IBM Interview Questions for Freshers & Experienced Developers (2025 Mega Guide)
A complete resource covering IBM interview questions for freshers, IBM interview questions and answers, IBM interview questions for experienced, IBM software developer interview questions, IBM application developer interview questions, and IBM GFG coding questions.
This 5000-word article is designed to help candidates appearing for IBM Software Developer, Application Developer, Technical Support, Finance & Accounts, and Full Stack roles.
⭐ Table of Contents
- Overview of IBM Recruitment Process
- IBM Interview Rounds (Freshers & Experienced)
- IBM Interview Questions for Freshers – Technical + HR
- IBM Interview Questions and Answers (Core Concepts)
- IBM Interview Questions for Experienced (2–10 Years)
- IBM Software Developer Interview Questions
- IBM Application Developer Interview Questions
- IBM Coding Questions (GFG Style)
- IBM Interview Questions for Finance & Accounts
- Behavioral & HR Questions Asked at IBM
- How to Prepare for IBM Interviews in 2025
- Downloadable PDF (Optional)
1. Overview of IBM Recruitment Process (2025 Update)
IBM follows a structured hiring process for both freshers and experienced professionals. The process includes:
✔ For Freshers
- Online Aptitude + Coding Test
- Hiring Manager Technical Interview
- HR / Behavioral Round
✔ For Experienced
- Technical Screening
- Deep Technical + System Design Round
- Managerial Round
- Final HR Discussion
IBM evaluates candidates based on:
- Problem-solving ability
- Coding skills & CS fundamentals
- Communication skills
- Teamwork & leadership behavior
- Domain knowledge (software, application, finance, testing, etc.)
2. Detailed IBM Interview Rounds
2.1 IBM Online Assessment
The IBM online assessment (freshers) includes:
Section 1: Aptitude
- Numerical ability
- Logical reasoning
- Pattern identification
- Puzzles
Section 2: Technical MCQs
- OOP
- DBMS
- OS
- Networks
- Basic coding logic
Section 3: Coding Round (GFG Style)
Easy–Medium problems such as:
- Reverse Linked List
- Two Sum
- Missing Number
- Pascal Triangle
- Balanced Parentheses
3. IBM Interview Questions for Freshers (Most Asked)
Freshers are tested mostly on fundamentals. Here are the top IBM fresher interview questions.
⭐ 3.1 IBM Technical Interview Questions for Freshers
1. What are Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) concepts?
Answer: Encapsulation, Inheritance, Polymorphism, Abstraction.
2. What is a constructor?
Constructors initialize object variables when an object is created.
3. What is DBMS? Explain normalization.
Normalization reduces redundancy and improves data integrity.
4. What is a primary key?
A unique identifier for every record in a table.
5. Difference between C and C++?
C → Procedural
C++ → Object-oriented + procedural
6. What is a linked list?
A dynamic linear data structure where nodes store data + pointer.
7. What is cloud computing?
Delivery of compute, storage, and services via the Internet.
8. What is Agile methodology?
An iterative software development approach with sprints.
9. What is a REST API?
An API that uses HTTP methods like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE.
10. Explain OS process vs thread.
A process is independent; a thread is a subset of a process.
⭐ 3.2 IBM HR Interview Questions for Freshers
- Tell me about yourself.
- Why do you want to work at IBM?
- What do you know about IBM technologies?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- How do you handle failure?
- Are you willing to relocate?
- Tell me about a time you solved a problem.
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
4. IBM Interview Questions & Answers (2025 Technical Guide)
These are the top IBM questions with detailed answers used in Software Development, Application Development, Cloud and Data roles.
4.1 Core Java Questions Asked at IBM
Q1. Difference between Overloading and Overriding?
Overloading: Same method name, different parameters (compile-time).
Overriding: Same method, same parameters in subclass (runtime).
Q2. What is the difference between ArrayList and LinkedList?
| Feature | ArrayList | LinkedList |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | Dynamic array | Doubly linked nodes |
| Best for | Searching | Insert/delete |
4.2 DBMS Interview Questions
Q3. What is ACID in DBMS?
Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability.
Q4. Explain different types of SQL joins.
