Brief Interview Process at IBM CIO (Chief Information Office) for Software Developer role:

1. IBM Cognition Test (Revelian website)
2. First Round Coding Test (HackerRank website)
3. Second Round Coding Test (HackerRank website)
4. Interviews (On Webex)

IBM CIO Placement Process for Software Developer role:

1. IBM Cognify Test (Revelian website) - 10th Sep 2020 IBM's game-based cognitive ability assessment delivered by partner, Revelian.

   • Quick addition, multiplication & division.
   • Moving balls to other ends when the path has hurdles (shortest path in graphs/trees).
   • Shape joining puzzle, etc.

   Most students pass this round. They eliminate very few students here. Yet, this round needs to be completed with utmost attention.

2. First Round Coding Test (HackerRank website) - 12th Sep 2020 This round eliminates students without any coding experience. Anyone who knows basic coding will complete this round with ease.

3. Second Round Coding Test (HackerRank website) - 29th Sep 2020 This round consists of 2 programming questions and 1 SQL query. I completed 1 programming question and 1 SQL query. The unsolved programming question was not difficult, but it required insight into the Indian tax system. The question involved determining which tax regime (new or old) would suit a person given their gross income, HRA, etc.

   Question types presented to me:

   • String printing pattern.
   • Tax regime selection (new or old).
   • SQL query question (achievable with knowledge of the GROUP BY keyword).

4. Interviews (On Webex) - 14th Oct 2020 Two encouraging interviewers from IBM interviewed me. They did not ask me to code but analyzed my profile, including HackerRank and GitHub. They started by introducing IBM and themselves, after which I introduced myself.

   Questions asked:

   • How did the coding rounds go?
   • Tell me about your projects. (They verified my knowledge of my projects).
   • Why is your HackerRank profile badge half completed?
   • Brief overview of your workshops (Google Cloud and Blockchain workshop in my case).
   • What would you do if a teammate wasn't working and the team had an upcoming deadline?

At last, 12 people were selected by IBM from my college. I am one of them.

Questions posted on me (Interview):

• They asked me how the coding rounds went.
• They asked me about my projects (to check if I truly have knowledge in them).
• They asked me about my HackerRank profile, specifically why I had a half-completed badge.
• They asked for a brief about my workshops (Google Cloud and Blockchain workshop in my case).
• What would you do if your teammate is not working and your team has a deadline approaching?

Question types given to me (HackerRank test):

1. String printing pattern.
2. Tax regime selection (new or old tax regime).
3. SQL query question (can be completed if one knows how to use the GROUP BY keyword).