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IBM Interview Questions & Reviews in San Jose, CA Area

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Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
Ratings are reflective of location and job title.

Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 7 ratings

2.9

“Average” Interview

Interview Experience [?] Based on 7 ratings

Positive	29%
Neutral	57%
Negative	14%

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1–7 of 7 IBM Interviews

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3.0

Average Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Mar 2011 in San Jose, CA (took 2 weeks)

I got a message from a hiring manager in IBM that he selected me from thousands of resume and would like to talk to me in phone. Then we set up a phone interview about half week later.

Then the manage came and chatted with me about half an hour. The talk was mainly about my past project experience on my resume. After that, he asked me to go to IBM SVL to see their lead.

In SVL I met their project lead and talk about half hour. He introduced their project and ask me some questions about my experience that matched their project technology. what I can remember is some technilogy about JAVA, Jboss and JMS. My answer of Jboss part was bad, I guess that's the reason why I was rejected.

Then about half week later I got a rejection letter. I felt a little surprise since I talked happily with IBM guys and I haven't been asked to a technical interview yet.

Interview Questions

Tell me your experience of using Jboss?

Answer Question

Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

More IBM Software Engineer Intern Interviews

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Nov 2010 in San Jose, CA (took 2 weeks)

A manager from IBM came to my university and presented about the internships that were available at the San Jose location of IBM. They mainly talked about an internship in the user experience/interface development and how the position required computer programming skills.
At the end of the presentation they offered to take resumes from the students that attended. About a week after handing the manager my resume and sending one through email, I received an email from two other mangers. The manger that had visited my university fowarded my email to other managers at IBM and I ended up interviewing with them the following week.

Interview Questions

Do you have experience with a programming language? How extensive? May we view some of your work?

Answer Question

Other Details

I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

2.0

Easy Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Jan 2010 in Santa Clara, CA (took 2 days)

Very professional, nice people. A little too corporate for my liking.

Interview Questions

What was the most challenging environment you experienced in a previous position?

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Other Details

The interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Received and Accepted Offer

Interviewed Dec 2008 in San Jose, CA (took 4 days)

Had a phone interview followed by 1:1 interview with some team mates and the manager

Interview Questions

Basic java questions like:
Difference between abstract class and interface
Difference between map and hashmap
Difference between hashtable and hashmap
Syncronization
Different thread states

Answer Question

Basic SQL questions like:
Different kinds of joins
normalization
refrential Integrity
Differnece between primary and unique key

Answer Question

Other Details

I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Negative Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Nov 2008 in San Jose, CA (took a day)

The telephone interview was conducted by a technician whose primary language was not English, and, the interviewer was interrrupted by other support issues, and I was placed on 'Hold' twice. The interviewer immediately asked several in-depth questions related to RAID levels. Some of the questions required 'subjective' answers, and our opinions differed. The interviewer then gave his opinion of why my answer was less than perfect.

At the end of the telephone interview, there was no further discussion of what was next. The reality is that this was the last communications that I had about that opening.

Interview Questions

Which is better: RAID 0+1 or RAID 1+0?

View Answers (2)

Other Details

I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.

More IBM Technical Specialist Interviews

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

4.0

Difficult Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Mar 2010 in San Jose, CA (took 6 weeks)

They do 3 rounds of interviews for their MBA internships - all phone. The rounds are only after an initial resume scrubbing round.

Lots of team oriented and "tell me an experience when" questions. Very specific questions about IBM and their acquisition activities. Do your homework on the company and why you think they are going the direction they are.

Interview Questions

Tell me about some of the recent acquisitions IBM has made and how do they fit into our business plan?

Answer Question

Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

2.0

Easy Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Received and Accepted Offer

Interviewed Apr 2007 in San Jose, CA (took 2 weeks)

I used monster.com to get started since I found a posting that seemed a good match for my most recent experience. I was eventually contacted by phone and I was told I was on a short list with very few people ahead of me. If those people declined the job, then I would be made an offer.

Negotiation Details

There was a short discussion regarding pay rate. I should have demanded more because I had no idea that there was no possibility of an increase for the next five (5) years.