The 25 trickiest questions you may have to answer if you want to work at Goldman Sachs

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‘How long do you think we work each day?’ — Summer intern candidate

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‘If you were an object, what would you be?’ — Financial-analyst candidate

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‘How many square feet of pizza are eaten in the US each year?’ — Programmer-analyst candidate

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‘What is more important, creativity or efficiency?’ — Operations-analyst candidate

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‘How many grocery stores are in the United States?’ — Summer analyst candidate

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‘If a trader comes to you with a trade that he wants you to do immediately, but you need to go through the appropriate means to make sure it’s good for the company, what do you do?’ — Summer-analyst candidate

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‘If I asked one of your honest friends to tell me one good and bad thing about yourself, what would they say?’ — Research-associate candidate

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‘Name a current issue in the news that will affect business at Goldman.’ — Analyst-intern candidate

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‘You are a waitress at a restaurant with an employee policy that all tips are put in a jar and split at the end of the day between the wait staff. A very satisfied customer gives you a large tip and tells you not to share it because you deserved it. You also know that some of the other waiters and waitresses have been pocketing their tips. What would you do in this scenario?’ — Legal-analyst candidate

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‘If you were arrested for something that you believed wasn’t wrong, what would you do?’ — Hedge fund-analyst candidate

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‘What’s your opinion about Adolf Hitler?’ — Operations-analyst candidate

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‘What, in your opinion, led to the financial crisis?’ — Operations-analyst candidate

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‘Do you need us more than we need you?’ — Mortgage-private-wealth candidate

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‘Can you tell me about a time when you were in a team as a member, not a leader?’ — Corporate-service and real-estate candidate

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‘What is the most interesting business idea you’ve ever heard about?’ — Analyst candidate

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‘Suppose you had eight identical balls. One of them is slightly heavier and you are given a balance scale. What’s the fewest number of times you have to use the scale to find the heavier ball?’ — Software-engineering-intern candidate

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‘What happens when you type Google.com into the web browser?’ — Summer-analyst candidate

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‘What do you do if a client insists on making a trade or transaction that you know is not profitable for them in the long run, but it would benefit the bank?’ — Operations-analyst candidate

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‘What frustrates you?’ — Financial-analyst candidate

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‘What is one characteristic you have that would prevent us from hiring you?’ — Operations-analyst candidate

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‘Tell me about a time that you failed and weren’t able to fix it.’ — Summer-associate candidate

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‘If you were asked to move this 30-plus story building across the Hudson River, what would you do?’ — Technology-analyst candidate

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‘Is there anything about this job that makes you nervous?’ — Operations-analyst candidate

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‘What would cause you to stop using the internet?’ — Extended-managing-director candidate

Mr Thinktank

‘If you had to make a program that could vote for the top three funniest people in the office, how would you do it?’ — Technology-analyst candidate

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Jacquelyn Smith and Rachel Sugar contributed to earlier versions of this article.