Summary
I recently took the Goto Online Assessment for a role in Bengaluru, India. This 90-minute assessment included three Data Structures & Algorithms problems and one SQL query, covering essential technical skills.
Full Experience
I had my Online Assessment with Goto, conducted on-campus in Bengaluru, India. The assessment was structured for 90 minutes and consisted of a total of four questions: three focused on Data Structures & Algorithms, and one on SQL. The questions were quite specific and covered different areas, from string manipulation to dynamic programming and array problems, along with a practical SQL scenario. I found the problems to be well-defined, and the overall experience gave me a good insight into the kind of technical challenges Goto focuses on.
Interview Questions (4)
🔹 SQL Question
We had a table with columns:
(product_id, department, cost, product_name)Task:
Print product_name, department, max(cost) for each department.
Example:
Input table:
product_id | department | cost | product_name
---------------------------------------------
1 | Toys | 200 | Car
2 | Toys | 300 | Doll
3 | Electronics| 800 | Phone
4 | Electronics| 1200 | LaptopOutput:
product_name | department | max_cost
-------------------------------------
Doll | Toys | 300
Laptop | Electronics | 12001. Edit Distance Variation
- You are given a main string S and a vector of strings.
- Task: Return the string which has the minimum edit distance from
S.
Example:
S = "apple" words = ["aple", "maple", "apply", "orange"]
Minimum distance → "aple"
2. Gold Mine Problem (DP on Grid)
- You are given a grid of gold values.
- You can start from any cell in the first column.
- Allowed moves: Right, Right+Up, Right+Down.
- Goal: Find the maximum gold you can collect when reaching the last column.
Example:
Grid = 1 3 3 2 1 4 0 6 4
Max gold = 12 (path: 2 → 6 → 4)
3. Subarray Counting Problem
- Given an array of numbers, count subarrays where at least one element appears ≥ K times.
Example:
arr = [1, 2, 1, 2, 1], K = 2
Valid subarrays count = (many subarrays like [1,2,1], [1,2,1,2], [2,1,2] …)