IBM Assessment Test & Hiring Process 2021

IBM Assessment Test & Hiring Process 2021
IBM Assessment Test & Hiring Process 2021

Introduction

International Business Machines (IBM) is an American Multinational Company present in over 170 countries in the world initially formed to produce and sell computer hardware, middleware, and software across the globe. IBM already has expanded exponentially in multiple domains and hires aggressively to meet its demands for talented and skilled employees.

This is why IBM organizes a unique way of assessing and hiring candidates throughout the world. IBM holds this assessment in five steps to shortlist and hire only the best candidates irrespective of their colleges as this is an off-campus recruitment process. Let us clear all the steps to you in detail. 

Eligibility Criteria

IBM assessment test has some restrictions though for its rigorous yet unique hiring assessment:


  • Candidates should be pursuing/pursued full-time courses in B.E/B.Tech in any discipline (CSE/ECE/IT/EEE/TELECOMMUNICATION/ELECTRONICS & INSTRUMENTATION or related circuit branches) and M.Sc in Computer Science & Information, MCA, etc. are eligible.
  • For 2021, the candidates should have or will pass out in 2022.
  • The candidate must have more than 65% marks in 10th and 12th or diploma.
  • A minimum of 65% marks in graduation is also necessary.
  • A maximum gap of 1 year after Higher Secondary (12th) and not after SSC (10th) or in between semesters of graduation is permissible.
  • The candidate should not have any pending backlogs at the time of applying for the IBM assessment test.
  • The candidate should not have attended an interview from IBM within the past six months from the date of the new application.
  • If the candidate is rejected in an interview at IBM then the candidate is not eligible for the next 6 months to apply for the IBM assessment test.
  • The candidate should be an Indian citizen, however, all other foreign nationals are required to have a work visa or an OCI / PIO card to work in India. Bhutan & Nepal nationals would be required to submit a Citizenship certificate or a Govt. ID Card in the absence of other documents (PIO/OCI/Work permit/passport).

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Important Documents

  • Original mark sheets related to 10th and 12th along with graduation are required to be produced by the candidate at the time of interview at IBM and also a copy of these is required to be submitted during the process.
  • The candidates must have their updated resumes with them.
  • The candidates must have passport size photographs with them along with original identification proofs issued by the government of India like Aadhar card, PAN card, voter ID, or passport.

Exam Pattern

The whole process is divided into various stages:

  • IBM Online Application: Once the candidates have decided to apply for the IBM assessment test, they have to apply through the official site of IBM and submit the application that will include personal details, work experience, school, and university/college attended, etc. The candidate will also be asked to submit a resume and a brief essay about themselves specifying their qualities and skills in a brief, their leadership qualities, interpersonal skills, etc.
  • IBM Cognitive Ability assessment test: This is also termed as IBM Cognify test, is a unique kind of assessment that uses games to evaluate a candidate’s aptitude skills and problem-solving skills. This test consists of six subsections and a total allotted time of 30 mins to complete these tasks.
SectionInformation
IBM Cognify test6 sections
Duration30 mins
Section characteristicCompulsory
Number of questions6

An example of such a game is as follows:

Filling all the areas shown with blocks given: 

This game is based on solving the puzzle, as shown above, the candidate has to fill the marked blocks with given blocks, and with solving one level, the task becomes increasingly difficult. The highest score will be considered for the candidate and the higher the score better the chances of clearing this test. 

Another simple example of this round is creating an image through rotation: In this round, several blocks will be given and from the picture on the left, we have to create the same on the right through blocks that you can rotate too. 

Another kind of game would be popping the bubble to score the popped number that matches the given number. You will be given nine seconds for popping the bubbles and the difficulty increases as you pop more bubbles. 

Then comes the IBM IPAT test: Every candidate appearing for the IBM assessment test for off-campus hiring has to take the IBM iPAT test which is a kind of cognitive test but a bit different from the previous one.

This portion consists of the following:

  • IBM Numerical series section: This section will be provided with a sequence of numbers and symbols and the candidate has to find patterns and then the next thing in the sequence. Pretty fun right?
  • Numerical Reasoning Test: This section is made up of 20 questions and will be given to you with a comprehensive questionnaire that will require various steps to get to the final solution.

 The candidates who would apply for the ‘Graduate Strategic Analytics Consultant’ role also will get to complete an SHL Test. This test is split into two sections and can assess both your verbal and numerical skills. Candidates who have applied for the ‘Software Developer’ role are going to be asked to finish a further personality questionnaire.

