DE Shaw vs Samsung Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while Samsung lists 65. They share 11 problems — 10% of DE Shaw's bank and 17% of Samsung's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 94 DE Shaw-only and 54 Samsung-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 11 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and Samsung.
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 Samsung-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
11 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and Samsung.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Split Array Largest Sum | Hard |
| Merge Sorted Array | Easy |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Next Permutation | Medium |
Unique to DE Shaw (94)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at Samsung.
Unique to Samsung (54)
Problems in Samsung's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and Samsung share?
DE Shaw and Samsung share 11 LeetCode interview questions. 94 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 54 appear only in Samsung's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and Samsung?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and Samsung are Array (9 shared questions), Two Pointers (3 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (3 shared questions), Stack (2 shared questions), Breadth-First Search (2 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or Samsung?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. Samsung has 12 Easy, 36 Medium, and 17 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 Samsung?
Start with the 11 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 Samsung-specific questions to round out your prep.