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Software Engineer Interview Experience - Pune, India

August 1, 2023
Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

The interview process included:

  • Online Assessment
  • Technical Interview
  • HR Round

I made it to the HR round, but only 3 students were selected. Overall, my experience was not good.

Questions

During the online assessment, there were 15 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) covering topics such as Operating Systems (OS), Computer Networks (CN), and Database Management Systems (DBMS). Most of these questions focused on OS concepts.

Additionally, there were:

  • Three coding questions
  • Two straightforward essay-type questions
  • One dynamic programming (DP) question

Out of a pool of 30 students who passed the first round, we proceeded to the technical interviews. The nature of these interviews largely depended on the individual interviewers. Surprisingly, many students were not asked technical questions during their interviews, as the interviewers seemed more interested in discussing their internship experiences.

In my own interview, when asked about my preferred coding languages, I mentioned that I was comfortable with both Java and C++. Consequently, the interviewer gave me two coding questions.

The first one involved printing the safe sequence of processes. There were five processes, each with specific prerequisites. I had encountered a similar question in my Operating Systems lab before, so I was able to solve it. However, while explaining my code to the interviewer, he expressed confusion because my solution didn't match what he had on his laptop. As a result, he urged me to move on to the next question.

The second question involved deleting a node in a linked list. I successfully coded a solution, but the interviewer pointed out that the code was for a doubly linked list, not a singly linked list as I had assumed. I offered to quickly modify the code to fit the requirement, but the interviewer insisted on proceeding without it.

Subsequently, the interviewer asked me questions related to Operating Systems, such as explaining what a page fault is, and inquired about various Linux commands. He also asked about the differences between merge sort and quicksort, along with their time complexities in different scenarios.

Throughout the interview, the interviewer continuously checked his laptop and seemed uncertain about the answers. Overall, my interview experience was not pleasant. I felt quite panicked during the interview, which affected my performance. Despite my unease, I managed to make it to the HR round. Unfortunately, that round did not go well either.

When the final list of selected candidates was announced, I found out that I was not among those chosen.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 39 interview experiences for the IBM Software Engineer role in Pune, Maharashtra.

Success Rate

46%
Pass Rate

IBM's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Pune, Maharashtra is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive69%
Neutral21%
Negative10%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for IBM's Software Engineer interview process in Pune, Maharashtra.

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