IBM Research Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Be confident

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: They had opened a portal for submitting resumes sometime in November-December. I submitted mine and waited for around 2-3 months till I finally got a call for interview in February.
Tips: Make sure your research projects are well highlighted in your resume.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: General algorithmic coding questions followed by a discussion of my resume. From the discussion I got a sense that they had segregated the candidates for specific projects and the questions were asked about the skills required for the project. However, this wasn't very rigid as my project was changed once I was selected for the internship since my profile was better suited to a different project.

College Name: IIT Kharagpur

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Be very thorough eith the project . They look for some novelty in your project work. A publication can really help.
Tips: My profile was ML based. Be thorough with ur resume.

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: Written Round. Basic probab and algo questions.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 8

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Mostly asked about my Dual Degree Project
Tips: Present printouts of your research papers to the panel

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: Also, related to DDP. Asked questions on how it can be extended to other domains. Why do you want to a part of IBM Research?
Tips: Before the interview, go through the company's website and find out the projects relevant to your field. Then discuss them when they ask for doubts or questions.

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: Questions test aptitude, coding and Machine learning skills
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 8

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: They asks mostly about the projects one has done. They also focus on the courses. They also ask HR questions.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Same as before round. They went into the depth of projects.

Skills: Machine Learning
College Name: IIT Madras

Skills:
Duration: 2
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had lots of machine learning experience, it helped.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Pretty simple, just described what I liked and why I liked it. Was a good match with the things IBM Research works on.

General Tips: None
Skills: Computer Science, Basics Of Computer Science, Enthusiasm, Machine Learning, Basics Of Machine Learning, Confidence
Duration: 2
College Name: IIT Madras
Motivation: Pretty good research work + implementation + publishing research papers.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The interviewer was not very aware of my field of interest, and so I was not asked in detail about my projects. He just asked me to describe the major projects and I ensured that I use a language that could be easily understood by a person who does not belong to that research area so that I keep him involved in my description. He then asked 1-2 programming questions. When I could not answer one of the questions, he asked me to think aloud and then helped me in finding the
solution. 
Later, he asked questions that were supposed to check my attitude towards my jobs and commitments. A few questions were about my plans for future. Overall, I could make out that he was looking for a genuinely interested candidate who’d join IBM.

General Tips: Preparation:

1. Attend PPTs to understand what kinds of jobs are being offered, and what the company expects. Focus on those points during preparation/interview. Also, a little browsing on the net about the company would make you more comfortable during the interview.

2. Figure out the courses that will be relevant to the profile and prepare them well. For most of the courses, the frequently asked questions are available on the internet. Practice them.

3. Prepare answers of expected question beforehand. Don’t just recall the points but put them into words. Especially, you must be well aware of the projects that you have done. Prepare them well.

4. Have mock interview sessions with your friends/wing mates before the placement season and pay attention to their feedbacks. Do this with your close friends who can criticize you without hesitation. This is the best way to know your strengths, drawbacks.

5. For CSE specific companies, even if you are good at coding on the machine, do write a few snippets of code on paper. Coding on machine is much easier than on paper. You will often feel that you need to ‘cut’ and ‘insert’ lines :P

6. For puzzles preparation, a lot of puzzles, and their solutions, are available on the net.



The Interview:

1. Be confident
You might not have very high CPI or be one of the extra ordinary chaps on campus but you still are good enough to get selected. So, be confident. Even if, during the interview, you start feeling that you have not done well so far, don’t panic. You never know what the interviewers want to test. Just stay calm and try to do your best. Know your strengths and focus on them during the interview.

2. Try to find answers of difficult questions
If you feel that you don’t have the solution of a given question/puzzle, don’t just be silent. Let them know your thought process. The interviewers often understand that the question they asked was a difficult one and in that case they want to know your approach and might even help you where you get stuck.

3. Show them you are eager to learn things that you don’t know.
If you do not know something and you think that you will not be able to find out the answer on the spot then describe your approach and tell the interviewer frankly that you don’t know the exact answer. They obviously don’t expect you to know all the things in the world. But, at the same time, make an impression that you are eager to learn new things.

4. Be passionate
Show them that you are passionate about all the tasks (projects/extra-curriculars etc) you have done till now. Tell them what you have learnt from the tasks you took up and how did they benefit you. This shows that you are a person who would do his/her job with great interest and commitment.

5. Ask questions
Don’t hesitate to ask questions about the job/company. This would show that you are really interested in the job being offered.

6. Be yourself
Do not try to fake in an interview. The interviewers are smart enough to know when you are lying or cheating. Nobody is perfect, so accept your weaknesses and know how to improve upon them.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The question was a little bizarre , and was open ended. The interviewers were able to provide corner cases and counter examples for my solutions, but they too couldn't lead towards the write solution. In the end they asked me to think over it. They asked me more basic questions on NLP as it was my research interest, but I was able to answer them.
Tips: Know what you know and what you don't know. Keep talking to the interviewer and follow the aloud thinking process. Keep the interviewer in the loop with you.

Round: Puzzle Interview
Experience: He asked me to do a simple puzzle on his mobile where i have to rearrange vertices of a graph to follow some condition. I didn't know the solution but i kept trying, trying to solve one case after another. Turned out, wasn't that difficult.

Round: Group Activity
Experience: Five students were shortlisted for this, 3 questions were given for it. We had to solve them and discuss our solutions later with the interviewers. The questions weren't difficult, it was just how you told them their solutions and how you answered their counter arguments .

Skill Tips: Read your resume thoroughly and go through your research interests carefully.
Skills: Programming, Research Interests, Resume reading
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Motivation: I always wanted to work for a research lab , as development companies didn't attract me. So i was focusing for IBM IRL , Xerox and Samsung R&D. Luckily I got IBM.

Round: Test
Experience: Basic Math is tested. Selected students are called for an interview. CG cutoff was 9.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Since it is a research profile, they will ask you to talk about your areas of interest and specifically, what work you have done in those areas.

General Tips: The work entails research related to practical applications. They give out just one offer every year. They do usually have a waitlist though. In case the person who is made the offer rejects it, the next guy is given an offer.
College Name: IIT MADRAS