DE Shaw vs Intel Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while Intel lists 25. They share 10 problems — 10% of DE Shaw's bank and 40% of Intel's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 95 DE Shaw-only and 15 Intel-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 10 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and Intel.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add DE Shaw-specific problems like Binary Tree Cameras, Find Minimum Cost to Remove Array Elements, Maximum Number of Subsequences After One Inserting and Intel-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
10 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and Intel.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock II | Medium |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Container With Most Water | Medium |
| Merge Sorted Array | Easy |
| Two Sum | Easy |
Unique to DE Shaw (95)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at Intel.
Unique to Intel (15)
Problems in Intel's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Find Consecutive Integers from a Data Stream | Medium |
| Maximum Nesting Depth of the Parentheses | Easy |
| Copy List with Random Pointer | Medium |
| Count Primes | Medium |
| Reverse Integer | Medium |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Climbing Stairs | Easy |
| Merge Two Sorted Lists | Easy |
| Reverse Words in a String | Medium |
| Add Two Numbers | Medium |
| Palindrome Number | Easy |
| Rotate Image | Medium |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and Intel share?
DE Shaw and Intel share 10 LeetCode interview questions. 95 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 15 appear only in Intel's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and Intel?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and Intel are Array (7 shared questions), Two Pointers (3 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (3 shared questions), Hash Table (3 shared questions), Stack (2 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or Intel?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. Intel has 10 Easy, 14 Medium, and 1 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 Intel?
Start with the 10 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 15 Intel-specific questions to round out your prep.