ByteDance vs IBM Interview Questions
ByteDance lists 64 LeetCode interview questions while IBM lists 115. They share 14 problems — 22% of ByteDance's bank and 12% of IBM's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 50 ByteDance-only and 101 IBM-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 14 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both ByteDance and IBM.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add ByteDance-specific problems like Remove Duplicate Letters, Smallest Subsequence of Distinct Characters, First Day Where You Have Been in All the Rooms and IBM-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: ByteDance skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
14 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both ByteDance and IBM.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Longest Increasing Subsequence | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Climbing Stairs | Easy |
| Subarray Sum Equals K | Medium |
| Subsets | Medium |
| Longest Palindromic Substring | Medium |
| Minimum Swaps to Group All 1's Together II | Medium |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
Unique to ByteDance (50)
Problems in ByteDance's list that do not appear at IBM.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Remove Duplicate Letters | Medium |
| Smallest Subsequence of Distinct Characters | Medium |
| First Day Where You Have Been in All the Rooms | Medium |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Course Schedule | Medium |
| Combination Sum | Medium |
| Basic Calculator II | Medium |
| Shortest Bridge | Medium |
| House Robber | Medium |
| Maximal Square | Medium |
| Regular Expression Matching | Hard |
| Top K Frequent Elements | Medium |
Unique to IBM (101)
Problems in IBM's list that do not appear at ByteDance.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Find the Smallest Divisor Given a Threshold | Medium |
| Gray Code | Medium |
| 3Sum | 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 |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do ByteDance and IBM share?
ByteDance and IBM share 14 LeetCode interview questions. 50 problems appear only in ByteDance's list and 101 appear only in IBM's list.
What topics overlap most between ByteDance and IBM?
The most common shared topics between ByteDance and IBM are Array (9 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (6 shared questions), Hash Table (4 shared questions), String (3 shared questions), Two Pointers (2 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: ByteDance or IBM?
ByteDance has 4 Easy, 51 Medium, and 9 Hard questions. IBM has 33 Easy, 73 Medium, and 9 Hard questions. ByteDance has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both ByteDance and IBM?
Start with the 14 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 ByteDance-specific and 20 IBM-specific questions to round out your prep.