The aptitude test consisted of mostly quant and reasoning questions and a couple of programming questions. There
was a a writing question after this on: "Why do I want to work for GS"? One must be prepared with an answer for
this question in some form or the other because this came up in an interview later as well.
The level of the apti was pretty easy, but a decent solving speed is recommended. A basic knowledge of C was
enough to tackle the programming questions. Try to keep the codes shorter and more efficient, that works in your
favour. Don't write rubbish codes as we were asked in the interviews to explain our apti codes.

Name of the Topic / Task : Determine captain/vice-captain from 6 profiles
Time Given : 30 Minutes
Details of the process and your contribution:
There were profiles of 6 individuals given, and the scenario was that a ship has sunk and these 6 get into a lifeboat.
We as a group had to determine who was the most suitable to be the captain and the vice-captain. The profiles
were quite different: corporate executive, sailor, teacher, etc. In the end we decided upon the executive as the
captain and the sailor as vice captain. The decision wasn't unanimous though, and some people still had different
views.
This GD was really tough because we had around 11-12 people of which around 6-7 people were all very active
participants. Everyone wanted to speak all the time throughout the half hour, rather chaotic stuff. Honestly, I don't
quite know what approach to follow in such a GD. But opportunities to speak come few and far between and these
must be grabbed as much as possible without appearing too dominant. It is very easy to become a spectator in
such a GD and this must be avoided. It helps (i think, although you might want to confirm this elsewhere) if you
give helpful suggestions like going one-by-one through the group and taking everyone's views.

The technical interviews were a mixture of puzzles and programming problems. Firstly the programming questions
from the aptitude test were repeated and I was asked to explain the logic again and shorten it.
Some puzzles I encountered were: i) there's a gold bar with 6 markings dividing it into 7 equal parts. You are
allowed to make 2 cuts anywhere on those markings (dividing bar into 3 parts) and you have to pay a servant an
equal amount of gold for 7 days. Solution: You cut at the 1st and 3rd markings, diving it into 3 parts of size-1,
size-2 and size-4 (totally 7). First day you give him 1 part, next day give him the size-2 part and take back the 1st
part (binary scheme: 001 010 011 etc).
ii) A creeper is wrapped around a cylindrical tree spirally from the bottom to the top. Given dimensions of cylinder,
find the length of creeper. Soln: unroll the cylinder to a rectangle with sides as height and circumference of cylinder.
creeper is diagonal.
programming questions were pretty straightforward like code to find the no. of instances of a word in a file etc.
I was also asked a question in microprocessors (since I'm in ece). I was asked to describe the 8086 memory
system and the ram's electronic structure down to the logic gate level.

In the HR interview they were basically looking to see whether you can be a team player and whether you'll fit in
over there. Questions were about why I thought I was suitable for the job, did I have experience of working in a
team before, why did want this particular job, my interests and hobbies, where did i see myself in the future etc.
Working for club/fest activities etc can be highlighted as can be any other non-technical skills that may be useful like
knowledge of foreign languages(i used this one) etc.
In another interview I was given a scenario in the workplace wherein some software develops a bug and I was
expected to answer what I would do in the situation. I didn't really understand what answer was expected from this
so I said I'd send the software back to the development team (this wasn't the answer, this would take too long).

- Brush up your C from Kanetkar's books, they're pretty useful. DS too, but nothing fancy, just the basic stuff.
- Familiarise yourself with the puzzles that're asked in interviews generally. They're often repeated.
- Be comfortable in your own skin and confident and cheerful in your HR interview.
- Grab chances to speak in the GD. Don't start fighting with another person/don't slam another person's arguments
forcefully. Use tact and avoid antagonizing people.

There was an emphasis on teamwork right throughout the selection process. Apti was really easy. One of the
toughest GDs i've been in (considering also that you HAVE TO arrive at an answer that's ok with the majority, can't
just leave the decision hanging). I think my best interview was the HR interview, which sealed the deal. Technical
interviews were pretty ok, nothing too hi-fi. Some basic C and DS.