknown. 1 round. Shared by AlbertCory on hn, 2023-12-15

1Plant visitFinalA site visit day ending with on-the-spot cash reimbursement of travel expenses.

Role not stated

Received an offer

unknown. 1 round. Shared by graycat on hn, 2014-10-21

1Offer conversationHiring managerOffer came with candid advice describing the company as marketing-driven.

Operations research consultant

Received an offer

unknown, Chicago, IL. 1 round. Shared by graycat on hn, 2014-06-06

1Branch office offerHiring managerBranch head described supporting refinery customers using linear programming when extending the offer.Covered: Linear programming, Oil refining customers

C++ Software Engineer

Not selected

unknown. 2 rounds. Shared by TylerJaacks on hn, 2025-12-16

1Coding assessmentOnline assessmentPassed an initial coding assessment.
2Programming interviewTechnicalFailed the first live programming interview for a C++ role with limited C++ experience.Covered: C++

Role not stated

Outcome not shared

New grad, India. 3 rounds. Shared by kumarvvr on hn, 2017-08-18

1Written testOnline assessmentPaper aptitude test easier than a graduate admissions exam, plus a few C programming questions.Covered: Aptitude, C
2Technical interviewTechnicalInterviewer asked math and logic puzzles largely unrelated to the job.Covered: Math puzzles, Logic puzzles
3HR interviewBehavioralCasual conversation testing spoken English, such as describing a film watched recently.Covered: Communication

Associate System Engineer

Received an offer

New grad. 4 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2024-05-02

1Coding testOnline assessmentTwo problems in roughly 50 minutes, one easy string task and one harder array/DP task. The author advises settling on a working approach before writing code and at minimum passing the public tests.Covered: Arrays & strings, Dynamic programming
2English language assessmentOnline assessmentSame-day MCQ test on vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms, spelling, error spotting and fill-in-the-blanks, with negative marking and the option to skip.Covered: English proficiency
3Group discussionPanelOn-the-spot topics discussed as a team. This group unusually got two topics back to back rather than one.Covered: Group discussion, Communication
4HR interviewBehavioralConversational close covering the candidate's exposure to AI tools, simple Python problem-solving and how they approach problems in their own projects.Covered: Past projects, Domain knowledge

Software Engineer (IBM ISDL)

Not selected

New grad. 4 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2024-01-04

1Online coding testOnline assessmentThree easy-to-medium problems on HackerRank, described as variants of well-known array and linked-list questions.Covered: Data structures & algorithms, Arrays & strings
2Proctored coding testOnline assessmentA second HackerRank set of three problems, this time taken in person at an IBM-designated centre a few days later.Covered: Data structures & algorithms, Arrays & strings
3Technical interviewTechnicalConcentrated on operating systems and Linux basics, an SQL query the candidate then had to optimise, a classic logic puzzle, and OOP concepts such as inheritance.Covered: Operating systems, SQL, OOP, Puzzles
4HR / PDM interviewHiring managerWalkthrough of the most recent project and its approach, background and interests, current industry trends, and why the candidate wanted this specific IBM unit, closing on location and role preference.Covered: Past projects, Domain knowledge, Behavioral

Software Developer

Outcome not shared

Experienced. 5 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2023-08-14

1Online coding assessmentOnline assessmentTimed test on data structures, algorithms and general problem solving, with coding done in Java or C++.Covered: Data structures & algorithms
2Technical interviewTechnicalTwo senior developers probed languages, databases and SDLC practice, then set a dynamic-programming problem to solve live in a shared editor.Covered: Dynamic programming, DBMS
3Project discussionTechnicalDeep dive into a web application the candidate had built, covering architecture, technology choices, scalability and their personal contribution.Covered: Past projects, Scalability
4Behavioral interviewBehavioralStandard competency questions on communication, teamwork, handling difficult situations and meeting deadlines.Covered: Behavioral, Conflict handling
5HR roundBehavioralCareer goals, willingness to pick up new technology and overall cultural fit.Covered: Behavioral

Associate System Engineer

Outcome not shared

New grad. 4 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2021-10-11

1Coding testOnline assessmentA single 30-minute HackerRank string-validation problem. The author passed six of seven test cases and still advanced.Covered: Arrays & strings
2Cognitive ability (Cognify)Online assessmentFive short games (Shortcuts, Gridlock, Resemble, Numbubbles, Tally Up) taken while a proctor watched over a WebEx call. Also an elimination gate with results within 10-15 minutes.Covered: Aptitude, Puzzles
3English assessmentOnline assessmentUnproctored 15-minute test, answer as many questions as possible.Covered: English proficiency
4Technical + HR interviewTechnicalA single 30-minute combined round mixing Java specifics (string types, OOP), a hashing-flavoured design question, cloud platform comparisons, and several situational questions about risky decisions, failure and a team losing members before a deadline.Covered: OOP, Past projects, STAR stories, Behavioral

