Goldman Sachs Analyst Interview Questions, Process, and Tips for Freshers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The resume shortlist, I feel, was slightly unfair. They had put a cut-off of 9 for branches outside EE/CS.
Tips: Don't worry, they might not follow this next year. Your resume should have a mix of probability, finance (courses on these are enough, though internships will really help)

They don't care about your PoRs in the interview, but this may matter for the resume shortlist (Assuming it's done fairly) So be sure to include them.

Round: Test
Experience: There were 30 MCQ questions, 10 each on the above mentioned sections. There is no dearth of time, so you can think clearly and solve the question. I found that quant was the hardest of the lot, followed by coding followed by ML.

ML questions will be on SVMs, ANNs, Ensemble learning methods, Hypothesis testing, Feature selection, Model selection etc. the standard topics you can find in "Elements of Statistical Learning" by Hastie, Tibshirani and Friedman.

The coding section was mostly on arrays, data structures (binary tree, mostly), recursion, and one subjective question.

For quant, you need to be really well versed in probability, definite integrals (Not kidding), and other JEE math.
Tips: You'll need to do really well in atleast one of the sections to be shortlisted. Even if you are non CS/EE, (assuming you don't have experience in coding) you can do really well in ML section. Aim for that and prepare in advance. Once you are through to the interview, you just need to give them a reason to hire you. :)
Duration: 2 hours 15 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The lady who interviewed me was a chemE graduate from IIT Bombay. She was friendly and willing to help when asked about a problem. Overall, very good interview experience.
Tips: For all interviews, I'll say this. Ask a lot of questions. They are very interested in explaining what they do, and feel free to interrupt them if you don't understand something. Always try to relate what they say to your interest. That way you'll bring new perspective into the interview. And that's very useful, believe me. If they have shortlisted you, they want to hire you. You just have to give them a reason to. Always relate your experiences and your interests with what they do. if you do that, they will find a role for you, somewhere. Do not worry. I was interested in machine learning and I got a finance profile. (They have a team in that profile that does ML)

For quant questions, I would suggest thinking out loud and interacting each step of the way. They care more about your thinking than about the answer. They will point out the errors and you can correct them. Don't worry about silences, as long as you think out loud, it will not be a problem.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Again, very friendly interview. The interviewer will lead you on, and assist you if you're facing any difficulty. :) Just be sure to be jovial and interactive.
Tips: Same as above.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Very technical, serious interview. I think he was the senior guy. He still helped out a lot.
Tips: Be to the point, he was more interested in the technical knowledge.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The final interview I had. He was very helpful, and was very eager to talk about the company and what they do. He had an extensive knowledge of finance, options (obviously). The course on Mathematical Finance by the maths department was very useful. You need to have a good knowledge of options for getting through this.
Tips: Same as the first interview.

Skills: Quant+Math, Problem Solving Abilties, Probabiity, Internship Experience, Finance
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Puzzles, probability questions
Tips: Brush up on probability problems

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Questions on resume, especially interns.
Tips: Know your resume inside out.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Puzzles, algorithm questions
Tips: Learn algorithms from geeksforgeeks

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Tips: Be familiar with your resume, prepare for generic HR questions

Skills: Problem Solving Skills, Algorithm, Probability And Statistics, Knowledge Of Your Resume Points
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: There were 30 questions divided into 3 sections(Computer Science fundamentals, Mathematics and Machine learning) each containing 10 questions. Each question was of 3 points with the negative marking of 1 mark. 60 students were shortlisted from this round.

2nd paper consisted of 3 questions in each section. Each section was of 30 points with each question of different weightage.
Tips: Time is more that sufficient. Focus on only one section but try to excel in that

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Interviewers are very friendly and helped my if I got stuck anywhere

General Tips: Try to cover geeks for geeks as much as you can. It will help you a lot
Skills: Basics Of Machine Learning, Design Engineering, Probabiity, Algorithmic Approach To Problem Solving
College Name: IIT Kharagpur
Motivation: Highly relevant work to my interests

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: A Good Resume is the one with a clear message in one glance. One usually doesn't have much time go through the specifics. Also, most of the resumes look more or less the same if you start reading thoroughly. So what distinguishes you is how much you can convey to a third person in one glance. However a crucial point that one needs to keep in mind is - The third person may be an IITian or may be not. So your resume needs to be optimally elaborate and detailed. Good at glance and not boring with details.

