DE Shaw vs Visa Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while Visa lists 146. They share 21 problems — 20% of DE Shaw's bank and 14% of Visa's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 84 DE Shaw-only and 125 Visa-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 21 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and Visa.
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 Visa-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
21 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and Visa.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Sliding Window Maximum | Hard |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| Longest Consecutive Sequence | Medium |
| LRU Cache | 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 |
| Unique Paths | Medium |
| Maximum OR | Medium |
| Text Justification | Hard |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Word Search II | Hard |
| Longest Valid Parentheses | Hard |
| House Robber II | Medium |
| Container With Most Water | Medium |
| Merge Sorted Array | Easy |
| Two Sum | Easy |
Unique to DE Shaw (84)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at Visa.
Unique to Visa (125)
Problems in Visa's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and Visa share?
DE Shaw and Visa share 21 LeetCode interview questions. 84 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 125 appear only in Visa's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and Visa?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and Visa are Array (15 shared questions), String (6 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (6 shared questions), Hash Table (5 shared questions), Two Pointers (3 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or Visa?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. Visa has 32 Easy, 92 Medium, and 22 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 Visa?
Start with the 21 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 Visa-specific questions to round out your prep.