Goldman Sachs Assessment 2026: The HireVue Interview and Superday Guide

The Goldman Sachs assessment is the bank's selection process for analyst, associate and experienced-hire roles: an online application, a HireVue video interview that is assessed rather than merely recorded, a coding test for technology roles, numerical reasoning in some divisions, and a final superday of five to eight back-to-back interviews across divisions. The HireVue stage is the distinctive one. At most employers the video interview is a screening formality; at Goldman it is a substantial, technically loaded stage covering motivation, a technical finance question and a markets question, and candidates routinely underestimate it.

What Is the Goldman Sachs Assessment?

Goldman Sachs is one of the world's most prestigious investment banks, and its recruitment process reflects a performance-driven culture: rigorous, technical, and compressed into a small number of high-stakes stages. Unlike the Big Four, Goldman does not lean on a long battery of psychometric tests. The weight sits on the HireVue interview and the superday, which means preparation is less about test technique and more about technical fluency, structured communication and endurance.

The one structural thing to internalise is that Goldman's process is front-loaded with technical content earlier than most banks. A finance question you would expect in a final-round interview elsewhere can appear in a recorded video interview here, answered against a timer with no interviewer to prompt you.

The Goldman Sachs Hiring Process, Stage by Stage

1. 1Online application (30-45 minutes). CV, cover letter and an application form. Goldman places significant weight on academic performance and on what you did outside the classroom.
2. 2HireVue video interview (30-45 minutes). Five to seven pre-recorded questions covering motivation, technical knowledge and behavioural competencies.
3. 3HireVue coding test (technology roles, 60-90 minutes). For technology roles, a coding challenge is included within the HireVue assessment.
4. 4Numerical reasoning (some divisions, 20-30 minutes). Not every division uses one, and the format varies by division and year.
5. 5Superday (full day). Five to eight interviews, on site or virtual, across different divisions. A mix of technical, behavioural and fit interviews.

Which Tests and Publishers You Will Meet

• Publisher background: HireVue: how the platform structures a one-way interview and what it captures.
• If a numerical test appears in your division, practise the construct here: numerical reasoning.
• Division detail, roles and reported assessments sit on the Goldman Sachs company page.

The HireVue Video Interview in Detail

You get a question on screen, a short preparation window, and a recording timer. There is no interviewer, no follow-up, and no way to recover a weak opening. Goldman's HireVue is AI-assisted, which candidates find unnerving, but the practical implications are mundane and controllable: speak clearly, look at the camera lens rather than at your own image, and structure your answers so that the first sentence contains the point.

The question set is where Goldman differs from most banks. Expect roughly five to seven questions covering: why Goldman, why this division, a time you demonstrated leadership, a technical finance question, and a markets or current-events question. That means the technical preparation you might have scheduled for the week before the superday needs to be done before you press record.

• Structure every answer. Lead with the answer, then support it. A recorded answer that builds slowly to a point usually runs out of time before it gets there.
• Prepare the markets question deliberately. Read the financial press daily and hold one view you can defend, with a reason and a counter-argument.
• Do not read from notes. It is visible, and it removes the fluency the format is measuring.
• Control the setup. Quiet room, stable connection, camera at eye level, light in front of you rather than behind. Our video interview guide covers the technical setup in detail.

The Coding Test (Technology Roles)

Technology candidates sit a coding challenge inside the HireVue assessment, typically 60 to 90 minutes. The content is standard for a bank at this level: data structures and algorithms, with an emphasis on writing correct, readable code rather than exotic optimisations. Practise medium-difficulty problems until the common patterns (hash maps, two pointers, trees, sorting) are automatic, and get used to writing under a clock rather than in a comfortable editor with the internet open.

Numerical Reasoning

Some Goldman divisions use a numerical reasoning test and the format varies by division and year, so prepare the construct rather than a brand. Expect data interpretation: a table or chart, a question that requires locating the right figures and applying one or two operations, and options close enough together that an order-of-magnitude estimate will not settle it. Read the question before the data, check units and footnotes, use percentage multipliers, and cap each question at roughly 60 to 75 seconds.

Worked Example: Walk Me Through a DCF

The Superday

The superday is Goldman's final round: five to eight back-to-back interviews with analysts, associates, vice presidents and managing directors, testing technical knowledge, behavioural competencies and fit. It is intense by design, and the failure mode is rarely a single wrong answer. It is fading: giving a sharp answer in interview one and a tired, unstructured version of the same story in interview six.

• Rehearse for stamina, not just for content. Run four to six mock interviews back to back, without breaks, at least once.
• Stay consistent. Interviewers compare notes. The same story told two different ways reads as a story that was constructed rather than lived.
• Quantify everything. Goldman's culture is performance-driven, and quantified achievements travel better than adjectives.
• Bring commercial awareness. Read the WSJ, FT and Bloomberg daily in the run-up. Be able to discuss a recent deal or market move and why it matters.
• Prepare behavioural answers in STAR form. Our STAR method guide covers how to keep them tight enough to survive an interrupting interviewer.

How Goldman Sachs Scores You

There is no published pass mark at any Goldman stage, and there is no single global cut-off: the bar differs by division, region, role and intake, and each stage is read alongside the rest of your application rather than in isolation. Where a numerical test is used, results are reported as a percentile against a norm group of comparable applicants, which is why a raw percentage does not translate into a pass or a fail. Interviews are scored against competencies and technical accuracy, and the superday decision is made by a group of interviewers comparing evidence. Any specific threshold you find quoted online is a guess.

Your 3-Week Preparation Plan

1. 1Days 1-3: Technical foundations. DCF, LBO, accretion and dilution, comparable company analysis. Write each walkthrough out, then say it out loud in under two minutes.
2. 2Days 4-7: Markets habit. Read the financial press daily and keep a one-line note on each significant story. By the end of the week you have a set of views rather than a memory of headlines.
3. 3Days 8-10: Behavioural stories. Eight to ten STAR stories, quantified. Map them to leadership, resilience, teamwork and commercial judgement.
4. 4Days 11-13: HireVue rehearsal. Record answers to the five likely question types against a timer. Watch them back. Fix the openings first: the first ten seconds do most of the work.
5. 5Days 14-16: Division-specific technicals. Go deeper on the division you applied to. Technology candidates: switch this block to timed coding problems.
6. 6Days 17-19: Superday simulation. Five interviews back to back with a friend, no breaks. Notice where your energy and structure collapse, then fix that specifically.
7. 7Days 20-21: Taper. Light review, no new material. Confirm your setup and sleep properly. Cramming the night before reliably lowers performance.

Common Mistakes

• Saving the technicals for the superday. Goldman asks a technical finance question inside the recorded video interview. If you are not ready then, there is no superday.
• Reading from notes on camera. It is visible and it undermines exactly the fluency being assessed.
• Having no view on the markets. 'I read the FT' is not an answer. A defensible opinion with one counter-argument is.
• Fading during the superday. Six interviews is an endurance event and it needs to be rehearsed as one.
• Vague achievements. Goldman's culture is quantitative. 'Improved the process' loses to 'cut turnaround from nine days to four'.
• Chasing a rumoured cut-off. Goldman does not publish one, and it varies by division and intake.

Frequently Asked Questions