Getting shortlisted for IBM was one of the most memorable moments for me, Vinit Shinde. It was my first on campus shortlist, and the entire process from the online test to the interviews taught me more than just technical skills. It taught me patience, honesty, and confidence.
Eligibility & Application Process
The eligibility criteria were a minimum CGPA of 7.5 with 70% in both 10th and 12th.
The process began with my college form (Google Form), followed by filling out a company form on the IBM Careers page.
After about two days, the shortlist for the online assessment was announced. Around 350 students were shortlisted from my college.
The offered package was 11 LPA, along with a 30,000 INR stipend for the 6-month internship period.
Online Assessment (OA)
The test was conducted on a Monday from 3 PM to 4 PM, lasting one hour. It contained two coding questions:
- Find the maximum number of services that can be placed so that each service occupies either v-1, v, or v+1, with no two sharing the same position.
- For each user request, determine whether it’s allowed or blocked, given that each user can make at most k requests within any 60-second window.
I coded in Java. I honestly solved the first question fully on my own, and for the second question, I took help from ChatGPT .
When the shortlist for interviews came out second day , I saw my name for the first time ever in an on-campus selection list.
I was genuinely happy.
Most of the shortlisted students were new faces from my branch not the ones who always got shortlisted in previous drives.
First Round — Technical Interview
My first interview was taken by a senior Software engineer with 10 years of experience in Java, Spring Boot, and Microservices.
I felt truly lucky to finally get an interviewer who not only understood the technology I love but also shared the same mindset and passion for Java it felt like talking to a senior version of myself.
He started politely: “Please have a seat,” and went through my resume.
Then came the self introduction, where I mentioned my strengths, projects, and top technical skills.
He seemed impressed maybe because my entire tech stack aligned closely with his.
Coding & Spring Boot Discussion
He asked me to write a REST API from scratch on pen and paper with proper syntax and best practice including Entity, Repository, Service, and Controller layers.
I used:
@Entity
@Data
@Id
@GeneratedValue
@Table
@Service
@Respository
@Restcontroller
@Requestbody
@RequestMapping
@PostMapping
@ResponseBody
He then asked me:
- What is the use of each annotation?
- What are the different strategies of @GeneratedValue?
- Which library provides these annotations?
- Why use @Data from Lombok? What happens if you don’t use it?
- What is the purpose of getter/setter methods?
- Why use @Repository and JPARepository?
- What does @Autowired do in the service layer?
- Explain @RestController and @RequestMapping.
- Why did you use @ResponseBody with a String return type?
He discussed every small detail it was one of those rare interviews where you actually learn while answering.
Configuration & Honesty Test
Next, he asked:
- What is the default port of Spring Boot?
- How to change the port and in which files (application.properties application.yml)?
- What is the use of both files?
Then came a tricky part.
He suddenly asked:
“Did you cheat during the online test or code by yourself?”
I decided to be completely honest. I told him clearly “One question I solved myself, and one with the help of ChatGPT.”
He looked a bit serious, even angry for a moment, and asked me to recall the problem statement.
I froze for a few seconds, then slowly explained it.
After hearing my explanation, his expression softened. He said he appreciated my honesty and I could see it really mattered to him.
Project Deep Dive
He asked me to explain projects from idea to deployment.
I rushed a bit and skipped the testing part, and he immediately pointed that out.
It taught me how important complete workflow understanding is.
Later, he reviewed all my profiles GitHub, Resume, LeetCode, LinkedIn, and Linktree, even opening my live project links.
He was genuinely impressed to see my 50+ Good public repositories.
Then we discussed frameworks:
- Why Micronaut and Quarkus?
- How are they different?
- What’s better in Quarkus (like hot reload vs Spring DevTools)?
- CI-CD
- Which one would you choose for enterprise applications and why?
- What do you mean by enterprise applications.
I said:
“For developers joy, I’d choose Quarkus.
For enterprise-grade scalability and maturity, I’d prefer Spring Boot.”
He asked me why I explored other frameworks and told me to explain Micronaut and Quarkus their differences, use cases, and what makes Quarkus special. I explained that Quarkus offers faster hot reload compared to Spring Dev Tools, and when he asked why, I explained the technical reason behind it.
He liked the clarity in my reasoning.
The interviewer also verified all my proof of work he went through my projects, GitHub profile, resume, LeetCode, LinkedIn posts, live project links (Linktree), and even checked my repositories.
Also, during the interview, I had carried my laptop and mobile for hotspot, but my roommate accidentally called me, and another person kept calling 4–5 times repeatedly, which made me even more nervous at that moment.
He then gave me a Binary Tree coding problem I wrote the code and explained it .
