DE Shaw vs X Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while X lists 51. They share 6 problems — 6% of DE Shaw's bank and 12% of X's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 99 DE Shaw-only and 45 X-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 6 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both DE Shaw and X.
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 X-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
6 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both DE Shaw and X.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Insert Delete GetRandom O(1) | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Flatten Nested List Iterator | Medium |
| Wildcard Matching | Hard |
Unique to DE Shaw (99)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at X.
Unique to X (45)
Problems in X's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Tweet Counts Per Frequency | Medium |
| Implement Trie (Prefix Tree) | Medium |
| Design Twitter | Medium |
| Binary Gap | Easy |
| Regular Expression Matching | Hard |
| Integer to Roman | Medium |
| Word Break II | Hard |
| Alien Dictionary | Hard |
| Time Needed to Buy Tickets | Easy |
| Max Points on a Line | Hard |
| Merge k Sorted Lists | Hard |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and X share?
DE Shaw and X share 6 LeetCode interview questions. 99 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 45 appear only in X's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and X?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and X are Stack (3 shared questions), Design (3 shared questions), Array (2 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (2 shared questions), String (2 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or X?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. X has 8 Easy, 31 Medium, and 12 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 X?
Start with the 6 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 X-specific questions to round out your prep.