I applied in Goldman Sachs Bangalore office for the profile of Full-Stack developer/Data Scientist. A friend of mine at GS had referred me and I got the call within a week. He has been praising the work culture at GS and I was looking forward for the interview and join the firm asap. I had not even applied for any another company.

I had already heard that GS takes multiple rounds to judge the technical skills of the candidate as well as his/her attitude. People generally refer to the attitude part as determining the cultural fit. I had to undergo 7 rounds which I shall describe below.

Before describing the details, I should tell you that the interview experience was challenging but fun. I think that I realise now the reason for so many rounds and how should one prepare for a company’s interview. If you understand what the interviewer is searching for, you can frame your answers effectively.

I think Goldman Sachs is interested in the following characteristics in the candidate -

1. Technical ability - The candidate should be able to read and understand the code written by others. The candidate should also be able to think a (technical) solution to a problem and implement the solution in code.
2. Communication - Software development, in today’s world, is not done in silos. Communication amongst different parties involved(business, product team, development team etc.) is critical. The candidate should be able to discuss, question and understand the problem with different parties involved. He should also be able to discuss the technical details of an implementation with his team members.
3. Ownership and responsibility - A candidate must be able to own the responsibility of the code he/she is writing. The code should have minimum bugs, should cover all the edge cases required by the business, and the developer should understand the inner workings of the code. This is generally directly proportional to his technical understanding of the tools, and his understanding of the business requirements.
4. Learning/logical ability - I had heard the a developer in GS does not stick to a single technology or a single programming language. The team tends to select the best tool for the job. Hence, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of a tool is critical. This is directly proportional to the logical ability(how a person perceives and handles a new problem) and the technical basics of the person.

Round - 1: Online Coding Test

This is a standard procedure nowadays while screening the candidates. The online test is generally conducted on a weekend, and is one hour long. You can take the test anytime during that weekend. GS gives you 2 coding questions to solve, and each question has test cases. You need to attempt both the questions and pass as many test cases as you can.

The intent of this round is to judge that the candidate is able to think a solution to a technical problem and implement his/her logic in code.

Round - 2: Online Screen Sharing Coding Test

This round involves solving coding problems in a shared screen environment. A interviewer(developer) from GS calls the candidate to conduct an online interview. The candidate has to login in a platform called Coderpad which is an online ide. The candidate has to code in Coderpad exclusively and is NOT allowed to use google or offline ide like Intellij etc. The candidate is expected to solve 2 coding questions within an hour. The interview interacts you over the phone, and questions you about your approach, edge cases etc.

This round is trying to replicate real-life scenario of a developer. Communication and speed of execution is the key here.

Questions -

Disclaimer: These are available publicly on the internet, and are not the questions asked to me.

1. Find the first non-repeating character in a string - http://quepinch.com/questionset/interview-experience-goldman-sachs-lateral-hire-2336/question/find-the-first-non-repeating-character-in-a-string-9055
2. Form the largest possible number from an array of numbers - http://quepinch.com/questionset/interview-experience-goldman-sachs-lateral-hire-2336/question/form-the-largest-possible-number-from-an-array-of-numbers-4811

Rest all the rounds were in-person interview rounds. There was a general pattern across all the interviews.

1. The interviews were conducted around the CV. Almost all the interviewers asked about the last project(in the previous company) that I had worked on.
2. If the interviewers asked about a project, they were interested in -

• The tech stack the team had used. If they were familiar with the tech stack, they would ask further questions.
• They tried to understand the business need of the project and my contribution in the project.
• They wanted to know about the entire SDLC of the project - code versioning software used, deployment procedure, database used etc.

1. All the rounds were technical interview rounds.
2. The interview rounds were programming language independent i.e. the interviewer asked me to code in the language of my choice. Some interviewers also asked to write pseudocode.In the end, the interviewer invited me to ask questions to him regarding the company, culture etc.

My suggestions for the in-person interview rounds -

1. Own your CV. The interviewer can ask anything written in your CV. You must be prepared for it. They generally ask about the recent projects.
2. Prepare your introduction well. Almost everyone asked me to introduce myself. DO NOT repeat what is already mentioned in your CV. Mention something different like why you like building software products, what opportunities are you looking for etc. Be genuine. Be creative. Be impressive.
3. Read about your projects well. You will definitely be judged on your contribution in our projects. You should be able to explain the project precisely and clearly.
4. Do not hesitate in asking for more details about the questions asked by the interviewer.