Amazon vs IBM Interview Questions
Amazon lists 1,968 LeetCode interview questions while IBM lists 115. They share 91 problems — 5% of Amazon's bank and 79% of IBM's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 1,877 Amazon-only and 24 IBM-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 91 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both Amazon and IBM.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add Amazon-specific problems like Number of Islands, Add Two Numbers, Reorganize String and IBM-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: Amazon skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
91 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both Amazon and IBM.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Two Sum | Easy |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Group Anagrams | Medium |
| 3Sum | Medium |
| Longest Palindromic Substring | Medium |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Longest Common Prefix | Easy |
| Subarray Sum Equals K | Medium |
| Merge Sorted Array | Easy |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Longest Consecutive Sequence | Medium |
| Generate Parentheses | Medium |
| Palindrome Number | Easy |
| Majority Element | Easy |
| Product of Array Except Self | Medium |
| Climbing Stairs | Easy |
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| Spiral Matrix | Medium |
| Rotate Image | Medium |
| Next Permutation | Medium |
| Task Scheduler | Medium |
| Remove Duplicates from Sorted Array | Easy |
| Meeting Rooms II | Medium |
| Roman to Integer | Easy |
| Subsets | Medium |
Showing top 30 of 91 shared problems.
Unique to Amazon (1,877)
Problems in Amazon's list that do not appear at IBM.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Add Two Numbers | Medium |
| Reorganize String | Medium |
| Container With Most Water | Medium |
| Koko Eating Bananas | Medium |
| Course Schedule | Medium |
| Merge k Sorted Lists | Hard |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| Search in Rotated Sorted Array | Medium |
| Top K Frequent Elements | Medium |
| Copy List with Random Pointer | Medium |
| Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree | Medium |
Unique to IBM (24)
Problems in IBM's list that do not appear at Amazon.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do Amazon and IBM share?
Amazon and IBM share 91 LeetCode interview questions. 1877 problems appear only in Amazon's list and 24 appear only in IBM's list.
What topics overlap most between Amazon and IBM?
The most common shared topics between Amazon and IBM are Array (21 shared questions), Hash Table (10 shared questions), String (8 shared questions), Two Pointers (7 shared questions), Sorting (7 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: Amazon or IBM?
Amazon has 527 Easy, 1074 Medium, and 367 Hard questions. IBM has 33 Easy, 73 Medium, and 9 Hard questions. Amazon has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both Amazon and IBM?
Start with the 91 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 Amazon-specific and 20 IBM-specific questions to round out your prep.