Goldman Sachs interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview

SDE - 1

Goldman Sachs
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5 rounds | 12 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
In 2018, I enrolled in the CSE undergraduate program at NIT Delhi due to my keen interest in applications and software. In the early days of college, I was exposed to DSA and various development tracks, such as app development and web development. I was particularly inclined toward app development and Java backend development. In my 2nd and 3rd years, I sought internship opportunities with companies that had open roles in these tech stacks. I was fortunate to intern at Samsung R&D (Bengaluru), Juspay, and Tekion during my 3rd and 4th years. In my final year, I targeted companies that primarily used Java and related frameworks for their core and day-to-day development work. That’s when I learned about Goldman Sachs, and that’s how my journey to GS began.
Application story
I learned about this opportunity from their official job portal and applied for the analyst role directly through it.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I believe my past internships and Hackathons had a significant impact on the interviewer. Additionally, my fluency in Java and related frameworks may have been one of the reasons for my selection.
Preparation
Duration: 2 Months
Topics: OOPS, Java basics, Spring boot basics, DSA, RDBMS
Tip
Tip

Tip 1: OOP is a common topic found in all past experiences shared on the internet, so I would suggest having a clear understanding of it.
Tip 2: Try coding in Java to gain familiarity with Java syntax and its various core APIs/libraries.
Tip 3: Relational DBMS knowledge is essential when preparing for companies that make extensive use of relational databases.

Application process
Where: Company Website
Eligibility: No
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1: Highlight your past internships.
Tip 2: Highlight your projects.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration120 minutes
Interview date16 Dec 2021
Coding problem1

It was an online Hacker rank round of 120 mins. It was proctored.

1. Find Numbers Containing 1, 2, and 3

Easy
15m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in company
Goldman Sachs

You are given a list of numbers:

1456
345671
43218
123
Your task is to return a sorted list of all numbers that contain the digits 1, 2, and 3.

Example Output:

123, 43218

Problem approach

1. Sort the Input Array: Begin by sorting the list of numbers.
2. Iterate and Check: Loop through the sorted list, checking each number for the presence of the digits 1, 2, and 3.
3. Collect Valid Numbers: If a number contains all three digits (1, 2, and 3), add it to the output list.
4. Return the Result: Finally, return the sorted output list of numbers containing the digits 1, 2, and 3.

Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date25 Mar 2022
Coding problem2

It was an online zoom round of 60 minutes. There was one interviewer on the call.

1. Furthest Building You Can Reach

Moderate
10m average time
90% success
0/80
Asked in companies
Goldman SachsVisaMorgan Stanley

You are given an integer array of heights representing the heights of buildings, some bricks, and some ladders.

You start your journey from building 0 and move to the next building by possibly using bricks or ladders.

While moving from building i to building i+1 (0-indexed),

If the current building's height is greater than or equal to the next building's height, you do not need a ladder or bricks.
If the current building's height is less than the next building's height, you can either use one ladder or (h[i+1] - h[i]) bricks.
Return the furthest building index (0-indexed) you can reach if you use the given ladders and bricks optimally.

Input: heights = [4,2,7,6,9,14,12], bricks = 5, ladders = 1
Output: 4
Explanation: Starting at building 0, you can follow these steps:
- Go to building 1 without using ladders nor bricks since 4 >= 2.
- Go to building 2 using 5 bricks. You must use either bricks or ladders because 2 < 7.
- Go to building 3 without using ladders nor bricks since 7 >= 6.
- Go to building 4 using your only ladder. You must use either bricks or ladders because 6 < 9.
It is impossible to go beyond building 4 because you do not have any more bricks or ladders.

Example 2:

Input: heights = [4,12,2,7,3,18,20,3,19], bricks = 10, ladders = 2
Output: 7
Example 3:

Input: heights = [14,3,19,3], bricks = 17, ladders = 0
Output: 3

Problem approach

I used a priority queue to solve this question. The trick was to first use stairs to jump and maintain the lap height in the priority queue and whenever no of stairs left was less than zero, replace the highest lap with a ladder.

Try solving now

2. Largest Number

Easy
15m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in companies
HCL TechnologiesMicrosoftGoldman Sachs

Given a list of non-negative integers nums, arrange them such that they form the largest number and return it.

Since the result may be very large, so you need to return a string instead of an integer.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [10,2]
Output: "210"
Example 2:

Input: nums = [3,30,34,5,9]
Output: "9534330"
 

Constraints:

1 <= nums.length <= 100
0 <= nums[i] <= 109

Problem approach

1. Create a string array numsStr to hold the string representations of the integers in the input array nums.
Use a for loop to iterate over each integer in nums and convert it to a string using String.valueOf(n), storing it in numsStr.
2. Sort the string array numsStr using a custom comparator LargeNumberComparator.
The comparator defines a custom sorting order by comparing two strings a and b. It does this by comparing the concatenated results of a+b and b+a in reverse order. This ensures that the combined number a+b is larger than b+a.
3. Initialize an empty string result.
4. Iterate over the sorted string array numsStr, appending each string to the result.
5. Return the Result:

Try solving now
03
Round
Easy
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date26 Mar 2022
Coding problem4

It was an online Zoom round of 60 mins. It was proctored.

1. DBMS

Difference between SQL and NoSQL databases. (Learn)

Problem approach

Tip 1: Define SQL and NoSQL and tell key differences.
Tip 2: Give examples of both of them.
Tip 3: Give real-world use cases of when to use what.

2. DBMS

What are ACID properties? (Learn)

Problem approach

Tip 1: Define each letter in ACID.
Tip 2: Give an example of each letter. 
Tip 3: Tell where is it used.

3. OOPs Questions

Problem approach

Tip 1: Define both the terms
Tip 2: Tell their benefits using an example
 

4. System Design

What is Dependency Injection?

Problem approach

Tip 1: Define the term with an example
Tip 2: Explain why is it necessary
Tip 3: touch on coupling

04
Round
Medium
HR Round
Duration60 minutes
Interview date26 Mar 2022
Coding problem4

It was an online zoom round of 60 mins. Senior VP took this round

1. HR Question

Tell me about the most recent project you have worked on or currently working on in your internship.

Problem approach

Tip 1: Explained business use case briefly
Tip 2: Explained how the system is working
Tip 3: Told about my contribution along with the tech stack used

2. HR Question

How was your experience working on a hackathon project? What project did you build and what were the key takeaways?

Problem approach

Tip 1: Explained hackathon problem statement
Tip 2: Told about our solution approach and briefly explained the implementation
Tip 3: Explained a couple of takeaways with actual scenarios

3. HR Question

What's the most difficult task you faced in that hackathon?

Problem approach

Tip 1: Explained a genuine scenario where our team was stuck for a day and how my insight helped the team resolve the blocker. 
 

4. HR Question

Why do you want to join GS?

Problem approach

Tip 1: Be truthful about what you are saying
Tip 2: There is no right or wrong answer to this question. So, whatever you are saying should be true and rational 
 

05
Round
Easy
HR Round
Duration30 minutes
Interview date26 Mar 2022
Coding problem1

It was a typical HR round of 30 mins on Zoom.

1. HR Question

General HR questions.

Here's your problem of the day

Solving this problem will increase your chance to get selected in this company

Skill covered: Programming

How do you remove whitespace from the start of a string?

Choose another skill to practice
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