Interview Experience - 140 - Goldman Sachs | SDE1 | Associate

Summary:

• 📌 Job Role: Software Development Engineer

• 🔢 Number of Rounds: 6

• 📜 Offer Status: Offer

• 📍 Location: Delhi

• 👤 Candidate Name: Not disclosing due to signed NDA

---

Interview Process

I applied to Goldman Sachs through an employee referral. The entire interview process was quite structured and spread across one online assessment followed by five interview rounds.

Here’s a breakdown of the process:

1. Online Assessment

2. Round 1 - Coderpad (1 hour)

3. Round 1 Extension - Coderpad (30 mins)

4. Round 2 - Coderpad (1 hour)

5. Round 3 - Coderpad (1 hour)

6. Round 4 - Design (1 hour)

7. Round 5 - Hiring Manager (1 hour)

---

Preparation Guide

I mainly relied on solving problems on LeetCode and going through interview experiences shared by other candidates. For context, I also interviewed at a few other companies around the same time. You may find these useful:

• PayPal Interview Experience

• MakeMyTrip Interview Experience

• Arcesium Interview Experience

---

Interview Rounds

---

## Round 1: Online Assessment

• 🕒 Duration: 60 Minutes

• 📈 Difficulty Level: Easy

Experience:

The online assessment included LeetCode-style Easy level problems. Unfortunately, I do not remember the exact problems asked in this round.

Key Learnings:

• Be comfortable with basic array and string manipulation problems.

• Practice solving problems quickly, as time is limited.

---

## Round 2: Coderpad (1 Hour)

• 🕒 Duration: 60 Minutes

• 📈 Difficulty Level: Medium

Experience:

The round had two coding questions:

1. Deepest Node in a Directed Graph
   (Previously asked in GS rounds) - Reference

2. Find the Winner of the Circular Game

I was able to complete the first question comfortably. However, I couldn't finish the second one within time. I was almost done but didn’t manage to run it fully. Interestingly, the interviewer suggested a 30-minute extension round to try a new question — a gesture I really appreciated.

Key Learnings:

• Time management is crucial.

• Don’t hesitate to communicate your thought process. If you're close to a solution, the interviewer may be open to giving you more time.

---

## Round 3: Coderpad Extension (30 mins)

• 🕒 Duration: 30 Minutes

• 📈 Difficulty Level: Hard

Experience:

The problem was Median of Two Sorted Arrays.
I began with the brute force approach of merging both arrays and finding the median. The interviewer then asked a follow-up:

Follow-up: Merge two sorted arrays without using extra space. The result should be reflected back in the two arrays.

Example:

makefile

CopyEdit

Input: arr1: [1 5 7 9] arr2: [2 3 4 6] Output: arr1: [1 2 3 4] arr2: [5 6 7 9]

Key Learnings:

• Always be ready to discuss trade-offs and improvements.

• Practice in-place algorithms; they come up frequently in follow-ups.

---

## Round 4: Coderpad (1 Hour)

• 🕒 Duration: 60 Minutes

• 📈 Difficulty Level: Medium

Experience:

1. House Robber II
   I initially implemented a top-down recursive solution. Later, I was asked to optimize it using a bottom-up dynamic programming approach.

2. Candy Distribution
   I submitted a brute force O(n²) solution, which was accepted.

Key Learnings:

• Dynamic programming is a must-have skill.

• Even brute force solutions can be acceptable if time runs short and the logic is correct.

---

## Round 5: Coderpad (1 Hour)

• 🕒 Duration: 60 Minutes

• 📈 Difficulty Level: Medium

Experience:

Question 1: Sort a very large file that cannot be fully loaded into memory.
The interviewer hinted toward an external merge sort solution using disk space. I eventually arrived at the correct approach.

Question 2: Java Concepts
Covered a wide range of Java topics:

• Internals of HashMap

• Why HashMap load factor is 0.75

• Exception handling and specific output questions

• String creation and memory allocation in Java

• Singleton class implementation and thread safety

• Use cases for Singleton

• Method overloading vs overriding

• Access modifiers in the context of overriding

Key Learnings:

• Be thorough with language-specific concepts, especially if you mention Java in your resume.

• System-level questions can be disguised as design problems — clarify constraints upfront.

---

## Round 6: Design (1 Hour)

• 🕒 Duration: 60 Minutes

• 📈 Difficulty Level: Medium

Experience:

1. Quick overview of my past projects and the tech stack used.

2. Design LinkedIn’s connection degree feature (finding the degree of connection between two users).

   • I proposed a BFS-based solution.

   • Implemented supporting classes as part of the LLD requirement.

   • We dry ran through a test case where I identified and fixed a few bugs.

3. Discussion on exception handling during DB read/write operations.

   • I could not answer this very well due to lack of exposure.

4. Parsing a file from memory and writing it to DB using multiple threads while maintaining order.

   • I suggested multi-threaded reading and single-threaded writing.

   • The interviewer didn’t seem fully convinced, and we ran out of time.

Key Learnings:

• Low-level design is expected to be both conceptual and code-based.

• Handling system design edge cases (e.g., thread safety, exception handling) is important.

---

## Round 7: Hiring Manager (1 Hour)

• 🕒 Duration: 60 Minutes

• 📈 Difficulty Level: Medium

Experience:

This round focused on behavioral questions and cultural fit.

Questions included:

1. Brief project discussion

2. Why do you want to leave your current firm?

3. What are you looking for in your next opportunity?

4. Why Goldman Sachs?

5. Hypothetical: How would you handle sharing confidential data mistakenly with the wrong client?

6. Strengths and weaknesses

7. Your proudest professional moment

8. Egg Dropping Puzzle

Key Learnings:

• Be honest and thoughtful in behavioral interviews.

• Use the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result) when possible.

• Puzzle questions may still be asked in hiring rounds, so don’t skip them in your prep.

---

Final Thoughts:

Here are a few key takeaways from my Goldman Sachs interview experience:

• Be Prepared for Extensions: Some interviewers might be open to giving you extra time if they see potential — be transparent about your approach.

• Dynamic Programming & Graphs: These topics appeared multiple times. Make sure you have a strong grip on them.

• Java Fundamentals: Knowing language-specific internals helped a lot in the interview rounds.

• LLD Requires Code: It’s not just about talking through design — you may be asked to implement core classes and logic.

• Behavioral Rounds Matter: Prepare your narratives and reflect on past experiences.

Overall, the experience was quite comprehensive, and I appreciated the structured yet flexible approach taken by the interviewers.