Goldman Sachs Quant Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Test
Experience: The subjective questions were really Maths Olympiad level problems. Computer
Duration: 90 minutes + 90 minutes minutes
Total Questions: 30 objective + 8-9 subjective questions

College Name: IIT Bombay

Round: Test
Experience: The questions in the objective section for Maths + Probability were comparatively easy. If you have prepared well for quant related topics, you can do well in this section.
As far as Data Structure section is concerned, it is necessary for you to score good in that part also, so do give equal importance to related study too. The third section, based on Data Science is generally very difficult, if seen from a non-CSE point of view. So, try scoring average in the algorithms, and really good in quant, to get through. One important point - all subjective papers are not considered. Consider objective as the first level of shortlisting, and then only people scoring well in objectives, are considered for subjective correction. So, performing well in objective is also necessary.
The subjective section is comparatively tough. Three questions were asked, each in the above mentioned three sections. Again, third section seemed very vague to me ( as I was unable to solve any question in it :P ). I did descent in the first section, and pretty well in the quant section to get shortlisted.
Tips: Rigorous study of quant stuff like Probability, and Combinatorics is very helpful. Questions are many a times Maths Olympiad level problems. So, practicing similar problems can be of great help. Do read concepts like Linear Algebra, Differential Equation, and other similar topics that are taught to us in our initial engineering years. It' necessary that you brush up these concepts, as questions might directly come based on finding the rank, solving some differential equation or conceptual application of eigenvalues and eigenvectors.

Duration: 90 + 90 minutes
Total Questions: 30objective+9ubjective

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I don't exactly remembered the question, but I had my first three interviews, immediately, one after the other, although lasting for a total of 45-50 minutes together. The questions tested concepts related to Probability (distributions and normal random variables in specific), a few basic concepts based on stationary distribution, and basic Algorithms and coding, so that they can make sure that I have some basic knowledge of coding, not thorough though. I had answered almost all, though I had faultered a bit in the coding part, and the interviewer helped me to figure out, where I was going wrong.
Tips: Its good again, to be thorough with your quant section, as there will be nothing that will come out of the box. Although the questions will require you to think from the basics and use relevant concepts. Topics in Probability, such as conditional expectation are generally left out in basic probability courses and then not touched upon, so go through them in detail.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: An hour after the first three interviews, I had my fourth interview. I was asked a question based on probability, and a question based on Euclid's subtraction algorithm in this interview. I answered both, one with a bit of help though.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I was again tested on my conceptual understanding of probability and conditional expectations, and fluency in coding and algorithm related problems. I was able to answer all the questions I faced in this interview.
Tips: Same as before. Be sure to brush up your algorithms, and coding skills before the interview. (I was unable to solve the coding question in the first interview, only because I had forgotten, what traversals are :P). Go through the materials provided below, and stay confident in the interview. The people who sit on the other side of the table, are just like us, previous year IIT graduates, and they will never make you feel uncomfortable. As a result, I'd suggest not to feel uncomfortable at all, and be confident over whatever you have studied. They emphasize majorly on concepts and tech-related part. One last thing - Be thorough with your resume, almost every interviewer asked me questions related to my resume, and I answered them with ease, as I had prepared really well for the resume.

General Tips: I would just say, that this is one of the companies, where it is not necessary for you to be a very high pointer to get in. Study well and perform well in the test, your resume does not matter much after that. You just have to go in the interview and stay consistent. The interviewers too, are very friendly and helpful, they are just IIT Alums only, and help you out really well with problems, if you get stuck in the interviews. So, just be strong with your concepts and problem solving skills. Do see questions like those mentioned on the cseblog, specially the ones under the head, probability. They were really helpful in developing a few concepts.

Just be confident with your preparation, and trust yourself to the core. Self-belief and perseverance, were I guess, my key points to success.

Skill Tips: Its good if you start going through the materials for the above topics, well in advance.
Skills: Probability Concepts, Algorithms And Data Structures, Quant+Math
College Name: IIT Bombay
Motivation: Goldman Sachs is one of the best in the business, in its field. Since I always wanted to do something related to Maths in my life, except research, I decided to choose finance as the further career option. The best in the business seemed firms like Goldman Sachs, and WorldQuant, but CPI cutoff for WorldQuant was way above my CPI. So, Goldman Sachs seemed the last and the most suited option. (This was not my HR answer, please. A genuine 8-pointer answer it is :P )
Funny Moments: There were many:
(a) I was very depressed late in the evening, and I was almost certain that I haven't been selected. I was so frustrated after this, that I had told my mom dad that I have not made it through, and I was all set to leave the interview venue. I had almost entered the lift, when I found that my name was being called out there by the company officials. I was selected! :)

(b) I was so happy, listening to the news of my selection, that I did not listen for the next 2 minutes, what the person in front of me was telling me. He then asked me something in reply, and I was like, can you please repeat ? :P

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Mostly CS and Elec guys were selected with CGPA>8. For other departments they should have CGPA>9

Round: Test
Experience: There were 3 sections.
1) Coding
2) Quant
3) Machine Learning

Prep material:
1) CSE Blog probability section is a must..
2) 50 questions, 40 questions is probabilty
3) gurmeet pzzles
4) geeks4geeks and creacking coding interview for algo

My prep material:
-----?id=0ByKxHuncAN4HcENlWFJubUN1LWc
Tips: Remember, you only have to do 1 or 2 section well. These sections are individually timed. So if you dont like ML and you want to spend more time in quant then, see the question in quant section, go to the ML section and solve it there, again come back to quant and mark the answer.

SO DONT FORGET TO SWITCH BETWEEN THE SECTIONS.

I'm sharing you a doc, which contains all the test questions asked by different companies (including goldman sachs) in different IITs. Just search "Goldman Sachs" in the doc and you'll find all the questions of the test. :)

-----k8LZFc_U7iEu1MEvfVN8fi_oR5b7uKIl8WGrY240/edit
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: There are different teams of GS that visit the campus. Based on your performance of the test, you're shortlisted for different teams.
Tips: 1) Stay calm
2) questions asked in interview are not difficult

College Name: IIT Bombay