- INNER JOIN
- LEFT JOIN
- RIGHT JOIN
- FULL OUTER JOIN
- CROSS JOIN
4.3 Operating System Questions
Q5. What is deadlock?
A state where two processes wait indefinitely for resources.
Q6. What is virtual memory?
An OS technique to use disk as extended RAM.
4.4 Networking Questions
Q7. Difference between TCP and UDP?
TCP: Reliable, connection-oriented
UDP: Faster, connectionless
5. IBM Interview Questions for Experienced (2–10 Years)
This section includes advanced IBM technical interview questions for experienced candidates.
⭐ 5.1 Advanced Java Questions
Q1. Explain Dependency Injection.
A design pattern where objects receive dependencies externally.
Q2. What is multithreading? How do you handle concurrency?
Use synchronization, locks, semaphores, ThreadPoolExecutor.
⭐ 5.2 Spring Boot & Microservices
Q3. How do you secure microservices?
- OAuth 2.0
- JWT Authentication
- API Gateway
- Rate limiting
Q4. What is Circuit Breaker Pattern?
Prevents cascading failures in distributed systems.
⭐ 5.3 DevOps & CI/CD Questions
Q5. Explain your CI/CD pipeline.
Tools: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm.
⭐ 5.4 System Design Questions
Q6. Design a URL shortener system.
Focus: hashing, database design, caching, load balancing.
Q7. How do you scale an application?
- Horizontal scaling
- Load balancers
- Caching with Redis
- Stateless architecture
6. IBM Software Developer Interview Questions
These are directly asked in software engineering interviews at IBM.
1. Explain SOLID principles.
2. What is MVC architecture?
3. How do HashMaps work internally?
4. Difference between stack and queue?
5. What is synchronization in Java?
6. Explain garbage collection.
7. How to increase performance of REST APIs?
8. What is JPA / Hibernate ORM?
9. Explain unit testing vs integration testing.
10. What is Kafka and why is it used?
7. IBM Application Developer Interview Questions
Application developers at IBM work with integration technologies, API development, and cloud-native apps.
1. What is IBM App Connect?
2. Explain SOAP vs REST.
3. What is Spring Boot Auto Configuration?
4. How does caching work in applications?
5. Explain message queues (MQ).
6. What is Docker?
7. What is Kubernetes?
8. Explain horizontal vs vertical scaling.
9. What is NoSQL?
10. Difference between PUT and PATCH.
8. IBM Coding Questions (GFG Style)
Most IBM coding problems come from GeeksforGeeks, LeetCode, HackerRank.
⭐ Common Questions:
- Reverse a linked list
- Detect cycle in linked list
- Merge two sorted arrays
- Two Sum problem
- Kadane’s algorithm
- Missing number in array
- Longest Common Subsequence
- Balanced Parentheses
- Binary Search Tree insertion
- Count vowels and consonants in string
9. IBM Interview Questions for Finance & Accounts
1. Difference between Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable
2. What is Working Capital?
3. What is Accrual Accounting?
4. Explain Trial Balance vs Balance Sheet
5. What is ROI (Return on Investment)?
6. Difference between Capital Expenses & Revenue Expenses
7. What is Depreciation?
8. What is SAP FI/CO?
9. How do you perform Budget Variance analysis?
10. Explain Cash Flow Statement.
10. Behavioral & HR Questions Asked at IBM
- Tell me about a time when you resolved a conflict.
- What motivates you to work at IBM?
- Describe a challenging project you worked on.
- How do you handle stress?
- Have you ever failed?
- Describe a time you led a team.
- Why should IBM hire you?
11. How to Prepare for IBM Interviews (2025 Strategy)
✔ Strengthen your fundamentals:
- OOP
- SQL
- Operating System
- Networks
- Data Structures
✔ Practice coding daily on:
- LeetCode
- HackerRank
- GFG
✔ Learn IBM tech essentials:
- IBM Cloud
- IBM Watson
- IBM App Connect
- IBM WebSphere
✔ Build real-world projects
Showcase GitHub + resume portfolio.
✔ Understand Agile & DevOps basics
IBM values service delivery & automation knowledge.
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