IBM AI Developer Entry Level Interview Questions: REST API and LeetCode
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The first question took me around 5 minutes to do. The second one hit me in a large blind spot, and no question on Leetcode will prepare you for it. Putting this here as a potential warning. Even with
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The first question took me around 5 minutes to do. The second one hit me in a large blind spot, and no question on Leetcode will prepare you for it. Putting this here as a potential warning. Even with 50 minutes left over, I wasn't ready to answer Q2. Apologies if some of it doesn't entirely make sense. I am doing this entirely by memory. The whole interview was an hour. # Q1. Leetcode (Easy) You are given a list of strings that represent a set of requests sent by different machines at particular points. An example: For 3 machines this would be the result of five requests. ["YYN", "NNN", "YNY", "YYY", "YYY"] We want to find the max amount of times in a row all machines respond with "Y". ["YYN", "NNN", "YNY", "YYY", "YYY"] --> 2 ["YYY", "YYY", "YNY", "YYY", "YYY", "YYY"] --> 3 [] --> 0 # Q2. REST API Question (Easy to Med) You are given a URL format which gets several bits of information. http://api.notrealwebsite.xyz/movies/page/{insertNumHere} The insertNumHere will give you the data on specified page number. The API will return the following. "currentPage" : Gives current page. "totalResults" : gives total Number of hits for the request across all pages "totalPages" : This is the number of different page URLs provided by the request. "data": Gives an JSONArray with several data points. Will max out at 10 per page (or request since each request will need a different page number Within data, you can get several things such as the description, date published, ect. But only three important pieces are relevent. data[i]{ movietitle : "Lord of the Rings" genre : "Fantasy, Action, Fiction" (Multiple genres can be found on a movie) rating : "9.5" } ========================== You are given a function that has a string parameter: "genre". You function should return a string which is the name of the highest rated movie title of said genre. To get the data, you will need to use REST API requests at the provided the URL with the correct format. If you have two or more movies with the same rating,
return the lexicogrpahically smallest. (Aka, closest to A in the alphabet.) You will have imports pre-given to you, likely the ones most commonly used in your programming language. But you will not be given any instruction on how to use any of the imports. It is assumed that you now how to use the imports to make a REST API request yourself, as well as properly translate it into JSON and JSON arrays. You will also have to use a try/catch, but not throw any sort of custom exception (unless specified) because you cannot edit all of the code on the page. I tried to throw a generic exception, but the function that called it then needed said exception to be thrown, but I couldn't edit said block.
About This Question
This is a reported interview question from a ibm interview for a swe role (new grad level) reported in 2026.
It covers the following topics: Arrays, Strings, System Design .
Difficulty rating: Easy
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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.