Software Engineer

Received an offer

New grad. 3 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2021-09-16

1Cognitive ability assessmentOnline assessmentAbout 30 minutes of the five Cognify games covering pathfinding, block packing, mental rotation, arithmetic targets and quantity comparison.Covered: Aptitude, Puzzles
2Coding + MCQ testOnline assessmentFourteen questions in 70 minutes: four coding problems on grammar checking, pangrams, word-break style concatenation and longest palindrome, plus ten MCQs on CS fundamentals.Covered: Arrays & strings, Data structures & algorithms
3Panel technical interviewPanelFour interviewers introduced their team, then covered DBMS and OS, three data-structure coding problems, virtualization and its real-world use, and the candidate's projects and internship.Covered: DBMS, Operating systems, Data structures & algorithms, Past projects

Software Engineer

Received an offer

New grad. 4 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2022-02-15

1Coding testOnline assessmentOne problem in 30 minutes, a lowest-common-ancestor question on a binary search tree.Covered: Trees, Data structures & algorithms
2Cognitive abilityOnline assessmentThe same five-game 30-minute mental-ability battery, again an elimination gate.Covered: Aptitude, Puzzles
3English assessmentOnline assessmentA 15-minute MCQ round on spelling, grammatical errors and word meanings, with negative marking.Covered: English proficiency
4Technical + HR + managerialTechnicalOne 30-minute round covering tree traversals written live, OOP with real-life examples, array and linked-list applications, plus situational questions on team resistance, workplace conflict and client presentations.Covered: Trees, OOP, Past projects, Conflict handling, Behavioral

Software Developer (India pooled drive)

Received an offer

New grad. 3 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2025-08-29

1Coding assessment (virtual)Online assessmentOne hour, two moderate problems involving a greedy approach and a max-heap, taken online and proctored.Covered: Greedy algorithms, Data structures & algorithms
2Coding assessment (offline)Online assessmentA 75-minute in-person test at a host college with three easier questions: basic conditional logic, an SQL join query and a pattern-printing problem. Solving two was the bar to advance.Covered: SQL, Arrays & strings
3Technical interviewTechnicalThirty minutes with two interviewers: explain the logic of the earlier pattern problem, more SQL plus a scenario-based database question, design considerations for a grocery store website, the candidate's web projects and how pages render. No HR round followed.Covered: SQL, DBMS, Past projects, System design

Engineer (hardware/embedded leaning)

Received an offer

New grad. 3 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2023-08-07

1MCQ testOnline assessmentRoughly an hour of aptitude (percentages, numbers, permutations and combinations), digital electronics and basic coding MCQs.Covered: Aptitude, Digital electronics
2Technical interviewTechnicalOpened on digital logic (building a larger multiplexer from smaller ones, complements, universal gates), then moved to array de-duplication in linear time, N-Queens, cache data structures and heap behaviour. Language-agnostic. The interviewer graded the reasoning.Covered: Digital electronics, Data structures & algorithms, Operating systems
3Technical 2 / HRHiring managerMostly an introduction to the team and their tooling plus a self-introduction and skills walkthrough. About twenty minutes, with the offer confirmed two days later.Covered: Behavioral, Domain knowledge

GBS Associate Developer

Received an offer

New grad. 5 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2020-04-21

1Cognitive ability gamesOnline assessmentFive short games with individual time limits and a practice run before each, testing aptitude and some personality traits. Few candidates were cut here.Covered: Aptitude, Puzzles
2Psychometric testOnline assessmentTen sets of five forced-choice trait statements answered on an agree/disagree slider, with questions deliberately repeated. Roughly half the cohort was eliminated at this gate.Covered: Personality assessment
3English testOnline assessmentStraightforward MCQs on synonyms, antonyms, meanings and spelling.Covered: English proficiency
4Coding roundOnline assessmentOn HackerRank: seven MCQs on DBMS, OS and networking plus one 45-minute coding problem, with different candidates getting different problems. This was the heaviest cut in the drive.Covered: DBMS, Operating systems, Networking, Arrays & strings
5Technical + HRFinalOne-on-one face-to-face round starting with document checks, then projects and internships, why IBM, a deliberately confrontational challenge to the credibility of the CV, and a question about what matters when dealing with a US client.Covered: Past projects, Behavioral, Customer scenarios

