IBM

Global technology and consulting firm with deep roots in enterprise IT and AI.

3 Rounds ~14 Days Medium

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The Interview Loop

Recruiter Screen (30 min)

Standard fit check, behavioral questions, and resume overview.

Technical Loop (3-4 Rounds)

Deep dive into domain knowledge, coding, and system design.

Interview Question Bank

All Roles Data Engineer 7

All Topics Culture Fit 7 Big Data Frameworks 7 System Design 6 SQL 5 Algorithms 4 Data Modeling 2 Data Architecture 1 Cloud Computing 1

Data Engineer • Technical • medium

Explain how Apache Spark handles fault tolerance.

#Spark #RDD Lineage #DAG

Practice

Data Engineer • Technical • hard

How do you resolve an OutOfMemory (OOM) error in a Spark application?

#Spark #Performance Tuning #Memory Management

Practice

Data Engineer • Technical • medium

Explain the difference between repartition() and coalesce() in Spark. When would you use each?

#Spark #Data Shuffling #Optimization

Practice

Data Engineer • Technical • hard

What is data skew in Spark, and how do you mitigate it?

#Spark #Data Skew #Salting

Practice

Data Engineer • Technical • medium

Explain the concept of Broadcast Variables and Accumulators in Spark.

#Spark #Shared Variables

Practice

Data Engineer • Technical • hard

What is the Catalyst Optimizer in Spark SQL?

#Spark #Internals #Optimization

Practice

Data Engineer • Technical • medium

What are Parquet and ORC formats? Why are they preferred in Big Data over CSV or JSON?

#File Formats #Storage Optimization

Practice

Difficulty Radar

Based on recent AI-sourced data.

Meet Your Interviewers

The "Standard" Interviewer

Senior Engineer

Focuses on core competencies, system constraints, and clear communication.

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Unwritten Rules

Think Out Loud

Always explain your thought process before writing code or drawing architecture.

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