INTERVIEW PREP · INDIA AND US
Goldman Sachs software engineer interview
The rounds at each level, what interviewers score, the Core values and business principles, and the questions candidates report, linked to problems you can solve here with the editor, walkthrough video and solutions in four languages.
Levels
| AlgoRung level | Goldman Sachs title | Experience | Interviews after screening | Design rounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDE 1 | Analyst | New grad to about 2 years | about 5 | Yes |
| SDE 2 | Analyst (2–3 years) to Associate | About 2 to 5 years | about 6 | Yes |
| SDE 3 | Associate to Vice President | Senior, about 5 to 10 years | about 6 | Yes |
| SDE 4 | Vice President / Managing Director | Staff, principal and above | about 5 | Yes |
The rounds, in order
Pick your level above to see only your rounds. Each step links to a guide on how that round is scored.
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Online assessment · 90 min
An online test with two or three DSA problems; campus drives may add aptitude sections or a recorded video screen.
SDE 1, SDE 2, SDE 3
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Phone / recruiter screen · 60 min
A live coding screen with an engineer: one or two problems you must run and test, plus a short resume chat.
All levels
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Coding (DSA) × 2 · 60 min
Superday DSA rounds, often with two interviewers: mostly medium problems with many follow-ups; Java internals (HashMap, garbage collection) are common.
All levels
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Low-level design / machine coding · 60 min
Class and schema design for a small system; concurrency follow-ups are frequent.
All levels
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System design (HLD) · 60 min
For experienced hires, a design round with a resume deep dive and a scalable-system prompt.
SDE 2, SDE 3, SDE 4
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Hiring manager · 45 min
Why you are switching, why this firm, situational questions, sometimes a DSA problem.
All levels
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Behavioral · 45 min
An HR or behavioral round on ownership, deadlines, conflict and ethics scenarios.
SDE 1, SDE 2, SDE 3
ScreeningCodingDesignBehavioralDecision
What interviewers look for
- Working code that compiles and passes edge cases
- Getting from brute force to optimal, with complexity stated
- Strong core Java, collections and multithreading
- Clean class and schema design that handles concurrent transactions
- Talking through your reasoning
- Ownership and integrity in behavioral answers
Topics to focus on
Weighted by what candidates say comes up and by the reported questions below.
Behavioral: Core values and business principles
Behavioral and manager rounds look for ownership, integrity under pressure and teamwork; map your stories to these values. 'Why us over a pure tech company?' and an ethics scenario are common.
Client ServiceCustomer focus
Start from a real user problem and show how your decision changed something for them.
- Describe a time you changed a plan because of what you learned about the user.
- Tell me about a time you had to balance a customer need against a technical constraint.
PartnershipCollaboration and inclusion
Show how you helped others succeed and made people feel they belonged.
- Describe a decision you argued against but then had to carry out.
- Tell me about a time you helped a teammate succeed.
- Describe a project that needed several teams. How did you get them aligned?
IntegrityIntegrity and trust
Show you were honest when it was uncomfortable, and how you earned trust back.
- Describe a mistake you made that reached production. How did you handle it?
- Tell me about a time you had to tell someone something they did not want to hear.
- Describe how you built trust with a new team or stakeholder.
ExcellenceHigh standards
Show you raised the bar on quality even when nobody asked, and why it mattered.
- Tell me about a time you were not satisfied with "good enough".
- Describe a time you had to choose between quality and speed.
- Describe how you assess or help hire a new team member.
All behavioral questions · Write your STAR stories in the story bank
Coding questions candidates report
Each links to the AlgoRung problem: write-up, animated walkthrough, solutions in Java, Python, C++ and JavaScript, and an editor with hidden tests. Shared questions show the other companies that ask them.
- Trapping Rain Water Hard Arrays & Hashing also Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce +1
- LRU Cache Medium Design Data Structures also Amazon, Microsoft, Apple +4
- Decode Ways Medium Dynamic Programming
- Number of Islands Medium Graphs also Amazon, Microsoft, Meta +1
- Coin Change Medium Dynamic Programming also Google, Airbnb, Salesforce
- Container With Most Water Medium Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft
- Koko Eating Bananas Medium Binary Search also Amazon
- Burst Balloons Hard Dynamic Programming
- Kth Largest Element in a Stream Easy Heaps
- Kth Smallest Element in a BST Medium Trees & BST
- Top K Frequent Words Medium Heaps also Amazon
- Longest Palindromic Subsequence Medium Dynamic Programming also LinkedIn
- 0 - 1 Knapsack Problem Medium Dynamic Programming also Flipkart
- Implement Queue using Stacks Easy Stack also Walmart Global Tech
No questions match.
Goldman Sachs coding questions by topic · Goldman Sachs SDE 1 interview · Goldman Sachs SDE 2 interview · Goldman Sachs senior interview · Goldman Sachs staff interview
Also reported, not on AlgoRung yet (2)
High Five · Predict the Winner
Design questions
Analyst Superdays usually include an LLD round on classes, schema and concurrency. Associate and VP loops add HLD on finance-flavoured or high-throughput systems plus a resume deep dive. SQL and schema questions show up across levels.
- Reported: Real-time trade processing system Payment system · walkthrough
- Reported: Flash-sale backend under heavy load Flash sale · walkthrough
- Reported: Notification system Notification system · walkthrough
- Reported: Task scheduler with dependencies and priorities (LLD) Job scheduler · walkthrough
Also reported: Distributed message queue · Key-value map with per-entry TTL · Banking system with accounts and cards (LLD + SQL)
Goldman Sachs system design questions in detail · How to answer any design question: the LADDER method
Worth knowing
- The common path is online test, then a live coding screen, then a Superday of 3–5 back-to-back rounds.
- Bengaluru and Hyderabad are the India engineering hubs.
- Recruiters sometimes require all rounds in Java.
- In SQL questions, interviewers may ban a keyword such as DISTINCT to make you find another approach.
Interviewing at Goldman Sachs?
Add the date and your level. AlgoRung builds a plan back from the interview day, schedules revisions before it, and counts problems you have already solved for every company that asks them.
Sources
Written in our own words from these public pages and candidate reports, checked November 2026. Company names are trademarks of their owners.