Software Engineer

Outcome not shared

New grad. 3 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2024-08-21

1Online assessmentOnline assessmentFifteen MCQs weighted heavily toward operating systems and Linux commands with a couple of aptitude puzzles, plus two coding questions (IPv4 to IPv6 conversion and length of the last word in a messy string).Covered: Operating systems, Aptitude, Arrays & strings
2Technical interviewTechnicalThirty virtual minutes on inter-process communication, semaphores, multicore scheduling, process versus thread, C storage classes and interrupts, then live coding of linked-list creation, cycle detection, a bit-swap and an endianness check.Covered: Operating systems, Concurrency, Data structures & algorithms, Bit manipulation
3HR roundBehavioralProjects, location preferences and situational managerial questions.Covered: Past projects, Behavioral

Associate System Engineer

Not selected

New grad. 5 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2024-12-05

1Coding testOnline assessmentA single string problem in 45 minutes, eliminating, with results by email.Covered: Arrays & strings
2Communication roundOnline assessmentA 20-minute listening and speaking assessment, also eliminating.Covered: English proficiency
3On-site coding roundOnline assessmentA second, in-person coding problem searching for a word within a collection of strings. Results announced within the hour.Covered: Arrays & strings
4Essay writing + group discussionPanelFive typed essays on past-experience prompts with five minutes each, then a group discussion on dependence on AI. The author was eliminated at this stage.Covered: STAR stories, Group discussion
5Final interviewFinalThe author reached but did not clear the final interview and could not identify what went wrong.Covered: Behavioral

Software Engineer intern (IBM ISDL)

Outcome not shared

Internship. 4 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2024-09-11

1Online testOnline assessmentHackerRank test of 25 CS-fundamentals MCQs plus three DSA coding problems.Covered: Data structures & algorithms, DBMS, Operating systems
2Second online testOnline assessmentA near-identical second HackerRank test with 25 MCQs and three coding problems.Covered: Data structures & algorithms
3Technical interviewTechnicalThree DSA problems (duplicates in an array, linked-list cycle, pair with a given sum) followed by resume-driven discussion.Covered: Arrays & strings, Data structures & algorithms, Past projects
4PDM roundHiring managerManager round on language choices, each project in detail, how the candidate juggled an internship with other work, favourite subject and future aspirations.Covered: Past projects, Behavioral

Intern (campus)

Received an offer

Internship. 3 rounds. Shared by GeeksforGeeks contributor (handle not exposed) on gfg, 2021-04-01

1Online testOnline assessmentLogical questions mixed with the game-style assessment items.Covered: Aptitude, Puzzles
2Technical interviewTechnicalPolymorphism, the difference between primary and foreign keys, a live implementation of duplicate removal from a linked list, and a search problem on a sorted binary sequence.Covered: OOP, DBMS, Data structures & algorithms
3HR roundBehavioralIntroduction and general questions about interests. The offer came a week later.Covered: Behavioral

Application Developer

Not selected

New grad, 4.5 LPA CTC. 6 rounds. Shared by LeetCode Discuss poster (anonymous) on github, 2024-12-01

1Online assessmentOnline assessmentOne 40-minute DSA question (longest common subsequence), finished early and cleared.Covered: Dynamic programming
2Communication skills assessmentOnline assessmentListening and speaking, sentence error correction and fill-in-the-blanks. Described as straightforward.Covered: English proficiency
3On-campus coding roundOnline assessmentAn unannounced extra HackerRank round held in the college lab: one medium stack problem in 30 minutes.Covered: Data structures & algorithms
4English writing roundBehavioralTwenty minutes to type answers to behavioural prompts.Covered: STAR stories
5Group discussionPanelFifteen students discussing the benefits of AI in college life. Shortlist announced three hours later.Covered: Group discussion
6Technical + HR interviewTechnicalSeventy-five minutes: resume and React/API project deep dive including writing a data-fetch call, questions on version control and hosting, then four DSA questions in a row (Dijkstra pseudocode, merge sort implementation, a Fenwick tree and a palindrome problem), closing on why IBM. Not selected despite a positive-feeling interview.Covered: Past projects, API design, Graphs, Data structures & algorithms

Associate System Engineer

Not selected

New grad, 4.5 LPA plus a 25,000 rupee one-time settling allowance. 4 rounds. Shared by LeetCode Discuss poster (anonymous) on github, 2025-06-01