Round: Test
Experience: Various tests aim at identifying different skill sets. And each skill set testing needs different approach and different preparation material and style. Also, not all tests are actually looking for excellent performers. So sometimes you might be surprised to see not so good performers being preferred over the best ones.
Tips: Keep calm during all tests. No need to panic after seeing unfavourable results. It's just the beginning of an entirely new world. For preparation, begin well in advance. Take as light load as possible in your placement semester. Talk to seniors and the placed ones about the preparation style for various skill sets. There are several great books on most of the skill set, and just like JEE if you spend quality time on a book on a particular skill set you are likely to do well. 



For your core jobs preparation, you need to revise your basic concepts and prepare specifically for various areas that you are mostly interested in. For example, in EE, you can have a look at various job roles - system designing, power systems, device and circuits, communication, computer vision and image processing etc, which companies have come in the past for what kind of roles. And what were there expectations from the candidates.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: I sat for only one GD that was for ITC. I did not prepare at all for it and relied mostly on my speaking cum shouting skills that I developed over the years, thanks to my fundae sessions and most importantly TAship sessions. I enjoyed the GD which was a problem statement on a guy's death with a brief description of the circumstances, and was asked to discuss who was guilty for the guy's death. I enjoyed the discussion, and found the problem pretty exciting, but only to find out later that it was a routine problem for GDs.
Tips: My agenda was simple for the GD - I took it as yet another discussion session. Hearing others opinions and pointing out mine. Occasionally I also asked the quite ones to share their views. There are often several tricks that seniors tell the juniors - start early, take the lead, try to summarize, take everyone along etc etc. I like to put it this way - Don't speak non-sense, do speak some sense, let others speak, try to distinguish the sense and the non-sense from others views, and encourage the quite ones to speak a bit in order to have a sensible and wholesome group discussion. If you think you can lead, then lead. If you think you might want others opinions to kick start your thought process, then wait for some points from others. So basically do what seems sensible to you, but do something!

Round: HR Interview
Experience: All the questions that I was asked, I have already put up at my blog raazdwivedi.blogspot.in 



And I am in no mood to repeat them here by classifying. I would summarize some key points in the tips section.
Tips: Before I forget, usually at the end of interviews, the interviewers ask you if you have some questions about them, be prepared with some questions which can be like - what do you usually look for in a good candidate, what is the work culture at the company, the career path of the individual in the company or otherwise etc etc. You can google things, or you can be innovative. Innovation might pay off very well or it may just kill your chances. But that's life - more risk, more reward.



And another point, some of your interviews might be telephonic - in such cases, many more factors come into picture  which might spoil the mood of the interview ( I would let you to think about the possible glitches that you might have because of this technological advancement). But as usual, I would advice you to keep calm and just give your best. 



Puzzles Interview: Prepare from the standard blogs and books, like cseblog and heard on the wall street. Ask seniors about the trending books. For the interview, do what is asked of you. Try to solve the problem. If you have already soled the proble, try to outline the steps and the solution, but don't be over or under excited any time. Sometimes the interviewer might be curious about the steps, and about your thought process. He might be looking for how many different ways you can think of attacking the same problem (At times they give a wrong problem just to check that!). However at times, you might not be that lucky and the person in front of you might value only accuracy and speed - that makes the task tougher - you have to be quick and you have to be correct, I would suggest you to trying being accurate, even if the guy in front of you is checking your patience by bugging you about your speed. In all cases, keep your calm.



HR Interview:Technically, I didn't give an HR interview (at least I don't think I gave one!) but standard preparation includes questions of the sort - walk me through your resume, tell me about yourself, tell me about yourself BEYOND the resume (meaning what is not covered in the resume), strengths and weaknesses, your learning experience, capabilities as an individual, team player and team leader, some illustrations of them, why the XYZ role in ABC company probably over DEF company, why not higher education, why a job of this pay scale, your expectations of the firm etc







Case Studies and Guesstimate:The only thing that I can think about such interviews (I had only one and I didn't do very well) - during some stage of preparation preferably 60-70% of it, prepare and discuss in groups, work many problems, and learn from your mistakes. As usual try to value the thought process than the answers only!

