DE Shaw vs Yandex Interview Questions
DE Shaw lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while Yandex lists 128. They share 21 problems — 20% of DE Shaw's bank and 16% of Yandex's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 84 DE Shaw-only and 107 Yandex-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 Yandex.
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 Yandex-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 Yandex.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Majority Element | Easy |
| Insert Delete GetRandom O(1) | Medium |
| Sliding Window Maximum | Hard |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| Implement Rand10() Using Rand7() | 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 |
| Basic Calculator II | Medium |
| Text Justification | Hard |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Minimum Size Subarray Sum | Medium |
| Container With Most Water | Medium |
| Merge Sorted Array | Easy |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| 4Sum | Medium |
Unique to DE Shaw (84)
Problems in DE Shaw's list that do not appear at Yandex.
Unique to Yandex (107)
Problems in Yandex's list that do not appear at DE Shaw.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Longest Subarray of 1's After Deleting One Element | Medium |
| Summary Ranges | Easy |
| Maximize Distance to Closest Person | Medium |
| Find K Closest Elements | Medium |
| Subarray Sum Equals K | Medium |
| String Compression | Medium |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Valid Palindrome II | Easy |
| Move Zeroes | Easy |
| One Edit Distance | Medium |
| Permutation in String | Medium |
| Isomorphic Strings | Easy |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do DE Shaw and Yandex share?
DE Shaw and Yandex share 21 LeetCode interview questions. 84 problems appear only in DE Shaw's list and 107 appear only in Yandex's list.
What topics overlap most between DE Shaw and Yandex?
The most common shared topics between DE Shaw and Yandex are Array (15 shared questions), Hash Table (6 shared questions), String (5 shared questions), Two Pointers (4 shared questions), Stack (3 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: DE Shaw or Yandex?
DE Shaw has 11 Easy, 64 Medium, and 30 Hard questions. Yandex has 51 Easy, 67 Medium, and 10 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 Yandex?
Start with the 21 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 DE Shaw-specific and 20 Yandex-specific questions to round out your prep.