1Online technical assessmentOnline assessmentHackerRank test of 60 to 90 minutes mixing MCQs and coding. Roughly 2,459 candidates were shortlisted from this stage.Covered: Data structures & algorithms, Aptitude, OOP
2Spoken English assessmentOnline assessmentAI-proctored virtual round needing webcam and mic, testing spoken grammar, pronunciation and sentence clarity. The pool dropped to about 873.Covered: English proficiency
3In-person coding + written EnglishOnline assessmentA 30-minute HackerRank array/string problem taken on campus, plus five typed behavioural answers with a five-minute timer each. About 147 candidates survived. The in-person format was announced only a day in advance.Covered: Arrays & strings, STAR stories
4Technical + HR interviewFinalIn-person panel described as calm and friendly, covering the AI/ML specialisation choice, internship challenges, project ownership and team size, opinions on AI replacing jobs, and Java versus Python language details.Covered: Past projects, OOP, Behavioral, Domain knowledge

SDE 1 (IBM ISL, Bangalore)

Received an offer

New grad. 4 rounds. Shared by LeetCode Discuss poster (anonymous) on github, 2023-10-01

1HackerRank testOnline assessmentTwo easy problems in 60 minutes, one a log-parsing counting problem and one a string/DP question.Covered: Arrays & strings, Dynamic programming
2Psychometric testOnline assessmentAround 50 agree/disagree personality statements, sometimes presented as forced-choice pairs. The author notes that after this test resumes go out to the hiring teams, so progressing further is effectively resume matching.Covered: Personality assessment
3Technical interviewTechnicalForty-five minutes run by the team that shortlisted them, in this case cloud development, so more than half the time went on microservices, Docker and Kubernetes from their projects, followed by basic DSA (binary search, list reversal, majority element) and explaining recursion with a stack diagram. Other candidates instead got OS, networks and SQL.Covered: Scalability, API design, Data structures & algorithms, Past projects
4Managerial roundHiring managerForty minutes with a senior manager on the internship project, background, and short- and long-term goals including further study.Covered: Past projects, Behavioral

Associate System Engineer (off-campus)

Not selected

New grad. 5 rounds. Shared by LeetCode Discuss poster (anonymous) on github, 2024-02-01

1CodeKnack coding testOnline assessmentIBM's branded online coding assessment, taken in mid-January and cleared.Covered: Data structures & algorithms
2English assessmentOnline assessmentScheduled the same day as the coding test.Covered: English proficiency
3Group discussionPanelA full-day in-person GD about a week later, from which most attendees advanced.Covered: Group discussion
4InterviewTechnicalHeld at an IBM location but conducted over laptop video, mostly resume-driven. A selection email followed within two days.Covered: Resume deep-dive
5Repeat elimination interviewFinalWeeks after the selection email, candidates who had not received a joining date were called back for a second, harder eliminating interview. The author was then rejected outright in March despite the earlier selection mail.Covered: Resume deep-dive

Integration intern (software group)

Outcome not shared

Internship. 3 rounds. Shared by LeetCode Discuss poster (anonymous) on github, 2017-01-01

1Online testOnline assessmentThirty to forty questions each with a 20-second timer, mixing leadership-oriented behavioural items with logical sequence puzzles. No score was shown at the end.Covered: Aptitude, Behavioral
2Technical interviewTechnicalOn-site with the prospective technical manager covering experience, basic algorithms and data structures and Java fundamentals, then an unusual exercise: 20 minutes alone with product documentation followed by presenting that product's architecture to other technical staff and fielding their questions.Covered: Data structures & algorithms, OOP, Past projects
3Behavioral interviewBehavioralWith managers, digging into CV specifics such as unfinished certifications and past situational examples.Covered: Resume deep-dive, Behavioral

Associate System Engineer

Outcome not shared

New grad. 4 rounds. Shared by Rugved Bongale on blog, 2021-10-07

1Coding test (CodeKnack on HackerRank)Online assessmentOne long but simple 30-minute problem, in this case reformatting and reversing byte pairs of a hexadecimal string.Covered: Arrays & strings
2Cognify cognitive assessmentOnline assessmentThe Revelian game-based battery (Short Cuts, Resemble, Grid Lock, Tally Up, Numbubbles). The author says no specific preparation is possible or needed.Covered: Aptitude, Puzzles
3English language assessmentOnline assessmentRoughly ten minutes of MCQs on spelling, word meanings and grammatical errors, with negative marking.Covered: English proficiency
4InterviewFinalEasy to moderate difficulty, friendly interviewer, focused on self-introduction, project walkthrough, what was original about the work, and standard HR questions.Covered: Past projects, Behavioral