Finally, he discussed Spring Security and Google OAuth login flow :
- How authentication works explain with architecture
- How to restrict APIs (class vs method level annotations) and which methods used ?
- Write Simple Code for Security configuration and explain some methods
- How will you handle Exceptions ? GlobleException ?
- How Google OAtuh Work its flow ?
- How Spring Security Works internally ?
I asked about his background and IBM experience.
He smiled and shared his journey.
It was one of the best interview interactions.
At the end of the interview, I asked him about his work, where he is from, and his thoughts on IBM. He also asked why I chose to learn other frameworks and what more I wanted to learn in Java. I replied that I wanted to explore Play Framework, Dropwizard Framework.
He then gave me feedback like an elder brother patiently pointing out where I had given incorrect answers and explaining how to answer better next time.
He was genuinely kind, knowledgeable, and shared the same mindset a true Java enthusiast.
Compared to my previous off-campus interviews with less experienced interviewers, who often judged me only on communication skills, this was a completely different experience. Those interviewers were nalle one was just one year senior to me (WISSEN Technologies) .
I truly appreciated my first interviewer he had the same passion and power as mine. This made the first interview memorable and inspiring.
Second Round — Technical + HR (with Software Development Manager)
My second round was conducted by a Software Development Manager with 20 years of experience.
She was humble, calm, and extremely knowledgeable.
Before starting, she even asked me to wait for 10 minutes and apologized 3–5 times for the delay that simple gesture left a big impression on me.
This round felt like more of a formality, as IBM’s hiring slots were almost full, and my interview happened last of all the students’ rounds, but I still gave it my best.
Discussion & Resume Review
She began with a warm introduction and then asked for my resume.
She smiled:
She asked me,
“Hey, your resume is completely Java based everything you use is Java, which is uncommon in your generation. So why did you choose Java? Why did you stick with this language and java Frameworks ?”
I shared my journey and passion for Java.
She carefully read my resume line by line and noticed that I was from Satara, studied in Wai, and that my roommate who is my friend since 11th grade had been her very first candidate for interviews that day, while I was the last.
That coincidence surprised both of us.
The interviewer began the session by asking me to introduce myself. I shared my background, my top technical skills, the projects I had worked on, and why I was passionate about Java and its ecosystem.
both interviewer was from same team data security
She asked why my resume didn’t mention my GPA and branch, which I explained .
Technical Questions
She asked:
- “Why IBM?”
- “What can we do to make you feel after 3 years that joining IBM was worth it?”
- “What’s your family background?”
- “Who took your first round, and what was asked there?”
Then she deep dived into my technical skills:
- Explain Micronaut and Quarkus
- What are their differences and use cases?
- Explain Microservices, Event-Driven, and Hexagonal architectures.
Project Discussion
She asked me to show and explain one project I started with my Online Java Compiler.
She asked:
- Why did you build it? Who uses it?
- Why not use existing online compilers?
- How did you optimize and secure it?
- Why Quarkus ? Why Undertow Server?
- How do you prevent SQL or command injection attacks?
- What is a sandbox environment? why sandbox environment?
- How did you tune the JVM?
- What makes your compiler unique?
- How did you deploy it?
- Explain Project with Architecture
I explained everything from sandboxing and JVM restrictions to class caching and memory optimization. She was impressed with the technical depth.
Distributed Banking Microservices Project
Next, I explained my Distributed Banking System a polyglot microservices architecture using Spring Boot and Micronaut.
I drew the architecture and explained how each service worked.
She pointed out that I should’ve used asynchronous communication instead of synchronous REST APIs.
I agreed and explained the trade offs when Kafka is suitable and when RabbitMQ can be a better alternative. when to use kafka and when to use RabbitMQ.
She liked that I understood both perspectives.
Hexagonal Architecture Project
Finally, I showed a small Quote Generator project built with Micronaut, MySQL, and Flyway migrations.
It had two APIs (GET and POST) and followed Hexagonal Architecture principles.
She reviewed the code and README on GitHub and appreciated my attention to clean design.
Final Discussion
She asked:
- “What more do you want to learn?”
I answered Play Framework, Dropwizard Framework. - “No interest in AI or ML?” she asked with a smile.
Then she checked my profiles GitHub and LinkedIn and asked how many problems I had solved on Leetcode and Codechef .
At the end, I asked her about her own work, where she’s from, and the total openings she told me there were 8 openings , something even our placement officer didn’t know!
❤️ Final Thoughts
Both interviewers one with 10 years and the other with 20 years of experience treated me with respect, recognized my passion, and gave me real, constructive feedback.
I learned that honesty, clarity, and genuine interest in technology matter more than fancy words.
And that day, I felt like I truly belonged in this world of software development.