DE Shaw vs SAP Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while SAP lists 42. They share 9 problems — 9% of DE Shaw's bank and 21% of SAP's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 96 DE Shaw-only and 33 SAP-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 9 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and SAP.
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 SAP-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
9 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and SAP.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Search a 2D Matrix | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Container With Most Water | Medium |
| Two Sum | Easy |
Unique to DE Shaw (96)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at SAP.
Unique to SAP (33)
Problems in SAP's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Movie Rating | Medium |
| Maximum Path Quality of a Graph | Hard |
| Count the Number of Infection Sequences | Hard |
| Count Increasing Quadruplets | Hard |
| Maximum Students Taking Exam | Hard |
| Longest Common Prefix | Easy |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Longest Palindromic Substring | Medium |
| Palindrome Number | Easy |
| Reverse Linked List | Easy |
| Valid Palindrome | Easy |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and SAP share?
DE Shaw and SAP share 9 LeetCode interview questions. 96 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 33 appear only in SAP's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and SAP?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and SAP are Array (6 shared questions), Hash Table (3 shared questions), Two Pointers (2 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (2 shared questions), Stack (2 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or SAP?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. SAP has 14 Easy, 21 Medium, and 7 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 SAP?
Start with the 9 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 SAP-specific questions to round out your prep.