Support-oriented / client-facing technical role

Received an offer

New grad. 2 rounds. Shared by CodeDame on blog, 2026-02-03

1Technical interviewTechnicalInteractive discussion of fundamentals: abstraction versus interfaces and abstract classes, primary keys, relational versus non-relational databases, the SQL the candidate had actually written, and their internship and academic projects. The interviewer probed clarity of thinking more than recall.Covered: OOP, DBMS, SQL, Past projects
2Managerial / PDM interviewHiring managerA conversational round on motivation for IBM, learning mindset, adaptability, organising competing work, handling pressure, and explicit comfort with a support-oriented, customer-facing role.Covered: Behavioral, Customer scenarios, Conflict handling

Associate System Engineer

Received an offer

New grad. 6 rounds. Shared by Naukri Code 360 contributor (anonymous) on blog, 2024-12-03

1Online coding testOnline assessmentOne medium problem in 45 minutes, drawn from a small pool so different candidates got different questions.Covered: Arrays & strings
2Communication skills assessmentOnline assessmentTwenty minutes on the SHL platform across five or six sections: reading aloud, listen-and-repeat, correcting a spoken error sentence, unscrambling and speaking a sentence, and a 45-second monologue on a given topic.Covered: English proficiency
3Second coding testOnline assessmentAnother 45-minute round, this time a pattern-search problem solved with KMP.Covered: Arrays & strings, Data structures & algorithms
4Written English assessmentBehavioralTwenty-five minutes to write STAR-structured answers to five behavioural prompts.Covered: STAR stories
5Group discussionPanelA 10 to 15 minute discussion on the impact of startups.Covered: Group discussion
6Face-to-face interviewFinalA 50-minute in-person final round closing out the six-stage loop.Covered: Past projects, Behavioral

SDE 1

Not selected

New grad. 2 rounds. Shared by Naukri Code 360 contributor (anonymous) on blog, 2021-11-20

1Online coding testOnline assessmentForty-five minutes for two problems (kth node from the end of a linked list, inorder traversal), followed by an aptitude section of tightly time-boxed numerical and logical questions where speed was the constraint.Covered: Data structures & algorithms, Trees
2Technical video interviewTechnicalThirty minutes described as easier than the test: operating system concepts including virtual memory and reentrancy, then CRUD and SQL joins and normal forms up to BCNF.Covered: Operating systems, DBMS, SQL

Frontend Developer

Received an offer

Experienced. 3 rounds. Shared by Naukri Code 360 contributor (anonymous) on blog, 2024-01-22

1Technical screenTechnicalForty-five minutes of advanced JavaScript theory rather than coding: ES6 features, how switch comparisons work, property checking and why async/await exists.Covered: JavaScript, Concurrency
2Coding roundTechnicalThree practical JavaScript problems: reversing the words of a sentence, looking up a label by id in an array of objects, and counting word frequencies.Covered: Arrays & strings, Data structures & algorithms
3HR roundBehavioralStandard strengths and weaknesses plus a walkthrough of a resume project.Covered: Behavioral, Past projects

Graduate scheme (technical stream, UK Futures)

Outcome not shared

New grad. 3 rounds. Shared by The Student Room user 'mailmerge' (thread: IBM Futures scheme - assessment centre) on edu, 2009-01-01

1IPAT aptitude testOnline assessmentIBM's numerical and logical aptitude test used as the first screen, with a shorter confirmatory re-sit at the assessment centre to verify the online score.Covered: Aptitude
2Assessment centre group exercisesPanelTwo 30-minute group exercises. The author's read was that scoring well meant contributing something that changed how the group was working rather than just talking.Covered: Group discussion
3Assessment centre interviewsPanelA roughly half-hour business interview aimed at role matching plus a similar-length competency-based foundations interview. For technical applicants the conversation leaned toward programming experience over pure competency questions. Current graduates were on hand to talk to candidates informally.Covered: Behavioral, Past projects

Associate (campus hire, AS/400 domain)

