DE Shaw Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Round duration - 120 Minutes
Round difficulty - Hard

Online Test Platform - HackerRank
Test Access Window – between 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Online Test Pattern –

Total Duration of Test – 120 mins
Total No. of Sections - 5
Section 1 – One Coding Question - Easy difficulty (20 mins)
Section 2 – One Coding Question - Medium difficulty (30 mins)
Section 3 – One Coding Question - Medium difficulty (30 mins)
Section 4 - Technical MCQs - 10 questions (20 mins)
Section 5 - Aptitude MCQs - 10 questions (20 mins)
Programming Sections (1, 2 and 3): This will have 3 coding questions with a time limit of 80 minutes. It is mandatory for you to attempt the 1st coding question before moving to the second question and third. You cannot revisit question/section once you proceed ahead
MCQ Sections (4 and 5): This will have 10 technical and 10 aptitude questions, with a time limit of 20 minutes each. Each correct answer will carry 2 marks and wrong answer will carry negative 0.5
Technical questions will cover Data structures & algorithms, Operating systems, Database systems, SQL and Networks.
Aptitude questions will cover Quantitative Aptitude, Problem solving and Logical & verbal Reasoning

Q1. 
Tower Building Problem Statement
Given an array 'ARR' of 'N' cubes, you need to construct towers such that each cube can either be placed on top of an existing tower or start a new one. The restriction is...read more
Ans. 
The task is to determine the minimum number of towers needed to stack cubes in a specific order.
• Iterate through the array of cubes and maintain a stack to keep track of towers.

• For each cube, check if it can be placed on an existing tower or start a new one.

• Update the stack based on the cube's size and count the number of towers needed.

• Return the minimum number of towers required.

• Example: For input N = 3, ARR = [3, 2, 1
Answered by AI
View 1 more answer
Q2. 
Minimum Removals Problem Statement
Given an array ARR of size N and an integer K, determine the minimum number of elements that must be removed from the array so that the difference between the maximum an...read more
Ans. 
The problem involves finding the minimum number of elements to remove from an array so that the difference between the maximum and minimum element is less than or equal to a given value.
• Iterate through the array and keep track of the minimum and maximum elements.

• Calculate the difference between the maximum and minimum elements.

• If the difference is greater than the given value, increment the count of elements to remove.

• ...read more
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q3. 
Conquering the Best Kingdom Problem Statement
Aragorn, an influential ruler, aspires to expand his power by conquering more kingdoms. There are 'N' kingdoms numbered from 0 to N-1, forming a tree structur...read more
Ans. 
Given a tree structure of kingdoms, determine if it's possible to conquer more kingdoms than Aragorn by strategically choosing the starting kingdom.
• Start at the kingdom adjacent to Aragorn's initial kingdom

• Choose the kingdom that allows you to capture the most number of kingdoms in subsequent turns

• Consider the tree structure to plan your conquest strategically
Answered by AI
Add your answer

Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

They called and asked me to choose a date and time I would be free in the upcoming week for my interview.
I chose 10th March 5 pm. 

Interviewer was pretty friendly. Started with some resume based questions. Asked me OS, DBMS and JAVA based questions. A coding question was asked to code. Asked me OOPS related questions too.

Q1. 
K Most Frequent Elements Problem Statement
Given an integer array ARR and an integer K, identify the K most frequent elements within ARR. Return these elements sorted in ascending order.
Example:
Input:
...read more
Ans. 
Identify K most frequent elements in an array and return them sorted in ascending order.
• Use a hashmap to store the frequency of each element in the array.

• Sort the elements based on their frequency in descending order.

