Goldman Sachs Interview Process

Hi all, I am Saravana Perumal.K (B.Tech Information Technology) doing my final year at CEG. I attended an interview during my 6th semester through which I got the opportunity to intern in Goldman Sachs, Bangalore for 2 months. I would explain all the rounds that I had to clear in this document. 1st Round-Written Test The written test comprised of 30 aptitude mainly mathematics and 10 Technical questions. All were multiple choice questions. Aptitude: The questions encompassed the following topics y y y Time and Distance Data Interpretation(Charts and Graphs) Sequence and Series(Eg: Find the next no in the series)

The aptitude questions would be similar to CAT questions. If you are not going for CAT coaching classes, then study from R.S.Agarwal. To be frank, I didn t study from either of them. When I wrote the written exam, I never knew that Goldman Sachs (GS) is a multinational company. Only after passing the first round, I got to know about it. Also, we have to complete the written test in 45 mins. But, I had just completed the first 7 questions in 30 minutes. Since there was no negative marking, I randomly selected the answers for the remaining questions and the fortune was in my way that day . One more thing you have to keep in mind while writing the exam is that GS will select you if you are good at either aptitude or technical. So, choose the section you are good at and then start answering the questions. Technical: The questions were of the following type y y y y 2nd Round Group Discussion In GD, they split the selected members into groups of 7 and we were asked to discuss on the topic Social Networking . During GD, the HR team just checks whether we participate in the discussion or not and not about our accent or grammar. And they would select everyone in the group if everyone 2 Debugging questions 2 Sorting question 3 OS 4 Theory questions like complexity, order

participates. In my group, they selected six out of seven members. So, if you just speak loud and let others speak, you will automatically be selected. 3rd Round-Interview 1 In any interview, just answer boldly and clearly whatever you wish to convey even if you do not know the answer. That s on thing I learned during this interview process. The first question was Explain the different types of normalization. I just took a paper and explained 1nf, 2nf, 3nf,bcnf, 4nf and 5nf. Then the interviewer asked me Is there any more normalizations possible . I said We can normalize up to any level until the cohesion is maintained in the tables . He acknowledged it and went to some ECE topics. He asked me How will you design a railway bridge which automatically opens and closes when a train comes. What sensor you would use for it and why? What type of motor you will use and why? . The moment I heard the question, I knew that I don t know the answer for this. But, I followed my golden rule Just babble something boldly of you don t know the answer and stick to whatever you say . I gave some vague answers like optical sensor (fastest because light travels at 3x108sec), induction motor, etc. Then he asked me where do you find a diode in this room? I just kept on looking everywhere, took some wild guesses which were all wrong. This is the only question that I didn t answer properly in the whole interview process. But, it didn t cost me much. Then, he moved into Artificial Intelligence (AI) questions. Luckily, I chose AI as my elective and so I was able to answer it. The question was You have 4 gallon jug and a 3 gallon jug. You can either completely fill or empty one of the jugs. You have infinite amount of water. How will you measure 1 gallon of water? . I replied Fill the 4 gallon jug completely and transfer it to 3 gallon jug until the 3 gallon jug gets full. Then, you will have 1 gallon of water in the other jug . This was a simple question which gives the answer in just one step. Then they asked a slightly difficult question with different measurements whose answer would involve a series of filling and emptying of jugs. This was the last question in my 1st interview and this was the longest of all others. 4th Round-Interview 2- HR round In this round, they reviewed my resume and asked questions on the projects that I have done. So, make sure that you can explain the projects that you are going to put on your resume. 5th Round-Interview 3-Technical In this round, they asked us certain coding questions as follows. y y y Print the linked list in the reverse order Reverse a character array using 1.recursion, 2.iteration and 3.pointers Given a circle, find whether the given point is within the circle or not using graphics and not mathematical formulas like distance between 2 points. The first 2 are simple questions. The last question is slightly difficult. The answer is Draw a circle. Fill it with some color say orange (g.fillCircle()). Then use g.getColor(new Point(x,y)). x and

y depicts the given point. Therefore if the getColor() method returns Orange , then the point is within the circle. Otherwise, the point is outside the circle. My answer was right and that was the last question I faced in my interview process. Hope my documentation would help you in your placements.

All the best for your placements

-K.Saravana Perumal k_saravan91@yahoo.co.in 9444449584