Goldman Sachs Interview Experience | Analyst | Bangalore
Summary
I recently interviewed with Goldman Sachs for an Analyst role in Bangalore, navigating through an Online Assessment, a CoderPad screening, and a comprehensive Superday that included multiple Data Structures & Algorithms rounds, a Low-Level Design challenge, and a Behavioral/HR interview.
Full Experience
My interview journey with Goldman Sachs for an Analyst position in Bangalore started with an Online Assessment (OA) conducted on Hackerrank. This assessment primarily tested my fundamental coding skills with problems focused on arrays, strings, and understanding time/space complexity.
Following the OA, I proceeded to a CoderPad Screening. This was a live coding session designed to evaluate my problem-solving speed, code correctness, and clarity of thought. During this round, I was asked to solve two distinct problems: Find the Length of Cycle in an Array and Number of Islands. For the 'Number of Islands' problem, the interviewer specifically guided me to use BFS over DFS, emphasizing its advantage in avoiding potential stack overflow issues.
The final and most intensive stage was the Superday, which comprised four consecutive rounds.
- Round 1 – Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA): My first DSA round presented two challenges. One involved finding the Minimum Characters to Remove from the left, right, or both ends to make a string palindrome. The second was a Binary Search Assignment, which felt very similar in concept to the popular 'Koko Eating Bananas' problem.
- Round 2 – Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA): In the second DSA round, I tackled the classic Coin Change problem, where I had to find the minimum number of coins required to make a specific amount. Additionally, I was given the Container With Most Water problem, which came with an intriguing follow-up question: 'what if the container is tilted?'
- Round 3 – Low-Level Design (LLD): This round shifted focus to design principles. I was tasked with designing a Traffic Light System that could dynamically adjust its wait times based on real-time traffic data, requiring me to consider various system components and interactions.
- Round 4 – Behavioural / HR: The last round was a standard behavioral and HR interview. We discussed my past projects, examples of ownership and challenges I've faced, how I handle tight deadlines and conflicts, and my overall motivation and career goals. A particularly interesting scenario-based question was posed: 'You overhear in a lift that a colleague, who was expecting a salary hike, is actually not going to get one. How would you handle this situation while maintaining professionalism and confidentiality?'
Interview Questions (8)
Find the length of a cycle present in a given array.
Given a 2D grid map of '1's (land) and '0's (water), count the number of islands. An island is surrounded by water and is formed by connecting adjacent lands horizontally or vertically. The interviewer preferred BFS over DFS to avoid stack overflow.
Determine the minimum number of characters to remove from the left, right, or both ends of a given string to make it a palindrome.
A problem similar to 'Koko Eating Bananas', which typically involves finding a minimum or maximum value within a range where the condition is monotonic, making binary search applicable.
Given an array of coin denominations and a target amount, find the minimum number of coins needed to make up that amount.
Given n non-negative integers a1, a2, ..., an, where each represents a point at coordinate (i, ai). n vertical lines are drawn such that the two endpoints of line i is at (i, ai) and (i, 0). Find two lines, which, together with x-axis forms a container, such that the container contains the most water. Follow-up: What if the container is tilted?
Design a Traffic Light System that dynamically adjusts wait times based on real-time traffic data, considering factors like sensor input, traffic flow prediction, and synchronization between intersections.
Scenario: You overhear in a lift that a colleague, who was expecting a salary hike, is actually not going to get one. How would you handle this situation while maintaining professionalism and confidentiality?
Preparation Tips
My preparation for these interviews primarily involved a thorough revision of core Data Structures and Algorithms topics, including BFS/DFS, Dynamic Programming (DP), two-pointer techniques, binary search, and various string manipulation algorithms. I focused not just on solving problems, but also on clearly communicating my logic and walking through examples step-by-step. For the Low-Level Design round, my strategy was to concentrate on designing systems that were simple, scalable, and where I could clearly articulate the trade-offs involved in different architectural choices. For the Behavioral/HR rounds, I diligently prepared structured stories using the STAR method to effectively highlight instances of my ownership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills.