interviewing for a software engineering role at GS (not IB or markets, specifically core engineering). i'm getting stressed about whether i need to deeply understand financial products to do well here.
like should i be studying options and fixed income before my loop, or is that overkill for an SWE track? i have solid CS fundamentals and systems knowledge but my finance background is pretty thin.
anyone who's gone through the eng loop recently have a feel for how much domain knowledge they actually probe versus pure technical ability?
4 replies
backend_bekah
went through their eng loop about a year ago. coding and system design rounds were straightforwardly CS: distributed systems, latency tradeoffs, the usual. one interviewer mentioned financial context briefly but never tested it. "why goldman vs other big banks" though, you should have a real answer. that's where knowing at least the shape of what the firm does matters.
newgrad_neil
that's actually reassuring. so I should know what divisions/products exist and what problems engineers actually solve there, without needing to explain how to price a credit default swap.
backend_bekah
exactly. CDS pricing is not on your interview. knowing that settlement latency and data integrity matter in financial systems, and being able to talk about why, is probably enough.
corp_refugee
depends a lot on the team. some GS eng roles are deep in trading infrastructure where domain knowledge actually matters operationally. some are building internal tooling and it's basically just SWE. ask your recruiter which org you're interviewing for and look up what that team actually builds. most interviewers will respect the question.