Round: Summary
Tips: There are many things that I would like to convey to the students regarding the placement process.On the preparation side, one must give his best - visit websites, read blogs, attend presentations and various related sessions, ask seniors who have been placed, talk to anyone who you think can provide some help. These practices will give you enormous data - and your job is to filter and use it wisely, at your own discretion. Read relevant material from books and internet, practice problems and tests, do mock interviews and GDs with your friends, prepare your resume well - in short - do what is to be done. Depending on job profiles that you target, the preparation keeps varying, ask around and work hard.



With that being said, I would like to say that placement is not simply about merit - independent of whether you appreciate this fact or not. Various companies value compatibility over the merit of the student (which is quite logical thing to do!) and sometimes you may under-qualify and sometimes over-qualify on those standards - and rarely will you be just at an optimal level. Consequently, many results(in fact most, to be even more precise all except one) will not go in your favour - either accept them or challenge them (if you think you have been denied of something that you truly deserve) but never lose your heart - this is simply a welcome song to the real world. In the long run, this short and (most likely a difficult and) tough experience will prove to be one of the most memorable and a great learning experience.



In a nut shell "Keep Calm and Give your Best! - Karm karte raho, fal ki chinta mat karo."

Round: Puzzle Interview
Tips: Prepare from the standard blogs and books, like cseblog and heard on the wall street. Ask seniors about the trending books. For the interview, do what is asked of you. Try to solve the problem. If you have already solved the problem, try to outline the steps and the solution, but don't be over or under excited any time. Sometimes the interviewer might be curious about the steps, and about your thought process. He might be looking for how many different ways you can think of attacking the same problem (At times they give a wrong problem just to check that!). However at times, you might not be that lucky and the person in front of you might value only accuracy and speed - that makes the task tougher - you have to be quick and you have to be correct, I would suggest you to trying being accurate, even if the guy in front of you is checking your patience by bugging you about your speed. In all cases, keep your calm.

College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Tips: A Good Resume is the one with a clear message in one glance. One usually doesn't have much time go through the specifics. Also, most of the resumes look more or less the same if you start reading thoroughly. So what distinguishes you is how much you can convey to a third person in one glance. However a crucial point that one needs to keep in mind is - The third person may be an IITian or may be not. So your resume needs to be optimally elaborate and detailed. Good at glance and not boring with details.

Round: Test
Experience: I screwed up GS's test but I guess my CPI and resume lured them to shortlist me for interview.Various tests aim at identifying different skill sets. And each skill set testing needs different approach and different preparation material and style. Also, not all tests are actually looking for excellent performers. So sometimes you might be surprised to see not so good performers being preferred over the best ones

Round: Technical Interview
Tips: Keep calm during all tests. No need to panic after seeing unfavourable results. It's just the beginning of an entirely new world. For preparation, begin well in advance. Take as light load as possible in your placement semester. Talk to seniors and the placed ones about the preparation style for various skill sets. There are several great books on most of the skill set, and just like JEE if you spend quality time on a book on a particular skill set you are likely to do well.For your core jobs preparation, you need to revise your basic concepts and prepare specifically for various areas that you are mostly interested in. For example, in EE, you can have a look at various job roles - system designing, power systems, device and circuits, communication, computer vision and image processing etc, which companies have come in the past for what kind of roles. And what were there expectations from the candidates.

General Tips: There are many things that I would like to convey to the students regarding the placement process.On the preparation side, one must give his best - visit websites, read blogs, attend presentations and various related sessions, ask seniors who have been placed, talk to anyone who you think can provide some help. These practices will give you enormous data - and your job is to filter and use it wisely,at your own discretion. Read relevant material from books and internet,practice problems and tests, do mock interviews and GDs with your friends,prepare your resume well - in short – do what is to be done. Depending on jobprofiles that you target, the preparation keeps varying, ask around and workhard.With that being said, I would like to say that placement is not simply aboutmerit - independent of whether you appreciate this fact or not. Variouscompanies value compatibility over the merit of the student (which isquite logical thing to do!) and sometimes you may under-qualify and sometimes over-qualifyon those standards - and rarely will you be just at an optimal level.Consequently, many results(in fact most, to be even more precise all except one)will not go in your favour - either accept them or challenge them (if you thinkyou have been denied of something that you truly deserve) but never loseyour heart - this is simply a welcome song to the real world. In the longrun, this short and (most likely a difficult and) tough experience willprove to be one of the most memorable and a great learning experience.In a nut shell "Keep Calm and Give your Best! - Karm karte raho, fal kichinta mat karo."
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: A Good Resume is the one with a clear message in one glance. One usually doesn't have much time go through the specifics. Also, most of the resumes look more or less the same if you start reading thoroughly. So what distinguishes you is how much you can convey to a third person in one glance. However a crucial point that one needs to keep in mind is - The third person may be an IITian or may be not. So your resume needs to be optimally elaborate and detailed. Good at glance and not boring with details.