  • IBM Digital Video Interview: The very next stage of the IBM interview comes the IBM digital interview. This interview will be based on competency and more focussed on resume and personal interview. This is more of a personal interview and the candidate is asked questions based on various stuff like work strategy, problem management, motivations, etc. You will need to practice answering CBI-type questions for instance in front of a mirror or record your answers on mobile.
  • IBM Assessment Center: Once a candidate passes the previous stages the candidate is invited to the IBM assessment center where the final evaluations are done. The focus of this round is your ability to work in a team and collaborate with others.

This stage consists of the following:

  • iPAT Verification Test
  • IBM Pre-prepared Presentation
  • Written-test
  • Group discussion and exercises
  • IBM role-play exercise

This round will test your confidence skills along with leadership qualities.

Previous Asked Questions

If you want to practice the coding section and aptitude level questions to prepare the best for the IBM assessment test then hop into CodeStudio.

Prerequisites

The coding round for software developer roles will contain coding assessments and a large number of programming languages are supported starting from C, C++, Java, Python, etc. So basic coding practice for the coding round will help you.

The coding section might also contain some MCQs based on DBMS, Data structures, Computer networks, Operating systems.

How to Register?

You check out IBM’s official site to register and apply for the assessment.

Preparation Tips

IBM has a unique set of assessments to select a candidate so there’s no particular method to do so but we would help you to understand a few important points that are necessary for acing this assessment.

Most aptitude can be aced by consistent practice, practice helps to solve aptitude and logical problems efficiently and faster.

  • Puzzle Questions: Involves arrangements of people, numbers, problem statements, and conclusions, etc.
  • Sequence Questions: Often contains numbers, diagrams, etc.
  • Image-Based Questions: Mirror Image type problems.

These are important for the cognitive test as practicing this will improve your accuracy in the exam. For the iPAT rounds, you need aptitude practice for logical reasoning. Aptitude would not be much of a game in the iPAT exam section and will contain solid questions that require practice on important topics of algebra, number systems, indices, etc.

After clearing all these rounds IBM assessment center will post the highest difficulty level in the process that will consist of the following:

  • Group exercise 1: Logic-based questions, can be improved by regular practice.
  • Group exercise 2: Case study requires more focussed reading and understanding the excerpts to answer the questions.
  • Paired Team Exercise: This again will test your team playing aptitude and coming up with a solution. Individual communication exercise. Try to bond with the group and come up with decisive solutions based on points and explain the approach with pros and cons.
  • This will be followed by an Interview and/or Presentation that will test your communications skills and finally concluding with a final Interview – just be confident in these rounds, as you know by now you have the required skill set for the role and you just have to showcase that you are confident of becoming an employe for the firm. 

Finally, you have to practice common aptitude questions and cognitive ability questions before appearing for the test with consistency. This improves your skills and you will be able to score higher. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the IBM Assessment Test?

IBM organizes tests for hiring talented candidates through an assessment every year. In this assessment, a candidate is tested over multiple domains of problem-solving, aptitude skills, logical reasoning, puzzles, and games. The best candidates from these tests are hired by IBM for various roles.

What is there in IBM cognitive ability assessment?

IBM organizes a cognitive ability round in which the candidate is provided with some game and the candidate has to solve the game for higher scores. The highest score of the candidate will be considered for assessment. This tests the candidate’s reasoning and logical thinking abilities.

How do I check my IBM cognitive assessment results?

You can check out the official site and the result description from here.

How is the IBM Cognify test?

IBM Cognify test comprises six games to be completed in 30 mins. It is quite an interesting way to test the cognitive abilities of a candidate and the higher you score better is the assessment.

What is the interview process in IBM?

The whole assessment process is divided into Cognitive Ability Test, Learning Agility, Assessments, English Language Test, and Coding Test. After clearing all these rounds, a final HR round is organised for the selected candidates.

How hard is the IBM IPAT test?

The same difficulty as real tests and generally, real employer selection tests don’t differ that much in terms of difficulty which is why they compare the score against normal groups. It can be cleared with decent practice and consistency.

Key Takeaways

This blog tries to discuss the important points of the IBM assessment test and provides a brief description of the rounds along with their example problems and preparation strategy. The topics mentioned have extensive value and importance as most of the problems in IBM assessment are based on these topics.

This blog will help you ace your IBM assessment test with ease and build your knowledge and skills around similar highly competitive assessments.

By Aniruddha Guin

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