Goldman Sachs Analyst Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Round: Test
Experience: 1. It was 3 hours test with three 'subjective' sections of one hour each.
2. The first section was mathematics, comprising of Probability Statistics and Linear Algebra. Apparently, one of the sum was from one of the previous IMO papers. All the sums were more or less pretty theoretical and high level.
3. The second section was algorithms, which is where I performed best, since I was taking the Data Structures and Algorithms course that semester.
4. The third section was on computer networks which was mainly targeted at the CSE junta and not meant for us.
Duration: 180 minutes
Total Questions: 60+60+60

Round: Interview
Experience: 1. It lasted for 20-30 minutes.
2. This was my first interview of the day. It started off with a discussion of my resume, especially of my work at DB, and the interviewer even told me about how they do something quite similar in their team.
3. He asked me about my courses and my interest in finance.
4. The discussion then moved towards finance and we discussed questions like why are gold prices increasing and why are US treasury bonds still valuable and also about the Euro crisis.
5. I call it a discussion because although it would start off with a question the interviewer would pose for me, very soon it would end up being an interesting discussion with each of us putting in our opinion and views and new facts. It was a very jovial interview.

Round: Interview
Experience: 1. This was supposed to be a more technical interview to test my coding and mathematical skills.
2. The interviewer asked me if I knew C++. I told him that I had done it back in my high school days, so might be a little rusty but will definitely try.
3. He started off with an easy question on derived classes and their objects. Soon the code became more and more complicated, involving abstract classes, virtual functions, copy constructors etc.
4. However, thankfully I was able to answer at every step, sometimes of course with a little nudge from him.
5. Later in second question, he modified the question by making it an unfair coin. He taught me how to draw a state diagram, and using that I was easily able to reach the answer.
6. After this I had left for the BCG ordeal so had been unable to come back for my third interview that they kept calling me for. I finally came back to meet them after giving my 1st round interview at Credit Suisse. I was asked about my job preferences and if I was really interested in joining GS.
7. After I assured them that GS is indeed my dream company they let me know that all of them were pretty impressed with me and in other ways subtly hinted at the good news. When I came out of that room, my prior two interviewers came over to chat with me. We moved into another room and had a long chat about their plans for the India office of GS, the new teams they were planning to build etc. One of them gave me his business card, asking me to give him a call if I had any more questions.

General Tips: 1. I really wanted to get into Goldman Sachs so I started reading the Financial Express on the side, and practicing probability problems from “50 challenging problems in probability”, a book suggested by one of the alums in investment banking.
2. The preparation for CAT had taken care of my aptitude test preparation so I did not have to worry much about that any longer.
3. I didn't have to worry about Group Discussions because not too many companies open for BSBE conducted GD’s.
4. I had left the last week after my endsems ended and before placements began for the main preparation for HR although I did make a list of questions and jotted down some points for the answers of each of them beforehand.
5. Initially, I would practice around 3 case studies a week, with my batchmates in GH, in a group of 4. We would meet at night whenever possible and each one would solve one case study each while another person posed as the interviewer, usually from the book “Case in Point” but sometimes also from other sources like the IIMA Case Book, the Wharton Business School Case book and the cases that had come in previous years’ problems which we found in SPO’s Case book.
6. In later days, especially during endsems, we took to meeting in mixed random groups among the BCG shortlisted people for similar case practice sessions, and I ended up having done around 20 case studies before placements started.
7. Once the shortlist for Goldman Sachs came out, which was 2 days before the placements, I also read up a little on dynamic programming which I knew nothing about.
8. In the last week before placements I structured my HR answers and learnt by heart the main points so that I don’t miss any when answering, but not the language because I believed spontaneity is a must to excel in HR interviews.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: I kind of knew how to do all the questions but made a calculation mistake in two qs. Apparently, they shortlisted only those who scored above a certain cutoff (which was high).

1. Given a pointer to the head of a linked list, insert a new node at the end of the list in constant time.

2. Print permutations of a set of integers

3. Standard deviation of length of a chord from a point on a circle in a random direction.

4. Find derivative of f?1(x) at x = 0 given f(x) = Rx

3 (t4 + t3 + t2 + t)dt (use the fact that f?1(f(x)) = x and differentiate both sides)

5. What is the probability that 7m + 7n is divisible by 5 if probability of m being odd is twice as m’s probability of being even and similarly n is thrice as likely to be even than odd. (find the probabilities of m,n being even and odd, then takes each case and find the probability that in each case 7m + 7n ends with a 5 or 0 by taking all possible last digits of 7m and 7n)

6. Function that returns 1 if input binary tree is a binary search tree without using any assignment statements, loops, arithmetic operations in the function. (obviously you use recursion. They defined a BST so you needn’t even have remembered what it was).
Duration: 2 hrs minutes

College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: It was a test checking your logical reasoning with three subjective questions on Probability and three on general algorithm of programming. They were checking our quantitative ability and programming skills as well.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: It was a technical interview in which they started with asking some basic questions on probability such as Moment-generating function of Normal distribution, one algorithm problem and one problem from signal processing. I could not do the last one but rest all went fine.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: It was an HR interview. They enquired about my programming skills, career interests and future plans.

General Tips: I took it for granted that being from a non-CSE dept they won’t be ask me questions from OOP and related concepts (like Polymorphism and Virtual functions). However, they expected the candidate to be well aware of all that.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

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
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: 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