Round: Test
Experience: Various tests aim at identifying different skill sets. And each skill set testing needs different approach and different preparation material and style. Also, not all tests are actually looking for excellent performers. So sometimes you might be surprised to see not so good performers being preferred over the best ones.
Tips: Keep calm during all tests. No need to panic after seeing unfavourable results. It's just the beginning of an entirely new world. For preparation, begin well in advance. Take as light load as possible in your placement semester. Talk to seniors and the placed ones about the preparation style for various skill sets. There are several great books on most of the skill set, and just like JEE if you spend quality time on a book on a particular skill set you are likely to do well. 



For your core jobs preparation, you need to revise your basic concepts and prepare specifically for various areas that you are mostly interested in. For example, in EE, you can have a look at various job roles - system designing, power systems, device and circuits, communication, computer vision and image processing etc, which companies have come in the past for what kind of roles. And what were there expectations from the candidates.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: I sat for only one GD that was for ITC. I did not prepare at all for it and relied mostly on my speaking cum shouting skills that I developed over the years, thanks to my fundae sessions and most importantly TAship sessions. I enjoyed the GD which was a problem statement on a guy's death with a brief description of the circumstances, and was asked to discuss who was guilty for the guy's death. I enjoyed the discussion, and found the problem pretty exciting, but only to find out later that it was a routine problem for GDs.
Tips: My agenda was simple for the GD - I took it as yet another discussion session. Hearing others opinions and pointing out mine. Occasionally I also asked the quite ones to share their views. There are often several tricks that seniors tell the juniors - start early, take the lead, try to summarize, take everyone along etc etc. I like to put it this way - Don't speak non-sense, do speak some sense, let others speak, try to distinguish the sense and the non-sense from others views, and encourage the quite ones to speak a bit in order to have a sensible and wholesome group discussion. If you think you can lead, then lead. If you think you might want others opinions to kick start your thought process, then wait for some points from others. So basically do what seems sensible to you, but do something!

Round: HR Interview
Experience: All the questions that I was asked, I have already put up at my blog raazdwivedi.blogspot.in 



And I am in no mood to repeat them here by classifying. I would summarize some key points in the tips section.
Tips: Before I forget, usually at the end of interviews, the interviewers ask you if you have some questions about them, be prepared with some questions which can be like - what do you usually look for in a good candidate, what is the work culture at the company, the career path of the individual in the company or otherwise etc etc. You can google things, or you can be innovative. Innovation might pay off very well or it may just kill your chances. But that's life - more risk, more reward.



And another point, some of your interviews might be telephonic - in such cases, many more factors come into picture  which might spoil the mood of the interview ( I would let you to think about the possible glitches that you might have because of this technological advancement). But as usual, I would advice you to keep calm and just give your best. 



Puzzles Interview: Prepare from the standard blogs and books, like cseblog and heard on the wall street. Ask seniors about the trending books. For the interview, do what is asked of you. Try to solve the problem. If you have already soled the proble, try to outline the steps and the solution, but don't be over or under excited any time. Sometimes the interviewer might be curious about the steps, and about your thought process. He might be looking for how many different ways you can think of attacking the same problem (At times they give a wrong problem just to check that!). However at times, you might not be that lucky and the person in front of you might value only accuracy and speed - that makes the task tougher - you have to be quick and you have to be correct, I would suggest you to trying being accurate, even if the guy in front of you is checking your patience by bugging you about your speed. In all cases, keep your calm.



