I recently interviewed with Goldman Sachs for an Analyst role in Bangalore and wanted to share my experience and the type of questions I faced.

📋 Process Overview

1. Online Assessment (OA) (Hackerrank)
   Standard coding problems focused on arrays, strings, and time/space complexity.

2. CoderPad Screening
   A live coding session focusing on problem-solving speed, correctness, and clarity.
   Questions asked:

   • Find the Length of Cycle in an Array 🔄
   • Number of Islands 🏝️ (interviewer preferred BFS over DFS to avoid stack overflow)

3. Superday – 4 Rounds

   • Round 1 – DSA

     • Minimum Characters to Remove from the left, right, or both ends to make a string palindrome
     • Binary Search Assignment (similar to Koko Eating Bananas)

   • Round 2 – DSA

     • Coin Change (Minimum number of coins to make amount)
     • Container With Most Water 💧 (Follow-up: what if container is tilted?)

   • Round 3 – Low-Level Design (LLD)
     Design a Traffic Light System 🚦 that dynamically adjusts wait times based on real-time traffic data.

   • Round 4 – Behavioural / HR

     • Past projects, ownership, and challenges
     • Handling tight deadlines and conflicts
     • Motivation and career goals
     • Scenario: You overhear in a lift that a colleague, who was expecting a salary hike, is actually not going to get one. How would you handle this situation while maintaining professionalism and confidentiality?

💡 Tips

• Revise BFS/DFS, DP, two-pointer, binary search, and string manipulation.
• Communicate logic clearly and walk through examples.
• In LLD, focus on simplicity, scalability, and trade-offs.
• For HR, prepare structured stories (STAR method) highlighting ownership and teamwork.