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Goldman Sachs interview questions

270 questions researched across 11 Goldman Sachs seats in Investment Banking, Global Banking & Markets, Asset & Wealth Management. Below are 12 of them.

Seats we researched

  • Summer AnalystInvestment Banking · intern · 30 min
  • AnalystInvestment Banking · graduate · 30 min
  • AssociateInvestment Banking · experienced · 40 min
  • Sales & Trading Summer AnalystGlobal Banking & Markets · intern · 30 min
  • Structuring AnalystGlobal Banking & Markets · graduate · 30 min
  • Summer AnalystAsset & Wealth Management · intern · 30 min
  • AssociatePrivate Wealth Management · experienced · 40 min
  • Operations Analyst InternOperations · intern · 30 min
  • Software Engineer InternEngineering · intern · 30 min
  • Research Summer AnalystGlobal Investment Research · intern · 30 min
  • PWM Summer AnalystPrivate Wealth Management · intern · 30 min

12 Goldman Sachs interview questions

  1. Explain the three financial statements and the key linkages between them.

  2. Why do we subtract cash when we go from equity value to enterprise value?

  3. Company A trades at 10 times earnings and buys Company B at 3 times earnings in an all-stock deal. Is that accretive or dilutive, and why?

  4. How would you value a start-up with no current financial or operating history?

  5. If interest rates in the US rise, what happens to the US dollar, and why?

  6. A mad scientist builds a machine that turns a $10 bill into a $20 bill. Each use takes exactly one year, it explodes after 10 uses, each use costs $2 of electricity, and the risk-free rate is 10%. How much would you pay for it?

  7. Tell me about a time you held a teammate accountable for the quality of their work on a shared project.

  8. Tell me about a time you picked the option you liked less because you knew it was the right call.

  9. Describe a time you had to make an important decision on the spot. How did you evaluate the situation, and what did you learn?

  10. A key client is happy with the industry report you just presented but asks for extra detail on their competitors, which firm policy prevents you from sharing. How do you handle the conversation?

  11. What obstacles have you had to work through to succeed in a past role or assignment?

  12. If a company IPOs and the stock pops after issuance, why might management be upset, and why might they not be?

What a strong answer does

The questions above fall into 3 kinds. What a strong answer does differs by kind, not by question.

Technical5 of 12 above
State the intuition first; walk through the mechanics; make assumptions explicit; test a risk or edge case; connect the answer to the role.
Behavioral5 of 12 above
Lead with the claim and context; isolate your personal action and decision; explain the trade-off; quantify the result; finish with what you learned and changed.
Market2 of 12 above
State a view; support it with evidence and a catalyst; explain valuation or transmission; give the strongest countercase; name the risk that would change your mind.

258 more Goldman Sachs questions

The rest of the bank — 270 in total — is asked by the interviewer during practice, so you meet them the way you would on the day rather than reading them first.

Practise Goldman Sachs questions

How these questions were researched

Every question carries a provenance grade. Some were reported by candidates who sat the round, some come from the firm’s own published guidance or a source that trains for it, and the rest are written to match how this firm asks. Each seat is studied on its own — the round it actually runs, the order it runs it in, and what it is listening for. A Goldman Sachs round is not a generic behavioural screen, and practising one as the other is how people walk in unprepared.

Falas is not affiliated with or endorsed by any employer named. Simulations are independent practice based on publicly described recruiting formats.