IBM Software Engineer interview experience

They asked me to complete two HackerRank coding problems—one easy and one difficult—and I had to finish within a week or I’d be automatically disqualified. The difficulty felt high enough that it wasn’t just about getting syntax right; I had to be comfortable coding without relying on anything beyond core problem-solving.

When I reached the later stages, the interviews leaned heavily into hands-on coding and deeper backend thinking. I ended up facing multiple technical rounds where the focus was coding questions, especially in C++ territory, and it felt like they expected me to be able to