IBM Summer Intern Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Test
Experience: Quant was most important for the tests, fast mathematics, then technical questions. Technical questions

generally asked by the company. The tests were mostly MCQ. Some tests were there which had subjective question papers. Those subjective type tests lasted 3 hours. They would write a program to do *task* type questions. The programming

language to write the code in, was our choice. The language options were C, C++, Python, Java. Python was rarely asked

Round: Group Discussion
Tips: The skills they wanted to test was to see how well they were able to express their ideas, but without outwardly disrupting others while talking.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The HR usually starts with “Tell me about yourself”. Then they go through the resume, and ask about the project (DDP, in this case) and internship. This was done by the HR team, just to see how the candidate is putting forth his ideas and contributions clearly. Two puzzles were given in the interview.The interview was at least 40 minutes, with 5 minutes of HR interview HR people were not interested in the depth of the resume, but rather on whether the candidate was able to talk or not. It was used to eliminate some people.
Tips: People with low CGPA had to perform exceptionally well to compensate for the low CGPA. For managerial positions, PoRs like coordships, coreships etc can be used to pitch your leadership qualities. They can start a chain of conversation that involves the work you did, on how you managed to execute the task efficiently, which ends up working in your favor.

Skill Tips: Focus on your Study.. Revise the subject that you have studied at the time of Interview
Skills: Technical Skills
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Test
Experience: English skill based test, it was more like a basic clearance test. There were two different rounds one of them was to listen/read and then fill up questions (approx. 45min) other one was the Telephonic test (computer generated test, approx. 15min).
Tips: Aptitude is a must, so practise
Duration: 60 minutes

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Here the way you interact in a group and essence of your points. Personally I felt that they didn’t concentrate much on speaking skills as such.
Tips: Practise to talk in groups, current affairs  and even random topics
Duration: 15 minutes

Round: HR Interview
Experience: I was tested on basic understanding of Big Data and tested on enthusiasm
Tips: Puzzles (for most startups) and HR & resume based for others mostly.prepare things very much related to the company.

Skill Tips: Starting earlier helps . Aptitude requires some time and it is better to start atleast during summer vacation. Last two months before placements can be spent for other preparations.
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Test
Experience: I performed well in the written test, and there was a speaking and listening test too.  I felt quant was most important for the tests, fast mathematics, then technical questions. Technical questions generally asked by core companies. Some programming based companies also ask such technical questions.



Puzzles can help you in answering quant questions also. The tests were mostly MCQ. Some tests were there which had subjective question papers. None of the core companies had subjective type, but coding companies had such questions. 





They were write a program to do *task* type questions. The programming language to write the code in, was our choice. The language options were C, C++, Python, Java. Python was rarely asked, though.
Duration: 3 hours minutes

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Don't quite actually remember those topics. But, skills they wanted to test was to see how well they were able to express their ideas, but without outwardly disrupting others while talking.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The interview was at least 40 minutes, with 5 minutes of HR interview for my current work profile. 

The HR usually starts with “Tell me about yourself”. Then they go through the resume, and ask about the project (DDP, in my case) and internship. This was done by the HR team, just to see how the candidate is putting forth his ideas and contributions clearly.
Tips: Since I cleared the tests, I was allowed to appear for the interviews, but after that, the CGPA played a major role in the final selection. Hence people with low CGPA had to perform exceptionally well to compensate for the low CGPA. However, I don’t know of the internal mechanism of shortlisting, so I was of the opinion that CGPA did not result in elimination of candidates, (except for the candidates who were eliminated due to the cutoff CGPA). But it played a role in the final selection.

For managerial positions, PoRs like coordships, coreships etc can be used to pitch your leadership qualities. They can start a chain of conversation that involves the work you did, on how you managed to execute the task efficiently, which ends up working in your favour.

Round: Puzzle Interview
Experience: Two puzzles were given in the interview. I did well in both, hence got selected. Another puzzle was to measure 45 minutes of time elapsed by using two candles, both of which take 1 hour to burn out completely.

General Tips: I was weak in thermodynamics, so he covered that course revision, for core placements. I prepared from the material sent by Shruti. That was all I prepared. The Coursera for R language was not that useful for me as I was looking for a managerial position.In case of resume shortlists, students who had done management, operations research or economics courses were preferred.
Otherwise, one has to justify your selection through good pitching. Finance companies are sort of open minded; they are looking for people who would do the job. Anyways, they will be providing training, so the knowledge in finance gained through independent means is not quite significant. It will, however, give an edge in the tests, as finance and quant based questions will be asked. They won’t go deep info finance.
I also suggest to freshies and second years to complete the core credited intern in the second year itself so that they can take up an intern of their choice, be it either research intern or core intern in their 3rd year summer. It offers much greater flexibility to the students. It will be useful, especially for non-core placements. I started preparing for the interviews late. I did not put pen to paper, to write down his answer for the ice-breaking questions like “Introduce yourself”. It would be better to write those answers down and get them polished, rather than trying to remember it and/or make it up spontaneously.
Skill Tips: For handling pressure, I suggest that after the interviews are over, just eat and get a good night’s sleep. Preparing/analyzing about the performance in the interview would only make you more anxious, affects sleep, and this would affect your performance in the interviews the next day. The additional one hour of preparation is not going to make a big difference.
Skills: Speaking Ability, Ability to express your ideas, Capable of managing things efficiently
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: A balanced resume is preferred. It helped me in the further stages of the selection process, as everything was quite based on how was my resume.

