PLACEMENT PROCESS REPORT | 2020-21

Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs concluded the placement process for the Software Engineer
profile at CTC of 23 lacks for students of all schools.
Out of 188 (School Of Engineering-158, School Of Humanities and Social Science-23,
School Of Natural Sciences-7) students who appeared for an online test, 36 (School Of
Engineering-36, Computer Science and Engineering-30, Electronics and Communication
Engineering-5, Mechanical Engineering-1) were shortlisted for another round and finally
8(Computer Science and Engineering) got selected.
About:
Goldman Sachs is global investment banking, securities and investment management firm.
They provide a wide range of services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes
corporations, institutional investors, governments, non-profit organizations, and high net
worth individuals. The engineering teams build solutions to some of the most complex
problems in the finance industry. From automated trading to managing data, risk analysis to
safeguarding information, and promoting environmental responsibility.

Process Details:
Round 1: Online coding test
The first round was an advanced coding round that was for 40 minutes and the students were
asked to code two questions.
Round 2: Interview
During the interview, you will also be provided with a HackerRank CodePair link where you
share a coding pad with the interviewer in real-time.

Sample Questions:
Online coding Test:
1. Given a string H, and a pattern I with $ and @, where $ matches one char and @
matches, any number of chars (may even be none), check if the pattern can be used to
represent the string.
eg:
H: binod
I: b$n$$
YES

H: helloworld
I: he@rld@
YES
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H: kabirkanha
I: @h
NO

H: cdc
I: @
YES

2. Given a lightbulb that is switched on at t=0 and switched off at t=m, and n distinct
integers between 0 and m, each of which represents a toggle of the switch, find the
max time the bulb can be left on by adding at most one switch toggle at any instant.
eg:
m=20
2 5 10
Output = 16 (by adding a toggle at t=11)

3. Given an array of current leaderboard scores and another array that contains person
X's scores, output his position on the leaderboard after each attempt.
All tied people have the same rank and the next score has the next rank. (no numbers
are skipped)
eg:
Leaderboard = 85 80 80 79 64 32 21
Attempts = 10 40 59 80 90 20
Output = 8 6 6 2 1 1

Interview Questions:

1. Input: Sorted array of integers 'A' and an integer 'k'

Task: Distribute k amongst the elements of A to maximize the number of equal
elements in A
eg: A = [1, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12], k = 4.
Output = Add 2 to 10, and 1 to 11, to get 3 equal elements.

2. Find the longest substring in a string.

3. Convert Binary Search Tree to a doubly-linked list.
4. Detect a loop in the linked list and how do you remove the loop
5. Given a sorted array of integers and a number k, distribute this k among the array
elements and report the max possible number of array elements that can be made
equal.
6. Check if the parentheses in an arithmetic expression are valid. How will you evaluate
the expression if valid? (Hint: Stack-based approach)
7. Given an array of strings and a bag of words, find the smallest subarray that contains
all the elements of the bag of words.

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8. Given two functions bool isWeekend(date) and Date nDaysfromStart(date, n),

implement a function nWeekdaysFromStart(date, n).
9. Find the diameter of a given binary tree.
10. How would you sort 100GB of data with 1GB of memory?
11. Explain how quicksort works and write the pseudocode.
12. Explain the OOP concepts in Java.
13. Examples of SQL and No-SQL database.

Inputs from Students:

1. Manage your time properly as you will have to answer two questions in 40 minutes.
2. Ensure you have a good working knowledge of the various data structures and know-
how and when to use them along with their time complexities and pros and cons.
3. You should be able to flawlessly give the time complexity of any algorithm you
propose to solve a task.

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