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GOLDMAN SACHS · STAFF SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Goldman Sachs staff engineer interview

The staff and principal software engineer level at Goldman Sachs is Vice President / Managing Director, for staff, principal and senior staff engineers. The rounds at this level, how each one is scored, and the questions to practise first.

From public candidate reports and Goldman Sachs's careers pages, checked November 2026. Processes vary by team. AlgoRung is not affiliated with Goldman Sachs.

Track my Goldman Sachs prep
Goldman Sachs titleVice President / Managing Director
ExperienceStaff, principal and senior staff engineers
Interviews after screeningAbout 5
System design roundYes

The Staff Software Engineer rounds, in order

  1. 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.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Frequently a hiring-manager conversation about scope and impact instead of pure coding.

  2. 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.

    At Staff Software Engineer: One or two rounds, sometimes design-flavoured (build a small class with several methods). Coding is a bar to clear, not where level is decided.

  3. Low-level design / machine coding · 60 min

    Class and schema design for a small system; concurrency follow-ups are frequent.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Rare as a standalone round; folded into design discussions.

  4. System design (HLD) · 60 min

    For experienced hires, a design round with a resume deep dive and a scalable-system prompt.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Two rounds at many companies. Expected to handle ambiguity, cost, operations and cross-team trade-offs, and to change the design when the interviewer pushes.

  5. Hiring manager · 45 min

    Why you are switching, why this firm, situational questions, sometimes a DSA problem.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Strategy, influence without authority and the biggest bets you have made.

What Goldman Sachs interviewers look for

Behavioral rounds are based on the Core values and business principles: Client Service, Partnership, Integrity, Excellence. Questions for each one.

Coding questions to practise for Goldman Sachs Staff Software Engineer

One or two rounds, sometimes design-flavoured (build a small class with several methods). Coding is a bar to clear, not where level is decided.

Difficulty
Topic
14 questions
  1. Trapping Rain Water Hard Arrays & Hashing also Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce +1
  2. LRU Cache Medium Design Data Structures also Amazon, Microsoft, Apple +4
  3. Decode Ways Medium Dynamic Programming
  4. Number of Islands Medium Graphs also Amazon, Microsoft, Meta +1
  5. Coin Change Medium Dynamic Programming also Google, Airbnb, Salesforce
  6. Container With Most Water Medium Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft
  7. Koko Eating Bananas Medium Binary Search also Amazon
  8. Burst Balloons Hard Dynamic Programming
  9. Kth Largest Element in a Stream Easy Heaps
  10. Kth Smallest Element in a BST Medium Trees & BST
  11. Top K Frequent Words Medium Heaps also Amazon
  12. Longest Palindromic Subsequence Medium Dynamic Programming also LinkedIn
  13. 0 - 1 Knapsack Problem Medium Dynamic Programming also Flipkart
  14. Implement Queue using Stacks Easy Stack also Walmart Global Tech

How the coding round is scored · The online assessment

System design at Staff Software Engineer

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.

All Goldman Sachs system design questions

Questions people ask

How many rounds are in the Goldman Sachs Staff Software Engineer interview?

About 5 interviews after the screening: phone / recruiter screen, coding (dsa), low-level design / machine coding, system design (hld), hiring manager.

Is there a system design round for Goldman Sachs Staff Software Engineer?

Yes. 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.

What coding questions does Goldman Sachs ask at Staff Software Engineer?

The same question pool is used across levels; the bar rises with level. Most reported: Trapping Rain Water, LRU Cache, Decode Ways, Number of Islands, Coin Change.

What does Goldman Sachs expect in coding rounds at Staff Software Engineer?

One or two rounds, sometimes design-flavoured (build a small class with several methods). Coding is a bar to clear, not where level is decided.

Staff Software Engineer interviews at other companies

Staff Software Engineer interview questions across all companies · Behavioral questions