• Return the first K elements from the sorted list.
Answered by AI
Add your answer

Round duration - 120 Minutes
Round difficulty - Hard

Q1. 
Number Pattern Generator
To arrange a high-security meeting, tables are set up for delegates and security personnel. There are N rows of tables. The first row has one table, the second row has two tables,...read more
Ans. 
Generate a pattern of guest and security personnel distributions across tables for a given number of rows.
• Iterate through each row from 1 to N

• For each row, print the pattern based on the number of guests and security personnel at each table

• Tables on each end of a row are reserved for security personnel
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q2. 
Minimum Sum in Matrix Problem Statement
You are given a 2D matrix 'ARR' of size 'N x 3' with integers, where 'N' is the number of rows. Your task is to compute the smallest sum achievable by selecting one...read more
Ans. 
Find the smallest sum achievable by selecting one element from each row of a matrix, following certain constraints.
• Iterate through each row and find the minimum element that can be selected without violating the constraints

• Keep track of the selected elements to avoid selecting elements directly below them in the next row

• Sum up the selected elements to get the smallest possible sum
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q3. 
Buy and Sell Stock Problem Statement
Imagine you are Harshad Mehta's friend, and you have been given the stock prices of a particular company for the next 'N' days. You can perform up to two buy-and-sell ...read more
Ans. 
The task is to determine the maximum profit that can be achieved by performing up to two buy-and-sell transactions on a given set of stock prices.
• Iterate through the stock prices to find the maximum profit that can be achieved by buying and selling stocks at different points.

• Keep track of the maximum profit after the first transaction and the maximum profit overall after the second transaction.

• Consider edge cases where...read more
Answered by AI
Add your answer

Round duration - 90 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

Q1. 
Pretty JSON Formatting Problem
You're provided with a string 'STR' that represents a JSON object. Your task is to return an array of strings representing JSON objects, formatted with proper indentation ba...read more
Ans. 
The task is to format a JSON object string with proper indentation based on specific rules.
• Iterate through the string character by character and keep track of the indentation level.

• Use a stack to keep track of opening and closing braces to determine the indentation level.

• Insert four spaces or a tab (' ') for each level of indentation.

• Handle commas to represent new lines in the output array of strings.
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q2. 
Peak Element Finder
For a given array of integers arr, identify the peak element. A peak element is an element that is greater than its neighboring elements. Specifically, if arr[i] is the peak, then both...read more
Ans. 
Find the peak element in an array of integers.
• Iterate through the array and check if the current element is greater than its neighbors.

• Handle edge cases for the first and last elements of the array.

• Return the peak element found.
Answered by AI
Add your answer

Round duration - 90 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round had 3 coding questions. The first two were of moderate level and the third one was a bit hard and was related to Dynamic Programming.

Q1. 
Maximum Number from Linked List Problem Statement
Given a linked list where each node contains a single digit, your task is to construct the largest possible number using these digits.
Objective:
Print ...read more
Ans. 
To find the maximum number that can be formed using the digits present in a linked list.
• Traverse the linked list and store the digits in an array

• Sort the array in descending order

• Concatenate the sorted array elements to form the maximum number
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q2. 
Chocolate Distribution Problem
You are given an array/list CHOCOLATES of size 'N', where each element represents the number of chocolates in a packet. Your task is to distribute these chocolates among 'M'...read more
Ans. 
Distribute chocolates among students to minimize difference between largest and smallest packets.
• Sort the array of chocolates packets.

• Use sliding window technique to find the minimum difference between largest and smallest packets distributed to students.

• Return the minimum difference as the output.
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q3. 
LCS of Three Strings Problem Statement
Given three strings A, B, and C, determine the length of the longest common subsequence present in all three strings.
Explanation:
A subsequence is derived by dele...read more
Ans. 
Find the length of the longest common subsequence among three strings.
• Use dynamic programming to solve this problem efficiently.

• Create a 3D array to store the lengths of common subsequences.

• Iterate through the strings to fill the array and find the longest common subsequence length.
Answered by AI
Add your answer

Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round had 2 questions of DS/Algo to solve under 60 minutes and 2 questions related to Operating Systems.

Q1. 
Buy and Sell Stock Problem Statement
Imagine you are Harshad Mehta's friend, and you have been given the stock prices of a particular company for the next 'N' days. You can perform up to two buy-and-sell ...read more
Ans. 
The task is to determine the maximum profit that can be achieved by performing up to two buy-and-sell transactions on a given set of stock prices.
• Iterate through the array of stock prices and calculate the maximum profit that can be achieved by buying and selling at different points.

