DE Shaw vs ServiceNow Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while ServiceNow lists 71. They share 18 problems — 17% of DE Shaw's bank and 25% of ServiceNow's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 87 DE Shaw-only and 53 ServiceNow-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 18 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and ServiceNow.
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 ServiceNow-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
18 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and ServiceNow.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Sliding Window Maximum | Hard |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| Maximum Product Subarray | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Asteroid Collision | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| 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 |
| House Robber II | Medium |
| Container With Most Water | Medium |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| 4Sum | Medium |
| Next Permutation | Medium |
Unique to DE Shaw (87)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at ServiceNow.
Unique to ServiceNow (53)
Problems in ServiceNow's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and ServiceNow share?
DE Shaw and ServiceNow share 18 LeetCode interview questions. 87 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 53 appear only in ServiceNow's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and ServiceNow?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and ServiceNow are Array (14 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (5 shared questions), Hash Table (4 shared questions), Two Pointers (4 shared questions), String (3 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or ServiceNow?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. ServiceNow has 7 Easy, 51 Medium, and 13 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 ServiceNow?
Start with the 18 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 ServiceNow-specific questions to round out your prep.