DE Shaw vs Goldman Sachs Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while Goldman Sachs lists 261. They share 36 problems — 34% of DE Shaw's bank and 14% of Goldman Sachs's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 69 DE Shaw-only and 225 Goldman Sachs-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 36 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and Goldman Sachs.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add DE Shaw-specific problems like Find Minimum Cost to Remove Array Elements, Maximum Number of Subsequences After One Inserting, Minimum Size Subarray in Infinite Array and Goldman Sachs-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
36 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and Goldman Sachs.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Binary Tree Cameras | Hard |
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| Greatest Sum Divisible by Three | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Minimum Number of Refueling Stops | Hard |
| House Robber | Medium |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Majority Element | Easy |
| Reorganize String | Medium |
| Sliding Window Maximum | Hard |
| Koko Eating Bananas | Medium |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| Maximum Product Subarray | Medium |
| Longest Consecutive Sequence | Medium |
| Shortest Subarray to be Removed to Make Array Sorted | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Asteroid Collision | Medium |
| Open the Lock | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| K-th Symbol in Grammar | Medium |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Search a 2D Matrix | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock II | Medium |
| Basic Calculator II | Medium |
| Unique Paths | Medium |
| Decode Ways | Medium |
| Text Justification | Hard |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Find First and Last Position of Element in Sorted Array | Medium |
Showing top 30 of 36 shared problems.
Unique to DE Shaw (69)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at Goldman Sachs.
Unique to Goldman Sachs (225)
Problems in Goldman Sachs's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| First Unique Character in a String | Easy |
| Fraction to Recurring Decimal | Medium |
| High Five | Easy |
| Minimum Path Sum | Medium |
| String Compression | Medium |
| Find the Winner of the Circular Game | Medium |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Robot Bounded In Circle | Medium |
| Group Anagrams | Medium |
| Search in Rotated Sorted Array | Medium |
| Find Minimum in Rotated Sorted Array | Medium |
| Better Compression of String | Medium |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and Goldman Sachs share?
DE Shaw and Goldman Sachs share 36 LeetCode interview questions. 69 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 225 appear only in Goldman Sachs's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and Goldman Sachs?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and Goldman Sachs are Array (20 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (10 shared questions), String (8 shared questions), Hash Table (7 shared questions), Stack (5 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or Goldman Sachs?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. Goldman Sachs has 48 Easy, 165 Medium, and 48 Hard questions. DE Shaw has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both DE Shaw and Goldman Sachs?
Start with the 36 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 Goldman Sachs-specific questions to round out your prep.