Goldman Sachs Interview Experience - Associate | August 2025 | Bangalore
Summary
I interviewed for an Associate position at Goldman Sachs in Bangalore in August 2025 and received an offer after successfully navigating a comprehensive interview process that included online assessments, multiple technical DSA and system design rounds, and a final hiring manager discussion.
Full Experience
I recently went through the interview process for an Associate position at Goldman Sachs in Bangalore, which spanned from June to August 2025. The process was conducted online and consisted of an Online Assessment followed by four technical rounds, and finally a Hiring Manager round. I have 3 years of experience.
Online Assessment
The online assessment included 2 LeetCode-style questions: one easy and one medium, which focused heavily on time complexity. I successfully cleared this stage and received an invitation for the interviews within approximately three days.
Round 1 (Technical DSA ~1 hour)
In this round, I was asked to solve two DSA questions by coding on a shared editor. The first problem required converting a fraction string (e.g., "2/5" or "-2/5") into its decimal representation, including handling recurring decimals like "0.(6)" for "2/3". The second question was an easy-medium linked list problem, which I don't fully recall, but I successfully passed all the provided test cases. After two weeks, I received an email inviting me to the Superday rounds.
Superday Round 1 (DSA ~1 hour)
This round involved two DSA questions. The first question was to check if a string has a cycle, for which I had to write optimized code. The second question was to build a calculator, given an expression string like "(2*5+7)", and return the evaluated integer. The interviewer specified that it could include brackets, so I had to parse the expression and correctly handle operator precedence. I was able to solve both questions.
Superday Round 2 (DSA + System Design Lite)
This round combined DSA and a light system design component. The DSA question involved a 2D array: finding the maximum value path when travelling only diagonally up, diagonally down, or right. I explained a recursive approach first and then implemented an optimized solution, followed by discussing variations if movement directions changed. The data structures question asked me to design a structure for efficiently querying if at least two different customers visited the same store on a given day from a log file. I proposed a solution using a Map and Set, and we discussed follow-ups on implementing it with a database and the trade-offs between space and query efficiency.
Superday Round 3 (System Design – Twitter Clone)
This was a dedicated system design round where I had to design Twitter. The first half focused on Low-Level Design (LLD), detailing classes and models for Users, Tweets, and Follows. The second half shifted to High-Level Design (HLD) with an emphasis on scalability, particularly how to notify millions of users simultaneously. The discussion covered various topics like queues, database usage, caching strategies, scaling, microservices, and Kafka.
Superday Round 4 (Hiring Manager)
The final round was with the Hiring Manager. We had a deep dive into the architecture of my most recent project. I also answered questions on Agile methodology, including its pros and cons, and how I handle sprint delays. Leadership and situational questions were posed, such as how I would handle team conflicts and prioritize features against deadlines.
I successfully cleared all rounds and received an offer call for the Associate position an hour after my last Superday interview.
Interview Questions (7)
Given a string representing a fraction, for example, "2/5", return its decimal representation. The fraction can also be negative, like "-2/5". The output should handle recurring decimals, such as "2/3" which returns "0.(6)".
Given a string representing an arithmetic expression, such as "(2*5+7)", evaluate it and return the integer result. The expression can include integers, basic arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /), and parentheses, requiring parsing and handling operator precedence.
Given a 2D array, find the maximum value path sum where movement is restricted to diagonally up, diagonally down, or right. I initially approached this with recursion and then optimized it. There were also follow-up questions regarding changes in allowed movement directions.
Given a log file detailing store visits, design a data structure that can efficiently answer queries to determine if at least two different customers visited the same store on a specific day. Follow-up discussions included alternative implementations using databases and an analysis of trade-offs between space complexity and query efficiency.
The task was to design Twitter. The first half focused on Low-Level Design (LLD), including defining classes and models for Users, Tweets, and Follows. The second half covered High-Level Design (HLD) concerning scalability, specifically how to efficiently notify millions of users simultaneously. This involved discussions on various system components like queues, database usage, caching strategies, scaling, microservices architecture, and Kafka.
Discussion revolved around Agile methodology, including its pros and cons, and strategies for handling sprint delays or impediments.
Situational and leadership-focused questions were asked, such as how I would handle conflicts within a team and how I prioritize features against tight deadlines.