DE Shaw vs LinkedIn Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while LinkedIn lists 141. They share 19 problems — 18% of DE Shaw's bank and 13% of LinkedIn's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 86 DE Shaw-only and 122 LinkedIn-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 19 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and LinkedIn.
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 LinkedIn-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
19 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and LinkedIn.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| House Robber | Medium |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Insert Delete GetRandom O(1) | Medium |
| Koko Eating Bananas | Medium |
| Maximum Product Subarray | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Text Justification | Hard |
| Flatten Nested List Iterator | Medium |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Find First and Last Position of Element in Sorted Array | Medium |
| Longest Valid Parentheses | Hard |
| House Robber II | Medium |
| Merge Sorted Array | Easy |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Next Permutation | Medium |
Unique to DE Shaw (86)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at LinkedIn.
Unique to LinkedIn (122)
Problems in LinkedIn's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Max Stack | Hard |
| Nested List Weight Sum II | Medium |
| All O`one Data Structure | Hard |
| Word Ladder | Hard |
| Find the Celebrity | Medium |
| Nested List Weight Sum | Medium |
| Design Authentication Manager | Medium |
| Find Leaves of Binary Tree | Medium |
| Shortest Word Distance II | Medium |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Max Consecutive Ones III | Medium |
| Can Place Flowers | Easy |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and LinkedIn share?
DE Shaw and LinkedIn share 19 LeetCode interview questions. 86 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 122 appear only in LinkedIn's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and LinkedIn?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and LinkedIn are Array (13 shared questions), Hash Table (5 shared questions), String (5 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (5 shared questions), Stack (3 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or LinkedIn?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. LinkedIn has 25 Easy, 90 Medium, and 26 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 LinkedIn?
Start with the 19 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 LinkedIn-specific questions to round out your prep.