• Keep track of the maximum profit after the first transaction and the maximum profit overall by considering all possible combinations of bu...read more
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q2. 
Count Smaller People on Right
You are provided with an array called HEIGHT that contains the heights of 'N' people standing in a queue. For each person in the array, compute the number of individuals on t...read more
Ans. 
Count the number of people to the right with a smaller height for each person in a queue.
• Iterate through the array from right to left and maintain a sorted list of heights encountered so far.

• Use binary search to find the position where the current height should be inserted in the sorted list.

• The count of smaller people to the right for each person can be calculated based on the index of insertion in the sorted list.
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q3. Can you define processes and threads in operating systems?
Ans. 
Processes are instances of programs in execution, while threads are smaller units within a process that can execute independently.
• Processes are independent entities that contain program code, data, and resources.

• Threads are lightweight units within a process that share the same resources but can execute independently.

• Processes have their own memory space, while threads share the same memory space.

• Processes communicate ...read more
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q4. What are the different types of semaphores?
Ans. 
Different types of semaphores include binary semaphores, counting semaphores, and mutex semaphores.
• Binary semaphores: Can only have two states - 0 or 1. Used for mutual exclusion.

• Counting semaphores: Can have multiple states. Used for resource allocation and synchronization.

• Mutex semaphores: Similar to binary semaphores but with additional features like priority inheritance and deletion safety.
Answered by AI
Add your answer

Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round had 3 coding questions in which I first had to explain my approach with proper complexity analysis and then code up the solution. I found the first problem to be a bit on the harder side compared to the rest of the 2 problems.

Q1. 
Longest Increasing Path in a 2D Matrix Problem Statement
Given a matrix of non-negative integers of size 'N x M', where 'N' and 'M' denote the number of rows and columns respectively, find the length of t...read more
Ans. 
Find the length of the longest increasing path in a 2D matrix by moving in four directions.
• Use dynamic programming to keep track of the longest increasing path starting from each cell.

• Explore all four directions from each cell and recursively find the longest increasing path.

• Optimize the solution by storing the length of the longest increasing path starting from each cell.
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q2. 
Gas Station Tour Problem
You are presented with a circular track consisting of several petrol pumps. Each petrol pump is indexed from 0 to N-1 and offers certain attributes:
• The quantity of petrol ava...read more
Ans. 
Find the first petrol pump from which a truck can start its journey and complete the circle.
• Iterate through each petrol pump and calculate the remaining petrol after reaching the next pump.

• If the remaining petrol is negative at any point, reset the starting point to the next pump.

• If the total remaining petrol at the end is non-negative, return the starting point as the answer.
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q3. 
Rabbit Jumping Problem
Consider 'n' carrots numbered from 1 to 'n' and 'k' rabbits. Each rabbit jumps to carrots only at multiples of its respective jumping factor A_j (i.e., A_j, 2A_j, 3A_j, ...), for all ra...read more
Ans. 
Calculate uneaten carrots after rabbits jump on multiples of their jumping factors.
• Iterate through each carrot and check if it is divisible by any rabbit's jumping factor

• Keep track of uneaten carrots and return the count at the end

• Consider using a set to store eaten carrots for efficient lookup
Answered by AI
Add your answer

Round duration - 90 Minutes
Round difficulty - Hard

This round had 3 coding questions and the difficulty of the questions ranged from Moderate to Hard level.

Q1. 
Jump Game Problem Statement
You are given a list of points, and currently at point 0, your task is to determine if you can reach the last point N. At each point i, you can jump at most JUMP[i] length forw...read more
Ans. 
The task is to determine if it is possible to reach the last point in a list of points by jumping a certain distance at each point.
• Iterate through the list of points and check if it is possible to reach the last point by jumping the maximum distance at each point.

• Keep track of the farthest point that can be reached from the current point.

• If the farthest point that can be reached is greater than or equal to the last poi
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q2. 
Problem Statement: Sibling Nodes
You are provided with a Binary Tree consisting of 'N' nodes, where each node holds an integer value. Your objective is to identify and list all nodes that do not possess a...read more
Ans. 
Identify and list nodes in a Binary Tree without siblings.
• Traverse the Binary Tree in level order and keep track of nodes without siblings.

