Apple vs DE Shaw Interview Questions
Apple lists 300 LeetCode interview questions while DE Shaw lists 105. They share 31 problems — 10% of Apple's bank and 30% of DE Shaw's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 269 Apple-only and 74 DE Shaw-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 31 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both Apple and DE Shaw.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add Apple-specific problems like Merge Intervals, Design Hit Counter, Longest Common Prefix and DE Shaw-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: DE Shaw skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
31 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both Apple and DE Shaw.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock II | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| Find First and Last Position of Element in Sorted Array | Medium |
| Insert Delete GetRandom O(1) | Medium |
| Basic Calculator II | Medium |
| Merge Sorted Array | Easy |
| Longest Consecutive Sequence | Medium |
| Count the Number of Incremovable Subarrays II | Hard |
| Flatten Nested List Iterator | Medium |
| Container With Most Water | Medium |
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| Text Justification | Hard |
| Sliding Window Maximum | Hard |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| House Robber | Medium |
| Search a 2D Matrix | Medium |
| House Robber II | Medium |
| 4Sum | Medium |
| Koko Eating Bananas | Medium |
| Decode Ways | Medium |
| Asteroid Collision | Medium |
| Sum of Subarray Ranges | Medium |
| Minimum Size Subarray Sum | Medium |
Showing top 30 of 31 shared problems.
Unique to Apple (269)
Problems in Apple's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Design Hit Counter | Medium |
| Longest Common Prefix | Easy |
| Rotate Array | Medium |
| Reverse Linked List | Easy |
| Valid Sudoku | Medium |
| Group Anagrams | Medium |
| Top K Frequent Elements | Medium |
| Course Schedule II | Medium |
| Course Schedule | Medium |
| Product of Array Except Self | Medium |
| Valid Palindrome | Easy |
Unique to DE Shaw (74)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at Apple.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do Apple and DE Shaw share?
Apple and DE Shaw share 31 LeetCode interview questions. 269 problems appear only in Apple's list and 74 appear only in DE Shaw's list.
What topics overlap most between Apple and DE Shaw?
The most common shared topics between Apple and DE Shaw are Array (23 shared questions), Hash Table (6 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (6 shared questions), String (6 shared questions), Stack (6 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: Apple or DE Shaw?
Apple has 76 Easy, 178 Medium, and 46 Hard questions. DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. DE Shaw has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both Apple and DE Shaw?
Start with the 31 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 Apple-specific and 20 DE Shaw-specific questions to round out your prep.