DE Shaw vs Snapchat Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while Snapchat lists 99. They share 13 problems — 12% of DE Shaw's bank and 13% of Snapchat's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 92 DE Shaw-only and 86 Snapchat-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 13 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and Snapchat.
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 Snapchat-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: Snapchat skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
13 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and Snapchat.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| Insert Delete GetRandom O(1) | Medium |
| Koko Eating Bananas | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Open the Lock | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Basic Calculator II | Medium |
| Decode Ways | Medium |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Word Search II | Hard |
| Wildcard Matching | Hard |
Unique to DE Shaw (92)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at Snapchat.
Unique to Snapchat (86)
Problems in Snapchat's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Meeting Rooms II | Medium |
| Valid Sudoku | Medium |
| Sudoku Solver | Hard |
| Combination Sum | Medium |
| Combination Sum II | Medium |
| Minimum Window Substring | Hard |
| Unique Binary Search Trees | Medium |
| Word Ladder | Hard |
| Word Break II | Hard |
| Reverse Words in a String | Medium |
| Min Stack | Medium |
| One Edit Distance | Medium |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and Snapchat share?
DE Shaw and Snapchat share 13 LeetCode interview questions. 92 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 86 appear only in Snapchat's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and Snapchat?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and Snapchat are String (7 shared questions), Array (7 shared questions), Hash Table (5 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (3 shared questions), Backtracking (2 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or Snapchat?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. Snapchat has 6 Easy, 62 Medium, and 31 Hard questions. Snapchat has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both DE Shaw and Snapchat?
Start with the 13 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 Snapchat-specific questions to round out your prep.