DE Shaw vs Snowflake Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while Snowflake lists 100. They share 10 problems — 10% of DE Shaw's bank and 10% of Snowflake's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 95 DE Shaw-only and 90 Snowflake-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 10 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and Snowflake.
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 Snowflake-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
10 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and Snowflake.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Insert Delete GetRandom O(1) | Medium |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Basic Calculator II | Medium |
| Word Search II | Hard |
| Container With Most Water | Medium |
| Two Sum | Easy |
Unique to DE Shaw (95)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at Snowflake.
Unique to Snowflake (90)
Problems in Snowflake's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and Snowflake share?
DE Shaw and Snowflake share 10 LeetCode interview questions. 95 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 90 appear only in Snowflake's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and Snowflake?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and Snowflake are Array (8 shared questions), Hash Table (3 shared questions), Matrix (3 shared questions), Two Pointers (2 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (2 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or Snowflake?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. Snowflake has 13 Easy, 67 Medium, and 20 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 Snowflake?
Start with the 10 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 Snowflake-specific questions to round out your prep.