American Express vs IBM Interview Questions
American Express lists 23 LeetCode interview questions while IBM lists 115. They share 6 problems — 26% of American Express's bank and 5% of IBM's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 17 American Express-only and 109 IBM-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 6 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both American Express and IBM.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add American Express-specific problems like Minimum Deletions to Make Character Frequencies Unique, Maximum Equal Frequency, Divide an Array Into Subarrays With Minimum Cost II and IBM-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: American Express skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
6 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both American Express and IBM.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| 3Sum | Medium |
| Rotate Array | Medium |
| Longest Common Prefix | Easy |
Unique to American Express (17)
Problems in American Express's list that do not appear at IBM.
Unique to IBM (109)
Problems in IBM's list that do not appear at American Express.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Find the Smallest Divisor Given a Threshold | Medium |
| Gray Code | Medium |
| Exclusive Time of Functions | Medium |
| Integer to Roman | Medium |
| Minimum Operations to Make Columns Strictly Increasing | Easy |
| Fizz Buzz | Easy |
| Roman to Integer | Easy |
| Count Ways to Group Overlapping Ranges | Medium |
| Meeting Rooms II | Medium |
| Rotate Image | Medium |
| Minimum Absolute Difference | Easy |
| Minimum Operations to Make All Array Elements Equal | Medium |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do American Express and IBM share?
American Express and IBM share 6 LeetCode interview questions. 17 problems appear only in American Express's list and 109 appear only in IBM's list.
What topics overlap most between American Express and IBM?
The most common shared topics between American Express and IBM are Array (5 shared questions), Hash Table (2 shared questions), String (2 shared questions), Two Pointers (2 shared questions), Sliding Window (1 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: American Express or IBM?
American Express has 8 Easy, 12 Medium, and 3 Hard questions. IBM has 33 Easy, 73 Medium, and 9 Hard questions. American Express has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both American Express and IBM?
Start with the 6 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 17 American Express-specific and 20 IBM-specific questions to round out your prep.