I am sharing my experience about IBM ISDL interview questions, placement papers, online written test. The profile offered was IBM ISL/IBM ISDL.
IBM placement papers consist of the online written test, two technical interview rounds and one HR round.
Table of Contents
There were 18 Aptitude questions and 18 number series questions asked in IBM online written test. We have been allotted time of 45 minutes to solve IBM placement papers.
If you are preparing for placement, you have to do well and practice a lot for aptitude test as it is common in almost all companies along with IBM placement papers. But the mere thing in IBM online written test is number series. You have to prepare for number series separately for IBM online written test. If you don’t have hands-on number series, just go through number series asked in IBM previous papers.
While going through IBM placement preparation, I have noted down some tactic questions that will trigger the thinking approach while solving number series. I will share all these tactic questions in next article.
The first interview was technical. An interviewer was too friendly. Interview almost went up to 1:40 minutes. Even one time he told me that he was aware of time and getting late, but he was happy with that.
After asking some formal questions about me, he came to the coding task. He asked me my preferred programming language choice. I told him that I am comfortable in C and C++ as well. He asked me to write the following code snippet on paper.
Question 1. How to Implement Linked List in C?
Answer: Linked List implementation in C
Question 2. Write a code to reverse a Linked List.
Answer:
Questions 3. Write a code to implement strstr() function.
Answer: code to implement strstr function in C
I was confident about all the three programs. So I did well in this. I explain the code by taking an example. I described time complexity and space complexity for the program though he has not asked. He was so happy with that.
Note: If you are writing code on paper, narrate what are you doing while Writing code. So that he will come to know you are implementing your logic instead of remembering. This will leave your good impression.
Question 4. After coding, he asked me some questions from paging OS, Computer Network, error in the coding snippet. Some of the questions that I remember are as follows
Question 5. What are the different types of the scheduler in the operating system?
Answer: Long-Term scheduler: To select a process to be fetched in main memory from virtual memory space
Short-Term scheduler: To select the process to be executed by a processor. These are the two basic schedulers in the operating system. Along with these two schedulers, to monitor the number of processes in main memory, there is Mid-Term scheduler.Mid-Term scheduler: To maintain the number of processors in the main memory to preserve multiprogramming threshold
Question 6. What are the system requirements for the virtual machine?
Answer: I was not so confident about this question. So before giving the specific answer to him, I told him that I have used the virtual machine in my project. And I described all the system requirement as per the configuration I made while installing the virtual machine. I have not given the specific answer to his question but the way I have narrated him through the configuration that I made while installation, he was happy.
Question 7. Tell me about memory management.
Answer: Remember memory management is itself a vast topic and includes many sub-topics. If you are good enough you can tell him a lot. That will sound good for you if you consume his time. Memory management includes virtual memory, main memory, swap in swap out, file system, disk scheduler, Paging, Segmentation. So I have described him everything in short and delivered wisely on paging, segmentation, paging with segmentation.
Questions 8. What are the threads and processes? What is the difference between thread and process?
Answer: Thread is nothing but the lightweight process where multiple threads from the single process can share code, data, file. Whereas process runs independently. Multiple processes for the task makes multiple copies of the code, data, and files.
Do read the Difference Between Process and Thread in Operating System. I have explained it in detail.
Question 9. What is a computer network?
Answer: Answering this question, you should know, how does computer network work? As like a previous question on memory management, Computer Network is also the big topic. In fact, it is one of the important subjects in computer science. So you have much more things to tell him. The computer network includes 7 layers in OSI model, different types of the protocol (TCP/IP, DNS, FTP, SMTP, HTTP, SSL, DHCP…), different classes of IP address, public and private IP address…
I explained everything about all 7 layers of the OSI model. Over this, he asked me why need all these layers? What is the significance of having multiple layers? How does it work?
Heena has a good write up and explained very well about 7 layers of the OSI model in networking with a layered architecture.
Question 10. Then he gave me a code snippet and asked me the output.
Actually, in that program, there was an error as constant value is getting changed. I told him that Constant value could not change.
Questions 11. He asked me about my project.
Answer: I gave him glims over my BTech project. Actually, we had participated in the IBM TGMC contest and submitted our BTech project. We got the appreciation for that IBM TGMC. So he was too eager to listen more about the project. I told about my intern and full-time project. I am doing my project on IoT, it is the latest trending topic in the industry and has a very bright future for IoT. This was the plus point for me.
Instead of the technical interview, it was more business-oriented, approach to deal with issues and customers…
Following are the questions that I remember now…
Be always prepared with all these HR interview questions. These are the common questions you will be asked in almost all other company’s interview.
I asked him some of the questions.
Note: It is good to ask questions about the company and its working culture. That shows your interest and confidence.
Guys, I have shared my experience about IBM placement papers. If you have any question, comment below. I will try my best to answer your every question.
All the Best!
Editors’ Note: Thank you, Candidate, for sharing IBM ISDL Interview Questions, your experience, and the placement paper. We wish you all the best for your future.
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I was just looking at your IBM placement papers. Thanks for sharing. This is very helpful.
Thanks, Minal! It is a lot mean to me if you find it helpful.