Goldman Sachs | Analyst | Bengaluru | Oct 2024 [Offer]
Question Details
My background: Total 2 years 3 months experience Got a referral for an Associate role. Received hackerrank test link a week later. ####
Round 1 OA Don\u2019t remember the questions but...
Full Details
My background: Total 2 years 3 months experience
Got a referral for an Associate role. Received hackerrank test link a week later.
Round 1 OA
Don\u2019t remember the questions but one was an easy level question and second was leetcode medium level. Was able to solve both of them.
The recruiter reached me and informed me that I would be considered for an Analyst profile as my years of experience are less than 3.
Round 2 Coderpad (13th Sep 2024)
Question 1
https://leetcode.com/problems/fraction-to-recurring-decimal/description/
Question 2
https://leetcode.com/problems/trapping-rain-water/description/
I explained the approach for the first problem and jumped into implementing it. For the second question, I discussed the extra space approach first and then explained the constant space approach and implemented it. I had to execute my code for some test cases. After that the interviewer added some more test cases. I had to handle some corner cases in the first problem in order to pass them.
Superday (18th Sep 2024)
Round 1 Data Structures
Two interviewers were present, one question asked by each of them.
Question 1
https://leetcode.com/problems/pairs-of-songs-with-total-durations-divisible-by-60/description/
Question 2
https://leetcode.com/problems/median-of-two-sorted-arrays/description/
Again the expectation here was to produce an optimized working solution that should pass the test cases. For the second question, I first gave the approach using extra space but surprisingly the interviewer asked me to code and execute that. And after executing all the test cases, he asked me to optimize the approach. I was able to explain to him the optimized approach and was able to write the code, but some tests were failing and we ran out of time.
Round 2 Software Engineering Practices
Two interviewers were present. The first interviewer asked this question.
Question 1
https://leetcode.com/problems/sliding-window-maximum/description/
The remaining 30 mins were dedicated to some discussion around my resume, operating system and system design concepts.
The interviewer went in depth in one of my recent projects in my current company.
After that he started asking OS questions like:
* Difference between process and a thread
* Deadlocks
* What is semaphore and how it is used in OS
The interviewer then asked how to handle concurrency in a theater booking system, focusing on how to make sure two users don\u2019t book the same seat at the same time. I was also asked about handling cases where payment doesn\'t go through and how to release the seat if the user doesn\u2019t complete the payment. The interviewer asked about what would be the best customer experience during the entire process. Additionally, the interviewer wanted to know how to identify and prevent payment failures before the user even goes to the payment page. We discussed using locking methods, setting time limits for holding seats, checking seat availability in real-time, and doing checks before sending users to the payment page.
Round 3 Software Design and Architecture
Question 1
Given a 2-D String array of student-marks, find the student with the highest average and output his average score. If the average is in decimals, floor it down to the nearest integer.
**Input**: [{"Bob","87"}, {"Mike", "35"},{"Bob", "52"}, {"Jason","35"}, {"Mike", "55"}, {"Jessica", "99"}]
**Output**: 99
Explanation: Since Jessica\'s average is greater than Bob\'s, Mike\'s and Jason\'s average.
I explained the brute force as well as the optimized approach. Then was expected to code and execute the sample test cases. The interviewer then added some additional test cases for these. Some tests were failing due to negative scores. Fixed the cases.
The second interviewer asked me some Java related questions like:
* Comparator and Comparable
* Serialization and Deserialization in Java
* Exception handling related questions
I was asked how to design a system where employee records are sent from an upstream service to my service, which then updates the data in a downstream service. Handling the communication between services (Kafka / SNS-SQS (I had experience with SNS-SQS)). The same employee record with a different timestamp can arrive, we have to update the previous record based on timestamp. This timestamp is different from the current timestamp. (Records can come in any order of timestamps).
I clarified the requirements but felt that the time left was too low. Proposed the approach to the interviewer, he then asked me about the database choices (SQL / NOSQL) and was asked to write a schema for the employee record.
Round 4 Hiring Manager
It was a quick 20-25 mins call. The HM asked some questions like
* Why I am leaving the current company
* Why GS
* Asked me to explain one of my recent projects in my current company, asked few questions on that
* My expectations from GS and the role
* My views on work from office culture
I asked him the team charter and goals for the next couple of years.
Verdict: Received offer 2 weeks later.
Compensation Details: https://leetcode.com/discuss/compensation/5921924/goldman-sachs-vs-flipkart-bengaluru/2678378
About This Question
This is a reported interview question from a goldman interview for a data eng role (junior level) during the oa round reported in 2024.
It covers the following topics: Arrays, Sql, Strings, Os, Sliding Window, Concurrency, System Design .
Difficulty rating: Easy
About Goldman Interview Reports
This question was reported by a candidate who interviewed at Goldman. LeakCode aggregates interview reports from 10+ sources, including 1Point3Acres, Glassdoor, LeetCode Discuss, Blind, Reddit, Indeed, and Nowcoder. Each report is translated where necessary, deduplicated against existing entries, and tagged by company, role, round type, and reporting date.
Use this question as one calibration data point, not a memorization target. Companies typically rotate their question pools every 2-4 months; the exact wording of a 2024 question may differ from what you encounter today. The underlying pattern, difficulty level, and follow-up depth at Goldman are the higher-signal extractions to take from this report.
For broader preparation context, the Goldman interview process typically includes a recruiter screen, one or two technical phone screens, and a 4-5 round on-site loop covering coding, system design (at L4+ levels), and behavioral. Reports tagged on LeakCode show the round-by-round distribution and typical difficulty calibration. To browse questions filtered by round type and seniority, use the company hub linked above.
How To Practice This Type of Question
Solve similar problems on LeetCode under timed conditions (25-35 minutes per medium difficulty). The goal is pattern recognition: recognize the underlying technique (sliding window, two-pointer, BFS, memoized recursion, etc.) within 60-90 seconds of reading. Strong candidates verbalize their hypothesis out loud before coding, then iterate based on feedback. Weak candidates dive into implementation immediately, lose time on the wrong approach, and run out of time for follow-ups.
Companies update their question pools every 2-4 months. The exact wording of any given question may have been retired by the time you interview. Focus your prep on the pattern, not the specific problem. The patterns that appear in Goldman reports consistently are the ones worth investing in; one-off niche problems are not.
During Your Goldman Round
Apply the standard interview round template: clarify requirements (2-3 minutes), state your approach out loud and confirm direction with the interviewer (3-5 minutes), code with narration (15-25 minutes), test with concrete examples including edge cases (5 minutes), discuss optimization or trade-offs if time permits (5 minutes). This template is universally accepted across FAANG and adjacent companies; deviating from it produces weaker interviewer feedback signal.
The single most predictive failure mode in Goldman reports tagged "no hire": not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers are explicitly trained to weight this. Strong candidates ask 3-5 clarifying questions even on problems that look obvious; weak candidates dive into code immediately. The clarifying-question check is often the first signal recorded in the interviewer's written notes.