D.E.Shaw interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview

SDE - Intern

D.E.Shaw
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3 rounds | 4 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 3 months
Topics: Data Structures, Pointers, OOPS, System Design, Algorithms, Dynamic Programming
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Make sure that you are thorough with CS concepts beforehand.
Tip 2 : Even when you are explaining the approach to a question, try to parallelly think about how you would code it.
Tip 3 : Read the previous interview experiences. It would give a fair idea of the kind of questions one should expect.
Tip 4 : For a company like DE Shaw, practicing medium and hard difficulty level coding questions would be the way to go.
Tip 5 : Practice atleast 200 questions from coding platforms like CodeZen, LeetCode, Interviewbit as they contain common interview questions.

Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: No criteria
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Mention atleast 1 project and past work experience as it sets good impression.
Tip 2 : Keep your resume up to date for the role you are applying.
Tip 3 : Try to keep your resume of 1 Page.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date10 May 2022
Coding problem2

- Morning time
- Environment was good.
- No
- Interviewer was good

1. Magic Index

Easy
20m average time
80% success
0/40
Asked in companies
AdobePayPalInfo Edge India (Naukri.com)

You are given a sorted array A consisting of N integers. Your task is to find the magic index in the given array.

Note :
1. A magic index in an array A[0 ... N - 1] is defined to be an index i such that A[i] = i.
2. The elements in the array can be negative.
3. The elements in the array can be repeated multiple times.
4. There can be more than one magic index in an array.
Problem approach

s1 - If your output magic numbers are correct, the runner will print "Correct", else "Incorrect".
s2 - Approach by array, array or -1 if there does not exist any magic index for the given array.

Try solving now

2. Coin Game

Easy
15m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in companies
SalesforceOracleD.E.Shaw

Wong is hungry and wants to eat tuna melt. He checks his pocket and finds that he has only a buck left. He asked Dr. Strange to lend him some money, for which Strange agrees but to get the money, Wong has to beat Strange in a game of coins. The game will be played by two players. Being kind enough Strange allows Wong to play first. Now, Strange arranges N coins in a row. Each coin is associated with a value. In his turn, every player can remove only one coin from either end. Once a player removes a coin, it can not be placed back into the row. At the end when all coins are removed, the player with the maximum value of coins wins. Wong will only get money if he wins the game. Wong knows that he can not beat sorcerer supreme, so he asked for your help.

You are given an array of integers, say, ‘ARR’ of size ‘N’ containing the values associated with ‘N’ coins. Your task is to determine the maximum value of coins you can obtain by following two rules:

a) Both players play in alternate turns and they can remove only one coin in their turn.
b) Any player can remove coins only from either of the two ends of ‘ARR’.

Note:

There can be more than one set of coins with maximum value.

For example:

a) Consider 3 coins are placed with values [10, 20, 30]: Wong removes 30, then Strange removes 20, then Wong removes 10. Now all coins are taken, and Wong has coins with value 40 and he wins.

b) Consider 1 coin is placed with value [100]: Wong removes the coin and no other coin is left. So, Wong wins with value 100.

Note:

a) The game only ends when NO MORE COIN IS LEFT to play with.

b) If a game ends in a draw, Wong is declared the winner. 
Problem approach

s1 - Approach by maximum value, 3 coins are placed with values [10, 20, 30]: Wong removes 30, then Strange removes 20, then Wong removes 10. Now all coins are taken, and Wong has coins with value 40 and he wins. 
s2 - game only ends when NO MORE COIN IS LEFT to play with.

Try solving now
02
Round
Easy
Face to Face
Duration30 minutes
Interview date14 Jul 2022
Coding problem1

- Morning time
- Environment was good.
- No
- Interviewer was good

1. Minimum Number Of Taps To Water Garden

Hard
15m average time
85% success
0/120
Asked in companies
AppleSalesforceBNY Mellon

The gardener wants to water the garden by opening the minimum number of taps. The garden is one-dimensional along the x-axis of length N i.e. the garden starts from point 0 and ends at point N. There are N + 1 tap located at points [0, 1, 2, …, N] in the garden.

You are given an integer N, and an array named “ranges” of size N + 1(0-indexed). The ith tap, if opened, can water the gardener from point (i - ranges[i]) to (i + ranges[i]) including both. The task is to find the minimum number of taps that should be open to water the whole garden, return -1 if the garden can not be watered.

Example :

Watering The Garden

Follow Up:
Can you solve the problem in O(N) time?
Problem approach

Tip 1 - I used greedy approach.
Tip 2 - Follow data structure concept

Try solving now
03
Round
Hard
Video Call
Duration30 minutes
Interview date13 Jul 2022
Coding problem1

- Morning time
- Environment was good.
- No
- Interviewer was good

1. Rabbit Jumping

Easy
20m average time
80% success
0/40
Asked in companies
Expedia GroupXebiaNagarro Software

You are given ‘n’ carrots numbered from 1 to ‘n’. There are k rabbits. Rabbits can jump to carrots only with the multiples of Aj(Aj,2Aj,3Aj…) for all rabbits from 1 to k.

Whenever Rabbit reaches a carrot it eats a little carrot. All rabbits start from the same beginning point. You have to determine the remaining carrots(i.e., carrots which are not eaten by any rabbit) after all rabbits reach the end.

Problem approach

Tip 1 : Prepare Subjects in Depth for Technical Coding & Interview Round. Cracking the DE Shaw interview is not possible just by reading the short articles one night before.They ask the questions in-depth.
Tip 2 : All the Questions were basic in the HR Round !! … Be Honest in HR Round as well as Technical Rounds.
Tip 3 : Be Confident in HR Round and don't hesitate while answering and explaining situation based questions.

Try solving now

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Skill covered: Programming

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