DE Shaw vs TCS Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while TCS lists 228. They share 27 problems — 26% of DE Shaw's bank and 12% of TCS's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 78 DE Shaw-only and 201 TCS-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 27 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and TCS.
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 TCS-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
27 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and TCS.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| House Robber | Medium |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Majority Element | Easy |
| Sliding Window Maximum | Hard |
| Koko Eating Bananas | Medium |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| Maximum Product Subarray | Medium |
| Longest Consecutive Sequence | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Search a 2D Matrix | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock II | Medium |
| Unique Paths | Medium |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Find First and Last Position of Element in Sorted Array | Medium |
| Minimum Size Subarray Sum | Medium |
| Minimum Cost to Make at Least One Valid Path in a Grid | Hard |
| Container With Most Water | Medium |
| Merge Sorted Array | Easy |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| 4Sum | Medium |
| Peak Index in a Mountain Array | Medium |
| Next Permutation | Medium |
Unique to DE Shaw (78)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at TCS.
Unique to TCS (201)
Problems in TCS's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Friday Purchases I | Medium |
| Longest Palindromic Substring | Medium |
| Palindrome Number | Easy |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Move Zeroes | Easy |
| Longest Common Prefix | Easy |
| Sort Colors | Medium |
| Valid Anagram | Easy |
| Find the Index of the First Occurrence in a String | Easy |
| Single Number | Easy |
| Second Highest Salary | Medium |
| Subarray Sum Equals K | Medium |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and TCS share?
DE Shaw and TCS share 27 LeetCode interview questions. 78 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 201 appear only in TCS's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and TCS?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and TCS are Array (22 shared questions), Hash Table (6 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (6 shared questions), Binary Search (6 shared questions), Two Pointers (5 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or TCS?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. TCS has 99 Easy, 108 Medium, and 21 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 TCS?
Start with the 27 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 TCS-specific questions to round out your prep.