I had a terrible and bitter experience. Not because I did not get the offer – which I would have rejected anyway after the face-to-face interview experience.

Please note: I was formerly employed by GS and then quit because I got some other challenging project.

Anyway, I had four people conduct my technical interview over the phone. Then they flew me in for a face-to-face interview which went from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Actually, two groups interviewed me for no apparent good reason (I can only work for one group, right?). They took so much extra time and did not give me any lunch break – I believe that was deliberate because HR sent them the time schedule.

One interviewer gave me a set of Java and SQL questions and asked me to write all programs, etc., on a bunch of sheets (not on a computer). Then he had to go somewhere and told me someone else would grade them.

My suggestion – if you are really good, just don't go. Because even after getting the job, you will mostly be working in Sec DB or Slang (GS proprietary language). So, you will forget all your Java and C++ skills (and your market value outside will be very low) and will mostly be maintaining programs because 99% of projects are in maintenance mode.

Draw a network topology scheme for fault tolerance for 5, 10, or 20 DBs so that each DB gets synced with other DBs.

You have an array with some zeros in it. Memory is so low that you cannot create another array. How do you remove zeros from the array? How do you optimize it?