When applying for tech positions in North America—especially at top-tier investment banks like Goldman Sachs—the technical interview is often the most critical part of the process. For international students like us, it’s not just about the coding skills. How we communicate, explain our thoughts, and even pace our conversations can make or break an interview.
My technical interview with Goldman was conducted through a platform called CoderPad. It lasted about 45 minutes and felt like a remote whiteboard session. You write code while explaining your thought process in real time. The interviewer pays more attention to how you approach the problem rather than just whether your code runs at the end.
The question I got was a cache design problem—something like building a simplified version of an LRU (Least Recently Used) cache. It tested both my understanding of data structures and my ability to optimize for time complexity. I used Python, combining a dictionary with a doubly linked list. Luckily, I had practiced similar problems before, so I wasn’t too overwhelmed.
Throughout the session, the interviewer didn’t offer much guidance, but it wasn’t a cold interaction either. They occasionally asked follow-up questions like, “How would you optimize this for large-scale data?” or “Could this function fail in edge cases?” The goal wasn’t to be perfect, but to show how I think through a problem. Even if you hit a bug, being able to quickly debug and explain your reasoning adds major points.
From my experience, international students tend to struggle in two areas. First, we often think quietly and don’t verbalize our process, which can make us seem less engaged. Second, our pacing and clarity in English might trip us up under pressure. My advice is to practice with mock interviews—ideally with native English speakers—so you can get used to thinking and talking at the same time. When explaining your approach, don’t worry about being too wordy. Clear is better than fast.
Lastly, mindset really matters. Many people get nervous just hearing the name “Goldman Sachs,” thinking it’s going to be impossibly hard. But at the end of the day, these companies are looking for candidates who are solid in the basics, think logically, and communicate clearly. A technical interview isn’t a test—it’s more like a collaboration where you and the interviewer work through a problem together. If you prepare well and stay calm, showing your true self can take you a long way.
Release time:2025-05-15
