DE Shaw vs Microsoft Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while Microsoft lists 192. They share 30 problems — 29% of DE Shaw's bank and 16% of Microsoft's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 75 DE Shaw-only and 162 Microsoft-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 30 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and Microsoft.
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 Microsoft-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
30 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and Microsoft.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| K-th Smallest in Lexicographical Order | Hard |
| House Robber | Medium |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Majority Element | Easy |
| Sliding Window Maximum | Hard |
| Koko Eating Bananas | Medium |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| Longest Consecutive Sequence | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Split Array Largest Sum | Hard |
| Longest Valid Parentheses | Hard |
| Minimum Size Subarray Sum | Medium |
| Wildcard Matching | Hard |
| Container With Most Water | Medium |
| Merge Sorted Array | Easy |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| 4Sum | Medium |
| Next Permutation | Medium |
Unique to DE Shaw (75)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at Microsoft.
Unique to Microsoft (162)
Problems in Microsoft's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Add Two Numbers | Medium |
| Longest Palindromic Substring | Medium |
| Single Element in a Sorted Array | Medium |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| 3Sum | Medium |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Group Anagrams | Medium |
| Search in Rotated Sorted Array | Medium |
| Reverse Nodes in k-Group | Hard |
| Merge Two Sorted Lists | Easy |
| Roman to Integer | Easy |
| Spiral Matrix | Medium |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and Microsoft share?
DE Shaw and Microsoft share 30 LeetCode interview questions. 75 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 162 appear only in Microsoft's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and Microsoft?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and Microsoft are Array (21 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (9 shared questions), String (7 shared questions), Hash Table (6 shared questions), Binary Search (6 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or Microsoft?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. Microsoft has 55 Easy, 109 Medium, and 28 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 Microsoft?
Start with the 30 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 Microsoft-specific questions to round out your prep.