Received an offer

New grad, India. 4 rounds. Shared by Poornima Ram on youtube

1Coding AssessmentOnline assessmentA timed coding round on HackerRank (around 40 minutes). The speaker recalls a problem involving binary numbers and solved it in Python.Covered: Data structures & algorithms, Arrays & strings
2English AssessmentAssessment centreA basic English/grammar proficiency test, time-pressured and proctored by IBM mentors so answers could not be copied.Covered: Communication
3Group DiscussionGroup exerciseA group discussion where a topic (e.g. last-minute work) was given a minute or two before speaking. Interviewers assessed creativity and the points raised.Covered: Communication
4Technical + HR InterviewTechnicalA roughly 45-60 minute combined interview: tell-me-about-yourself and HR questions, then electronics/VLSI domain questions (series vs parallel circuits, basic electronics), logic riddles (river-crossing puzzle, two-switches-one-bulb), basic aptitude math, and a coding scenario where writing an algorithm was accepted in place of full code.Covered: Behavioral, Domain knowledge, Data structures & algorithms

Associate Software Engineer (ASE/AC)

Received an offer

New grad. 4 rounds. Shared by Online Learning on youtube

1Coding TestOnline assessmentA 45-minute online coding test with two questions: one easy (matrix-based) and one involving strings/matrices.Covered: Arrays & strings, Data structures & algorithms
2English CommunicationAssessment centreA 15-20 minute English round with fill-in-the-blanks, antonyms/synonyms, summarizing a paragraph, and reading/repeating sentences.Covered: Communication
3Group DiscussionGroup exerciseA 20-minute GD with eight candidates and two IBM observers (one moderating). The speaker's topic was AI and its impact. Topics can also be social/current issues.Covered: Communication
4Technical + HR InterviewTechnicalA single 30-35 minute combined technical+HR interview. Questions on the resume project (machine learning basics), Java (platform independence, multiple inheritance, Java vs Python), SQL (foreign/candidate keys, normalization), data structures (quick sort, bubble sort algorithms), waterfall vs agile, and a situation-based question about choosing between a familiar tech vs a new one (testing whether the candidate can hold their position under pushback).Covered: Past projects, OOP, SQL, DBMS, Data structures & algorithms, Behavioral

Full-stack Java Developer

Received an offer

Experienced. 5 rounds. Shared by GenZ Career on youtube

1Telephonic HR ScreenPhone screenA phone call from HR covering skill set, notice period, and location preferences.Covered: Behavioral
2MCQ AssessmentOnline assessmentA 45-question MCQ round focused on Java, Spring Boot, and AWS.Covered: OOP, Domain knowledge
3Technical InterviewTechnicalA roughly 50-minute technical round with core Java (Java 8 streams/lambdas/Optional, method overloading, HashMap internals and collision handling, string vs StringBuffer, == vs equals, string interning), Spring Boot (dependency injection, exception handling, logging, REST vs SOAP, HTTP methods, statelessness, HATEOAS), AWS (EC2, S3, IAM), SQL joins, and a coding question to sort employee objects by age using the Stream API.Covered: OOP, System design, SQL, Data structures & algorithms
4Managerial InterviewHiring managerA managerial round discussing past and current projects.Covered: Past projects
5HR InterviewHiring managerA final HR round to discuss salary.Covered: Behavioral

Software Developer (Associate program)

Outcome not shared

New grad, Calgary, Canada. 6 rounds. Shared by Anirudh Hosur on youtube

1Coding AssessmentOnline assessmentTwo medium-level LeetCode-style programming questions that had to pass all test cases.Covered: Data structures & algorithms
2Video AssessmentAssessment centreA one-way recorded video interview: each question shown for one minute to read, then three minutes to answer on camera (why IBM, why your skills fit the role).Covered: Behavioral
3HR QuestionnairePhone screenHR reaches out to confirm graduation status, willingness to relocate to Calgary, work status in Canada, interview availability, and salary agreement.Covered: Behavioral
4Business ReviewFinalA screening gate where the hiring department reviews the resume and decides whether to move forward to interviews. The speaker had previously been stopped here for a Toronto role.Covered: Resume deep-dive
5In-person Interview 1 (Technical + Managerial)PanelA one-hour in-person panel (senior software developer, delivery project manager, and a manager). Mix of technical (favorite language, resume/cloud project questions, explain OOP and APIs simply, Java Spring Boot experience) and behavioral (handling team conflict, going above and beyond, IBM history, IBM in the AI space, openness to delivery/client-facing work).Covered: Past projects, OOP, Behavioral, Domain knowledge
6In-person Interview 2 (Technical)TechnicalA more technical one-hour in-person round with cross-questioning: native vs OS-specific app development, React vs Angular, cloud experience and providers used, deep-dives on a project, why IBM, and expectations from the role.Covered: Past projects, Domain knowledge

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