• Check if each node has a sibling by comparing with its parent's other child.

• Output the values of nodes without siblings in ascending order.
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q3. 
Minimum Steps for a Knight to Reach Target
Given a square chessboard of size 'N x N', determine the minimum number of moves a Knight requires to reach a specified target position from its initial position...read more
Ans. 
Calculate the minimum number of moves a Knight requires to reach a specified target position on a chessboard.
• Implement a function that calculates the minimum number of moves for a Knight to reach the target position on an NxN chessboard.

• Consider the possible movements of a Knight on a chessboard (2 squares in one direction and 1 square in a perpendicular direction).

• Use breadth-first search (BFS) algorithm to find the s...read more
Answered by AI
Add your answer

Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round went for about 50-60 minutes where I had to code two questions related to DSA after discussing their approaches and time and space complexities and then I was asked some questions revolving around OOPS. The interviewer was quite freindly and helped me at some places where I was facing some difficulties.

Q1. 
Evaluate Reverse Polish Notation Problem Statement
You are provided with an arithmetic expression in Reverse Polish Notation represented as an array EXP. Your task is to calculate the value of this expres...read more
Ans. 
Evaluate arithmetic expression in Reverse Polish Notation using stack.
• Use a stack to keep track of operands and perform operations when encountering an operator.

• Iterate through the array of strings and push operands onto the stack, perform operation when an operator is encountered.

• Handle division using modular division to avoid floating point precision issues.

• Return the final result modulo 10^9 + 7 as specified in the
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q2. 
LCA in a Binary Search Tree
You are given a binary search tree (BST) containing N nodes. Additionally, you have references to two nodes, P and Q, within this BST.
Your task is to determine the Lowest Com...read more
Ans. 
Find the Lowest Common Ancestor (LCA) of two nodes in a Binary Search Tree (BST).
• Traverse the BST from the root node to find the LCA of nodes P and Q.

• Compare the values of nodes P and Q with the current node's value to determine the LCA.

• If both nodes are on the same side of the current node, move to that side; otherwise, the current node is the LCA.

• Handle cases where one node is the ancestor of the other node.

• Example: ...read more
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q3. What is the Diamond Problem in C++ and how can it be resolved?
Ans. 
Diamond Problem is a common issue in multiple inheritance in C++ where a class inherits from two classes that have a common base class.
• Diamond Problem occurs when a class inherits from two classes that have a common base class, leading to ambiguity in accessing members.

• It can be resolved in C++ using virtual inheritance, where the common base class is inherited virtually to avoid duplicate copies of base class members.

• ...read more
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q4. What is meant by garbage collection in the context of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)?
Ans. 
Garbage collection in OOP refers to automatic memory management by deallocating memory of objects no longer in use.
• Garbage collection is a process of automatically reclaiming memory occupied by objects that are no longer in use.

• It helps prevent memory leaks and ensures efficient memory usage.

• Languages like Java, C#, and Python have built-in garbage collection mechanisms.

• Garbage collection can be done using different al...read more
Answered by AI
Add your answer

Round duration - 60 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round consisted of two coding problems which involved proper coding it and explaining each and every aspect and showing the dry run over a few test cases was also necessary.

Q1. 
Phone Directory Search Directory
You are given a list/array of strings representing the contacts in a phone directory. The task is to perform a search based on a query string 'str' and return all contacts...read more
Ans. 
Implement a phone directory search feature to suggest contacts based on a given prefix query string.
• Iterate through the contact list to find contacts with the prefix matching the query string.

• Display suggestions as the user types each character of the query.

• Handle cases where no suggestions are found for a particular prefix by printing 'No suggestions found'.
Answered by AI
Add your answer
Q2. 
Bottom View of Binary Tree
Given a binary tree, determine and return its bottom view when viewed from left to right. Assume that each child of a node is positioned at a 45-degree angle from its parent.
N...read more
Ans. 
Return the bottom view of a binary tree when viewed from left to right.
• Traverse the tree in level order and keep track of horizontal distance and depth of each node

• For each horizontal distance, update the node in the map if it is deeper than the current node

• Return the values of the map in sorted order of horizontal distance
Answered by AI
Add your answer