IBM vs Snapchat Interview Questions
IBM lists 115 LeetCode interview questions while Snapchat lists 99. They share 11 problems — 10% of IBM's bank and 11% of Snapchat's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 104 IBM-only and 88 Snapchat-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 11 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both IBM and Snapchat.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add IBM-specific problems like Find the Smallest Divisor Given a Threshold, Gray Code, 3Sum and Snapchat-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: Snapchat skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
11 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both IBM and Snapchat.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Meeting Rooms II | Medium |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| String Compression | Medium |
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| Group Anagrams | Medium |
| Product of Array Except Self | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Task Scheduler | Medium |
Unique to IBM (104)
Problems in IBM's list that do not appear at Snapchat.
| 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 |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Rotate Image | Medium |
| Minimum Absolute Difference | Easy |
Unique to Snapchat (88)
Problems in Snapchat's list that do not appear at IBM.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Valid Sudoku | Medium |
| Sudoku Solver | Hard |
| Combination Sum | Medium |
| Combination Sum II | Medium |
| Wildcard Matching | Hard |
| Minimum Window Substring | Hard |
| Unique Binary Search Trees | Medium |
| Word Ladder | Hard |
| Word Break II | Hard |
| Reverse Words in a String | Medium |
| Min Stack | Medium |
| One Edit Distance | Medium |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do IBM and Snapchat share?
IBM and Snapchat share 11 LeetCode interview questions. 104 problems appear only in IBM's list and 88 appear only in Snapchat's list.
What topics overlap most between IBM and Snapchat?
The most common shared topics between IBM and Snapchat are Array (7 shared questions), Hash Table (5 shared questions), Sorting (4 shared questions), String (4 shared questions), Two Pointers (2 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: IBM or Snapchat?
IBM has 33 Easy, 73 Medium, and 9 Hard questions. Snapchat has 6 Easy, 62 Medium, and 31 Hard questions. Snapchat has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both IBM and Snapchat?
Start with the 11 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 IBM-specific and 20 Snapchat-specific questions to round out your prep.