DE Shaw Interview Experience

Criteria : 8.5 CGPA or Above (only CSE , ECE & IT – Both UG & PG). All students irrespective of history of backlogs or current backlogs were considered if they satisfied the CGPA criteria.

Round 1: Online Test

This first round was the Online test which was 1 Hour 95 Minutes Long. It was Divided as Follows.

• Aptitude Section (Arithmetic + Analytical) 14 Questions – 26 Minutes
• Technical MCQs( Computer Science) 14 Questions – 19 Minutes
• Coding Question 1 1 Question – 20 Minutes
• Coding Question 2 1 Question – 30 Minutes

Coding Questions :

• Dynamic Programming Based Medium Level Question (Time Allocated for the same was 20 Minutes) Link: https://ide.codingblocks.com/s/302739
• Dynamic Programming Based Hard Level Question (Time Allocated for the same was 30
• Minutes) Link: https://ide.codingblocks.com/s/302754
• This Round was Conducted on Hackerrank (Webcam Enabled). After this Online Test round 24

Students were Selected.

Practice Suggestions :

• For Aptitude: https://www.indiabix.com/ & Aptitude Questions and answers
• For Technical MCQS: Sanfoundary and GFG ( Mainly OS, DBMS, DSA)
• For Coding Questions : Codeforces (A,B,C Questions) + GFG + Leetcode

Round 2: Technical Interview 1

Time: Almost 2 hrs 40 mins

• This was an Online F2F Technical Round conducted on CodePair: Hackerrank ( You can try it by this Link: CodePair – Technical Interview Platform). So, Basically, You have to Run and Submit ( Pass All Test cases) in the Interview Round also (Like a normal Coding Test) in Codepair Hackerrank & along with that You should have to explain your Code and Approach to the
• Dynamic Programming Based Medium Level ( O(n) time and O(n) Space Complexities) Link: https://ide.codingblocks.com/s/302907
• Greedy Algorithm Based Medium Level ( They told me to do in the Best time and space complexities i.e. They didn’t give me the hint of Time and Space Complexities) Policeman catch, thieves
• Dynamic Programming Based Hard Level Freedom Trail (Question was Not Exactly Same but 60-65% Similar Approach, I don’t remember the Exact Question cause it was very lengthy)
• Dynamic Programming Based (Variant of 3rd)
• The interviewer asked me “Can you Solve the above Question in Better space complexity”?
• Just Discussion, They didn’t ask me to write the Code Again.
• How will you traverse the Multidimensional Array (100 Dimension or More), you do not have the rows, columns, size of the array, and datatype of Array nothing. In short, you have to transfer all the elements of that Multidimensional Array to a 1-D Array.

This Round was Conducted on CodePair: Hackerrank (Video Meeting). After this Online Test round, 8 Students were Selected out of 24 Students.

Round 3: Technical Interview 2

Time: Almost 3 Hours

• This was also an Online F2F Technical Round conducted on Codepair: Hackerrank.
• Dynamic Programming Based Not So Easy Level
• Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock
• Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock II
• Dynamic Programming Based Not So Medium Level
• Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock with Cooldown
• Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock with Transaction Fee
• Dynamic Programming Based Hard Level
• Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock III
• Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock IV
• They asked me a Lot of Questions like
• How did you arrive at this Solution ?
• Why is this Approach Right? 
• Can You do this in Better time & space complexities? (Although I have done in
• Best time Complexity but they asked this to check my confidence level on my codes).
• A lot of Variants are based on Constraints.
• They will ask you to write the final code for every question before Submitting it(run all test cases) so you won’t get any hints after running test cases in the

So don’t Submit your code before dry running it on a lot of Test Cases on pen & paper, they allow to use pen & blank paper at the time of Interviews) So the Summary is Even if you have done the same ditto problem before, they will test your Problem-Solving skills at that time anyhow. So, Learning(Remembering Line to Line) the

Codes Won’t Help You !!. I do not know how many Students got Selected from those 8 Students after this Technical Round 2, cause everyone got a personal email for the HR Round.

Round 4: HR Round

Time: Almost 30 minutes This was a Telephonic Round (Audio Call).

• How was your Interview Experience?
• What difficulty did you face this time in the Virtual Recruitment Process?
• If the Questions were relevant those were asked in the Interviews?
• Have you worked in a Team Before?
• If you will have a contradiction with your colleague then how will you sort this?
• What major projects did you have made?
• If not D.E Shaw then What? ( I was so happy after this Question 🙂 )
• Next Five-Year Goals?

That’s it was!! I hope you will now easily crack this company’s test.