Get a Job at Goldman Sachs: Interview Process and Top Questions

Learn how to prepare for Goldman Sachs interviews with this in-depth guide.

Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s biggest investment banking, securities, and asset and wealth management firms.

Goldman Sachs could be a great place if you have a background or interest in finance and a strong work ethic.

Goldman Sachs is also an excellent option for people early in their careers, offering various programs and internships for university and grad students. Goldman Sachs hosts approximately 2,500 interns each year.

Below, we summarize the Goldman Sachs interview process and the top questions you should expect to answer.

Goldman Sachs Interview Process

Interviewing at Goldman Sachs is straightforward and faster than some similarly sized companies. 

The process is divided into three rounds, which vary depending on your role and seniority level.

Goldman Sachs’ interview process is heavy on data structure and algorithm questions and much lighter on practical questions.

Expect to get a Hirevue screen, a technical challenge, and then a “super day” of multiple virtual interviews scheduled on the same day.

The Goldman Sachs interview process typically takes about three weeks and involves:

• Hirevue screen,
• Technical screen,
• Final round.

Hirevue screen

The initial step in the Goldman Sachs interview process is a Hirevue screening, which is a 15-minute AI-conducted, recorded video interview. You get five general personality and behavioral questions with two minutes per question for your video answer.

Technical screen

The technical screen at Goldman Sachs is a one-hour coding challenge on CoderPad.

Prepare for two easy to medium-level data structure and algorithm questions on CoderPad. 

Common coding questions at Goldman Sachs: 

• Graphs and Trees
• Arrays
• Strings
• Dynamic programming
• Object-oriented programming

Final rounds

The final interview round at Goldman Sachs is a virtual “super day,” meaning all your final rounds (two or three loops of 45–60 minutes each) are conducted on the same day.

For engineers, this usually includes coding, system design, and behavioral rounds. 

Top Goldman Sachs Interview Questions

These are interview questions asked at Goldman Sachs, as reported by candidates.

Behavioral

• Tell me about the most challenging situation you faced in your career and how you handled it.
• Tell me about yourself.
• Tell me about your past projects.

Coding

• Implement a queue using stacks.
• Given an array of n integers and a number k, find the maximum number of elements whose sum is less than k, and return their sum.
• Calculate the trapped rainwater between bars in a given array.
• Find Largest Numbers
• Given the head of two singly linked lists, write a function to return the point where they intersect (if any).

System Design

• Design a web scraping engine.
• Design Git.
• Design LinkedIn.
• Design Ticketmaster.

Machine Learning

• What is overfitting or underfitting? Which models are most likely to experience this, and why?
• Explain regularization.
• How do you handle imbalanced data?
• Explain the differences between linear and logistic regression.

Data Science

• What is the ratio limit of two consecutive Fibonacci numbers as the sequence progresses?
• You roll a dice until the total reaches 100 or more. Which appears more often in the rolls: 1 or 6?
• If a + b + c + d = 63, what's the maximum value of a * b + b * c + c * d?
• Explain Bayes' theorem.

Product Management 

• How do you influence without authority?
• What is the project you are most proud of?
• How do you define success for the products you launched?
• Explain and walk me through the design to engineering of a product.
• When you were doing A/B testing, what specific things would you evaluate?

Goldman Sachs Interview Loops

Behavioral

The behavioral round at Goldman Sachs is straightforward. Prepare to answer questions like “Why Goldman Sachs?” and “Tell me about yourself.”

Sometimes, this round is on its own, and other times, behavioral questions are incorporated into a technical round.

Because this round is all about culture fit, get to know Goldman Sachs’ values and business principles on its Purpose and Values page ahead of time. Create a story bank that you can use for this interview.

Refresh your knowledge of the STAR framework for answering behavioral questions, too. 

Coding

Goldman Sachs’s coding final round consists sometimes of one, sometimes two, interviews. This second coding round is very similar to the technical screen—usually two data structure and algorithm questions of easy to medium-level difficulty. 

You’ll also likely be asked some behavioral questions about your resume, past projects, problem-solving approach, and technical background at the beginning of this round.

System design

The system design round at Goldman Sachs is included on superdays for most engineering candidates.

Expect to create a high-level design for a large-scale system for a product, like LinkedIn or Ticketmaster, or Design a web scraping engine.

Ask clarifying questions before jumping into your design, consider scalability and reliability, and discuss trade-offs and your decision-making process throughout the interview. Leave time at the end of the interview for follow-up questions from your interviewer.

Machine Learning

Goldman Sachs’s machine learning round involves exploring your past ML experience, projects, and problem-solving approach in depth.

It also assesses technical expertise by asking ML concept questions. ML engineering candidates can expect a coding round that focuses on data science questions in addition to their ML round.

Data Science

For the data science round at Goldman Sachs, you’ll get a technical round similar to the coding round but with statistical questions, data structures, and algorithms.

Expect easy to medium-level difficulty. 

You may also be asked questions about your resume, past projects, problem-solving approach, and technical background.

Product Management 

The first product management round at Goldman Sachs includes a mixture of questions.

Expect behavioral questions about your past projects and experience. Consider creating a story bank for these behavioral product questions. You’ll also get product sense questions and a couple light technical questions. 

A second PM round involves answering a few small case study questions and product scenarios in front of a panel of interviewers. Familiarize yourself with Goldman Sachs’ operations and the fintech landscape to prepare.

Goldman Sachs Interview Tips

Goldman Sachs values excellence. 

To get the job, you need to demonstrate your striving for excellence. Prepare anecdotes that highlight the exceptional impact you made in your past roles. 

Goldman Sachs wants candidates with a customer-first mindset. 

“Client service” is one of Goldman Sachs’ core values. Signal to interviewers how you always prioritize serving the client. Mention the customer in your interviews, for example, in your responses to behavioral questions and in your system design round.

Know Goldman Sachs inside and out.

• Prepare for behavioral questions by studying Goldman Sachs’ values on its Purpose and Values page. 
• Explore Goldman Sachs’ teams. 
• To answer practical questions, research the fintech current landscape and look into Goldman Sachs’ current initiatives on its Community Impact page. 

FAQs

How competitive are Goldman Sachs interviews?

Goldman Sachs interviews are competitive, but the technical difficulty of its interviews is in the easy to medium range. Prepare for your interview to increase your chances of getting an offer.

How should I prepare for my interview at Goldman Sachs? 

• Practice interview questions asked at Goldman Sachs.
• Refresh your knowledge of coding questions, especially SQL and Python for data scientists.
• Create a story bank of behavioral question answers that align with Goldman Sachs' values and purpose.
• Take an Exponent interview course in your domain: ML engineering, data science, SWE, system design, or PM. 
• Book a mock interview to hash out commonly asked questions in real time.

Does Goldman Sachs hire students or new grads? 

Yes! Goldman Sachs hosts a wide array of global programs and internships for current university students and current graduate students, as well as full-time roles for recent college graduates. Explore the currently open options on Goldman Sachs’ Programs and Internships page. 

More Goldman Sachs Interview Prep Resources

Exponent has extensive resources to prepare you to feel your best when it comes time for your interview at Goldman Sachs:

💬 Brush up on interview questions asked at Goldman Sachs