Goldman Interview

[wlfgngpck]

So I applied to Goldman Sachs on Sunday and was emailed today to arrange for an interview. They are looking for a strat to join their Private Wealth Management group, and they said that my application caught their eye and they want to do a 60 minute phone interview. (I replied back with times I'd be available, but they haven't responded, as my response was after their business hours)

I have read through a good amount of your interview book, and have been working on the problems, but I was wondering: aside from brainteaser type questions, what kinds of questions do they generally ask in phone interviews? How much finance-type questions do they generally ask? Or programming questions?

I'll admit I'm a little nervous....this is my first finance interview and it's with one of the big names.....I definitely want to make a good impression.

Thank you so much!

[mj]

http://www.markjoshi.com/books/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=684

please let us know how it went

[wlfgngpck]

Thank you, I will do that.

Do you by chance know how long it usually takes for someone to reply to emails regarding setting up phone interviews? I still haven't heard a response from them, so I'm not sure whether I should just expect a phone call during the times I said I'd be free, or if they will actually respond to let me know when they plan to call? And is it common to have a long wait time between telling someone you want a phone interview and having that phone interview actually take place? (Sorry, these are the sorts of things about the business that I just don't know, and internet searches don't seem to provide an answer).

[mj]

i'd expect a scheduled time for the interview.

The one time i had a scheduled time with GS, it was 9am, and the
interviewer arrived late that day and wasn't in!

[wlfgngpck]

Had the interview, just finished. It's amazing how being nervous can completely screw you.

People online have said that Goldman has no imagination and likes to ask repeat questions. I suppose that's kind of the case. I feel I should've known everything. Well, here were the questions.

Introductions and fit questions, wanted to know about my research.

Programming: Asked me about encapsulation and polymorphism. I was able to discuss polymorphism a bit (he wanted nothing about C++ though, interestingly enough). I'm not sure he liked my response though.

Probability: He next asked me probability. I was so flustered after the programming question that I was a little nervous. He asked me the following: If I toss a fair coin 400 times, what is the probability I get at least 220 heads? I drew a complete blank and attempted this via counting, which was dumb. Afterwards I thought of the central limit theorem, but couldn't remember the standard deviation for tossing coins. Ugh, terrible.

Finance: Finally, he asked me to consider a situation in which we have 3 European calls with the same expiry and with strikes 10, 20, and 30. He told me the market prices have c(10) = 12, c(20) = 7, and c(30) = 1, and asked me to find an arbitrage opportunity. I told him to sell 2 units of the 20-strike call, and to buy the 10-strike and 30-strike call, and explained why you will get a profit in each case no matter what.

He finished by asking if I had any other questions, which I didn't (because let's not kid ourselves, I'm not getting hired there).

Overall I think I probably applied too early. I applied because Goldman sent out an email saying they were hiring, and after the reports of a hiring freeze in August, I thought I should at least try. I guess this can be taken as a good learning experience, although I'm embarrassed about that probability question.

Anyways, for the benefit of all who apply to Goldman, you have yourself a practice interview now.

[mj]

thanks

[hda389]

hi all,

apologies for reviving an old thread but could someone please explain the call options brain teaser please? My understanding of it is that you gain 14 by selling 2 20 call options at 7 and pay 13 and thus keep 1 unit of currency though I'm assuming my understanding is incorrect. Could anyone explain further, possibly step by step?

thanks

[mj]

There is an elementary model-free theorem that says that call option prices are a convex function of strike. In this example, they are not so there must be an arbitrage.

The way the theorem is proven is to take the portfolio
+1 C(10)
-2 C(20)
+1 C(30)

and observe that the pay-off is positive or zero so the price must be positive.

But in this question the set-up cost is negative so we get an arbitrage.

[mariareese]

haha .. Similar type of interview I was facing 1 year back ..