IBM - 91689 - Software Developer 2026 ELH -Interview with hiring manager
Question Details
I have an interview in a few days for the IBM software developer 91689 position. It is a 45 minute with a hiring. The problem is they never gave me any OAs or any other behavioral tests even though an
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I have an interview in a few days for the IBM software developer 91689 position. It is a 45 minute with a hiring. The problem is they never gave me any OAs or any other behavioral tests even though an email was sent out right after I applied about requiring some additional testings, so I am a little confused on what the interview will be about. For those who have interviewed for similar roles or have been in a similar position, what kinds of questions should I expect? Were they mostly technical, behavioral, or case-based? Also, are there any questions that tend to come up repeatedly that I should prepare for? Please share your experience! Edit(post interview) Hey, I just had my interview around an hour ago. Basically I had two interviewers, a hiring manager and a swe. I was asked to start with a leetcode medium. It was pretty easy but my brain was fried and I couldn’t get the correct solution on time. I explained to them at the end what the correct solution should’ve been and when I checked after the interview I was right, so hopefully they will let that slide. The next stage they grilled me on technical questions like the difference between an array and a linked list, when to use a hash map vs tree, etc. They were all pretty simple if you have basic data structures knowledge. They did not ask me any behavioral questions besides about a typo I made on my resume lol.
About This Question
This is a reported interview question from a ibm interview for a swe role during the behavioral round reported in 2026.
It covers the following topics: Hash Table, Arrays, Binary Tree, Linked List, Behavioral .
Difficulty rating: Easy
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About IBM Interview Reports
This question was reported by a candidate who interviewed at IBM. LeakCode aggregates interview reports from 10+ sources, including 1Point3Acres, Glassdoor, LeetCode Discuss, Blind, Reddit, Indeed, and Nowcoder. Each report is translated where necessary, deduplicated against existing entries, and tagged by company, role, round type, and reporting date.
Use this question as one calibration data point, not a memorization target. Companies typically rotate their question pools every 2-4 months; the exact wording of a 2024 question may differ from what you encounter today. The underlying pattern, difficulty level, and follow-up depth at IBM are the higher-signal extractions to take from this report.
For broader preparation context, the IBM interview process typically includes a recruiter screen, one or two technical phone screens, and a 4-5 round on-site loop covering coding, system design (at L4+ levels), and behavioral. Reports tagged on LeakCode show the round-by-round distribution and typical difficulty calibration. To browse questions filtered by round type and seniority, use the company hub linked above.
How To Practice This Type of Question
Solve similar problems on LeetCode under timed conditions (25-35 minutes per medium difficulty). The goal is pattern recognition: recognize the underlying technique (sliding window, two-pointer, BFS, memoized recursion, etc.) within 60-90 seconds of reading. Strong candidates verbalize their hypothesis out loud before coding, then iterate based on feedback. Weak candidates dive into implementation immediately, lose time on the wrong approach, and run out of time for follow-ups.
Companies update their question pools every 2-4 months. The exact wording of any given question may have been retired by the time you interview. Focus your prep on the pattern, not the specific problem. The patterns that appear in IBM reports consistently are the ones worth investing in; one-off niche problems are not.
During Your IBM Round
Apply the standard interview round template: clarify requirements (2-3 minutes), state your approach out loud and confirm direction with the interviewer (3-5 minutes), code with narration (15-25 minutes), test with concrete examples including edge cases (5 minutes), discuss optimization or trade-offs if time permits (5 minutes). This template is universally accepted across FAANG and adjacent companies; deviating from it produces weaker interviewer feedback signal.
The single most predictive failure mode in IBM reports tagged "no hire": not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers are explicitly trained to weight this. Strong candidates ask 3-5 clarifying questions even on problems that look obvious; weak candidates dive into code immediately. The clarifying-question check is often the first signal recorded in the interviewer's written notes.