Round: Test
Experience: It was actually and English skill based test, more like a basic clearance test. Two different rounds were there:(i)Listen/read and then fill up questions (approx. 45min) (ii) Telephonic test (computer generated test, approx. 15min).

I also appeared for other companies like Auctus and Reliance. Auctus had direct interview SL and Reliance had Aptitude and Technical (Mech) approx. 30 minutes each.
Tips: Aptitude is a must, so practice.
Duration: 1 hour minute

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: They actually tested the skills of the way you interact in a group and essence of your points. Felt that they didn’t concentrate much on speaking skills as such.
Tips: Practice to talk in groups, current affairs  and even random topics.
Duration: 10-15 minutes minutes

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Basic understanding of Big Data and tested on enthusiasm. 
For others: 

Reliance – Corrosion & welding based questions; it was mainly a technical round
Auctus – Only HR was taken
Housing – Puzzles and HR (same round)
Deloitte – Basic consult based questions on whatever was given in JD.


For core:Reliance – Corrosion engineering, welding courses and a bit of 1st year metallurgy. BTP was related to Corrosion and discussion about BTP happened.
Tips: Puzzles (for most startups) and HR & resume based for others mostly.

General Tips: Aptitude and puzzle preparation is a must. For interviews prepare things very much related to the company. (For startups knowledge related to their field might be a plus point)If people are looking for Non-Core: better that they do some good and useful non-core intern atleast once, taking part in competitions will also help.



2ndyears can learn ‘R’ or any other technical stuffs which can be useful for non-core (mainly, Fin or analytics)Case studies are good to prepare for one month atleast.
Skill Tips: Starting earlier helps and I started around October. Aptitude requires some time and it is better to start atleast during summer vacation. Last two months before placements can be spent for other preparations.
Skills: English based skills, How to interact with people, Aptitude
College Name: IIT MADRAS
Motivation: Mostly based on the enthusiasm towards the field of work and the basic understanding of it.

Round: Test
Experience: Simple Aptitude - just brush up basics - be quick in your solving.
Duration: 120min minutes
Total Questions: 50+10

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Pretty simple interview round - was asked few HR questions. Majorly it was a informative session where i was told about the job profile and tested whether I was willing to take up the responsibility & commitment.

College Name: IIT MADRAS
Motivation: Just applied gen. Got through.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Pitched in 3 times – Talked about improvements in effeciencies and productivity in order to compensate for the low cost advantage being lost RBI’s point of view. Implications of the hypothesis. Improving exports and reducing imports

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Flexibility is the key
Another important point is to establish a good link between your past work-ex and the role being offeredI think because of profile match, they were looking for end to end project handling including sales pitch in manufacturing industries.

General Tips: I thought that they disliked people in the GD who were highly vocal – talk sensibly in the GD because this is where you make your first impression on them.
Skills: Group Discussion, Case analysis
College Name: NA

Round: Group Discussion
Duration: 15 minutes

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Interview was for just 10 mins. Can’t really say which part of the process was the reason. Might be because of the interest shown.GD- I did not interrupt anybody, I spoke once and spoke sense. Capgemini prefers people who are calm, cool, precise and not overly aggressive.

General Tips: Presentation matters, knowledge about the company is a turn-on for them. I told about how I went about researching the company and profile offered by contacting friends in Capgemini. They all seem to be proud about working for the company, so I think expressing genuine interest is important.
Skills: Group discussion, Finance
College Name: NA

Round: HR Interview
Experience: [Rest most of the HR round consisted of their trying to convince me to take up the project management role instead of BA role that I had applied for.]

Round: HR Interview
Experience: 1. They told me at the end of the interview that they almost already selected me after the GD. So they were really critically observing the GD process. In fact, they told me that seeing the GD they had selected me for the project management role even when I applied for BA role (which was a comparatively junior role than proj mgmt).
2. I think the consulting background matters.

General Tips: Panel of 2 senior managers taking notes vigorously when 10 of us started the GD which lasted for around 20 minutes.I, for a change, started the GD and tried to give the topic a little bit of structure. Started talking about the regulatory as well as the market dynamics and a little about economics.It was a decent group talk in which more or less everyone participated. At the end they also asked some of us to conclude. Overall it was a nice experience.
Skills: Group discussion, case analysis
College Name: NA