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

SDE - 1

Goldman Sachs
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3 rounds | 5 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
I applied through a referral. I found the opening for an SDE 1 role on the Goldman Sachs career portal, then I reached out to people at Goldman Sachs on LinkedIn, and one of them referred me for this role. Taking referrals for companies like Goldman Sachs is essential because they receive a huge volume of applications.
Application story
I applied through a referral, and after a week, I received a test link. I found my college senior on LinkedIn. He is a Senior Software Engineer at Goldman Sachs, and I asked him to refer me for the SDE 1 role, and he referred me.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I was not selected for this role because I could not clear the second interview round. Though I could answer the question, the interviewer wanted the most optimal solution, which I could not provide.
Preparation
Duration: 8 months
Topics: DSA, Competitive Programming, Puzzles, System Design, C++, Computer Networks
Tip
Tip

Tip 1: Solve at least 500 DSA questions.
Tip 2: Try to find the most optimal solution while coding.
Tip 3: Practice difficult DSA questions, as they are also assigned in interviews.

Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: Above 7.5 cgpa, No backlog
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1: Mention your best ranks in global contests. 

Tip 2: Mention open-source contributions if you have any.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration90 mins
Interview date2 Oct 2022
Coding problem2

I got the test link the day after the application. This round consisted of two DSA-based questions, both of medium difficulty. The test was conducted on HackerRank, and the duration of this round was 90 minutes.

1. Find the first repeated character in a string

Moderate
30m average time
70% success
0/80
Asked in companies
Goldman SachsDelhiveryExpedia Group

You are given a string 'STR' of lowercase English alphabets. You need to find the repeated character present first in the string.

Example:
If the string is: “abccba”, then the first repeated character is ‘c’, but the repeated character that is present first in the string is ‘a’. You need to print ‘a’.
Note:
Keep in mind that you need to print the repeated character that is present first in the string and not the first repeating character.
Problem approach

I first used the brute force approach with nested for loops to pass the test cases, then I used a HashMap to optimize my solution. I also wrote the time and space complexity of my solution in the comments.

Try solving now

2. Maximum In Sliding Windows Of Size K

Moderate
20m average time
80% success
0/80
Asked in companies
AppleGoogleWalmart

Given an array/list of integers of length ‘N’, there is a sliding window of size ‘K’ which moves from the beginning of the array, to the very end. You can only see the ‘K’ numbers in a particular window at a time. For each of the 'N'-'K'+1 different windows thus formed, you are supposed to return the maximum element in each of them, from the given array/list.

Try solving now
02
Round
Easy
Video Call
Duration60 mins
Interview date5 Oct 2022
Coding problem2

On October 4, 2022, I got a call from the HR team of Goldman Sachs informing me that I had cleared the online round and asking when we could schedule an interview. We agreed to have the interview on October 5. The round was conducted on Microsoft Teams, and I had to use their IDE to solve two coding problems. The interview went well, and I solved both questions.

1. Coin Change

Moderate
20m average time
80% success
0/80
Asked in companies
GoogleSamsungThought Works

You are given an infinite supply of coins of each of denominations D = {D0, D1, D2, D3, ...... Dn-1}. You need to figure out the total number of ways W, in which you can make a change for value V using coins of denominations from D. Print 0, if a change isn't possible.

Problem approach

First, I explained the recursive solution to the interviewer, and then he asked me to optimize the solution. After that, I used dynamic programming to solve the question.

Try solving now

2. 0 1 Knapsack

Moderate
0/80
Asked in companies
InnovaccerInfosysMorgan Stanley

A thief is robbing a store and can carry a maximum weight of ‘W’ into his knapsack. There are 'N' items available in the store and the weight and value of each item is known to the thief. Considering the constraints of the maximum weight that a knapsack can carry, you have to find the maximum profit that a thief can generate by stealing items.

Note: The thief is not allowed to break the items.

For example, N = 4, W = 10 and the weights and values of items are weights = [6, 1, 5, 3] and values = [3, 6, 1, 4]. Then the best way to fill the knapsack is to choose items with weight 6, 1 and 3. The total value of knapsack = 3 + 6 + 4 = 13.

Try solving now
03
Round
Hard
Video Call
Duration45 mins
Interview date10 Jul 2023
Coding problem1

This round was also conducted on Microsoft Teams; it was around 1 PM. This time, the interviewer was not focusing on Data Structures and Algorithms but started to ask me system design questions. He then asked me to design the Amazon system. Since I am not good at system design, I was not able to give a proper explanation. So, I didn't clear this round.

1. System Design Question

Design Amazon.(Learn)

Problem approach

Tip 1: With DSA, focus on system design as well. 

Tip 2: Designing to scale - design high-level, then drill down. 

Tip 3: Communicate your approach to the interview clearly.

Here's your problem of the day

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

Skill covered: Programming

What is 3 + 2 * 4 based on operator precedence?

Choose another skill to practice
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