HR Interview:Technically, I didn't give an HR interview (at least I don't think I gave one!) but standard preparation includes questions of the sort - walk me through your resume, tell me about yourself, tell me about yourself BEYOND the resume (meaning what is not covered in the resume), strengths and weaknesses, your learning experience, capabilities as an individual, team player and team leader, some illustrations of them, why the XYZ role in ABC company probably over DEF company, why not higher education, why a job of this pay scale, your expectations of the firm etc







Case Studies and Guesstimate:The only thing that I can think about such interviews (I had only one and I didn't do very well) - during some stage of preparation preferably 60-70% of it, prepare and discuss in groups, work many problems, and learn from your mistakes. As usual try to value the thought process than the answers only!

Round: Summary
Tips: There are many things that I would like to convey to the students regarding the placement process.On the preparation side, one must give his best - visit websites, read blogs, attend presentations and various related sessions, ask seniors who have been placed, talk to anyone who you think can provide some help. These practices will give you enormous data - and your job is to filter and use it wisely, at your own discretion. Read relevant material from books and internet, practice problems and tests, do mock interviews and GDs with your friends, prepare your resume well - in short - do what is to be done. Depending on job profiles that you target, the preparation keeps varying, ask around and work hard.



With that being said, I would like to say that placement is not simply about merit - independent of whether you appreciate this fact or not. Various companies value compatibility over the merit of the student (which is quite logical thing to do!) and sometimes you may under-qualify and sometimes over-qualify on those standards - and rarely will you be just at an optimal level. Consequently, many results(in fact most, to be even more precise all except one) will not go in your favour - either accept them or challenge them (if you think you have been denied of something that you truly deserve) but never lose your heart - this is simply a welcome song to the real world. In the long run, this short and (most likely a difficult and) tough experience will prove to be one of the most memorable and a great learning experience.



In a nut shell "Keep Calm and Give your Best! - Karm karte raho, fal ki chinta mat karo."

Round: Puzzle Interview
Tips: Prepare from the standard blogs and books, like cseblog and heard on the wall street. Ask seniors about the trending books. For the interview, do what is asked of you. Try to solve the problem. If you have already solved the problem, try to outline the steps and the solution, but don't be over or under excited any time. Sometimes the interviewer might be curious about the steps, and about your thought process. He might be looking for how many different ways you can think of attacking the same problem (At times they give a wrong problem just to check that!). However at times, you might not be that lucky and the person in front of you might value only accuracy and speed - that makes the task tougher - you have to be quick and you have to be correct, I would suggest you to trying being accurate, even if the guy in front of you is checking your patience by bugging you about your speed. In all cases, keep your calm.

General Tips: There are many things that I would like to convey to the students regarding the placement process.On the preparation side, one must give his best - visit websites, read blogs, attend presentations and various related sessions, ask seniors who have been placed, talk to anyone who you think can provide some help. These practices will give you enormous data - and your job is to filter and use it wisely, at your own discretion. Read relevant material from books and internet, practice problems and tests, do mock interviews and GDs with your friends, prepare your resume well - in short - do what is to be done. Depending on job profiles that you target, the preparation keeps varying, ask around and work hard.

With that being said, I would like to say that placement is not simply about merit - independent of whether you appreciate this fact or not. Various companies value compatibility over the merit of the student (which is quite logical thing to do!) and sometimes you may under-qualify and sometimes over-qualify on those standards - and rarely will you be just at an optimal level. Consequently, many results(in fact most, to be even more precise all except one) will not go in your favour - either accept them or challenge them (if you think you have been denied of something that you truly deserve) but never lose your heart - this is simply a welcome song to the real world. In the long run, this short and (most likely a difficult and) tough experience will prove to be one of the most memorable and a great learning experience.

In a nut shell "Keep Calm and Give your Best! - Karm karte raho, fal ki chinta mat karo."
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Tips: Cpi doesn't matter. But the project works and achievements in Olympiads does!

Round: Test
Tips: Test consists of Linear algebra, CS basics, probability sections.
Don't hurry and try to best in all the sections.
Try to top any one section. (CS students might concentrate on CS section and likewise)

Round: Puzzle Interview
Tips: Not exactly puzzles. Probability plus CS basics (depending on your background. Non cs students might not have questions on algorithms)

Round: Other Interview
Tips: Convey a better command on topics. Interview process might vary on the profile they are looking for.

General Tips: Work on probability and puzzles.
Try to know about the profile they are hiring you for. Get to know more about it.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY
Motivation: New field. First job. Chance to take risk.
Funny Moments: Ended up discussing a lot about my entrepreneurial experience with the interviewer who has similar background before joining GS