IBM vs Salesforce Interview Questions
IBM lists 115 LeetCode interview questions while Salesforce lists 188. They share 40 problems — 35% of IBM's bank and 21% of Salesforce's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 75 IBM-only and 148 Salesforce-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 40 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both IBM and Salesforce.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add IBM-specific problems like Find the Smallest Divisor Given a Threshold, Gray Code, Minimum Operations to Make Columns Strictly Increasing and Salesforce-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: Salesforce skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
40 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both IBM and Salesforce.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| 3Sum | Medium |
| Exclusive Time of Functions | Medium |
| Integer to Roman | Medium |
| Roman to Integer | Easy |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Meeting Rooms II | Medium |
| Minimum Absolute Difference | Easy |
| Number of Divisible Triplet Sums | Medium |
| Find Pivot Index | Easy |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| String Compression | Medium |
| Height Checker | Easy |
| Largest Number After Digit Swaps by Parity | Easy |
| Maximum Units on a Truck | Easy |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Count Binary Substrings | Easy |
| Longest Palindromic Substring | Medium |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Spiral Matrix | Medium |
| Group Anagrams | Medium |
| Validate Binary Search Tree | Medium |
| Subarray Product Less Than K | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Product of Array Except Self | Medium |
| Backspace String Compare | Easy |
| Number of Operations to Make Network Connected | Medium |
| Longest Increasing Subsequence | Medium |
| Subarray Sum Equals K | Medium |
Showing top 30 of 40 shared problems.
Unique to IBM (75)
Problems in IBM's list that do not appear at Salesforce.
Unique to Salesforce (148)
Problems in Salesforce's list that do not appear at IBM.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do IBM and Salesforce share?
IBM and Salesforce share 40 LeetCode interview questions. 75 problems appear only in IBM's list and 148 appear only in Salesforce's list.
What topics overlap most between IBM and Salesforce?
The most common shared topics between IBM and Salesforce are Array (19 shared questions), String (9 shared questions), Sorting (8 shared questions), Two Pointers (7 shared questions), Hash Table (7 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: IBM or Salesforce?
IBM has 33 Easy, 73 Medium, and 9 Hard questions. Salesforce has 25 Easy, 112 Medium, and 51 Hard questions. Salesforce has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both IBM and Salesforce?
Start with the 40 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 IBM-specific and 20 Salesforce-specific questions to round out your prep.