DE Shaw Interview Experience

VIT Vellore 2021 Batch , I recently got Placed in D.E. Shaw & Co. through an On Campus Drive. Here I am Sharing My complete Recruitment Process (Online Test and Technical Interviews). Hope You All Find this Helpful !!! D.E. Shaw Recruitment Process was held on 23rd & 24th July 2020 (Virtually - Online). The Hiring was both for Undergraduates and Postgraduates. Criteria : 8.5 CGPA or Above (only CSE , ECE & IT - Both UG & PG). All students irrespective of history of backlogs or current backlogs were considered if they satisfied the CGPA criteria.

1. First Round (Online Test) :

This first round was the Online test which was 1 Hour 95 Minutes Long. It was Divided as Follows. ? Aptitude Section (Arithmetic + Analytical) 14 Questions - 26 Minutes ? Technical MCQs( Computer Science) 14 Questions - 19 Minutes ? Coding Question 1 1 Question - 20 Minutes ? Coding Question 2 1 Question - 30 Minutes ? Coding Questions : I. Dynamic Programming Based Medium Level Question (Time Allocated for the same was 20 Minutes) Link : https://ide.codingblocks.com/s/302739 II. Dynamic Programming Based Hard Level Question (Time Allocated for the same was 30 Minutes) Link : https://ide.codingblocks.com/s/302754 This Round was Conducted on Hackerrank (Webcam Enabled). After this Online Test round 24 Students were Selected. ? Practice Suggestions : ? For Aptitude : https://www.indiabix.com/ & Aptitude Questions and answers ? For Technical MCQS : Sanfoundary and GFG ( Mainly OS , DBMS , DSA) ? For Coding Questions : Codeforces (A,B,C Questions) + GFG + Leetcode 2. Second Round (Technical Interview - 1) (Almost 2 hrs 40 mins) This was an Online F2F Technical Round conducted on CodePair : Hackerrank ( You can try it by this Link : CodePair - Technical Interview Platform). So, Basically You have to Run and Submit ( Pass All Test cases) in the Interview Round also (Like normal Coding Test) in Codepair : Hackerrank & along with that You should have to explain your Code and Approach to the Interviewers. I. Dynamic Programming Based Medium Level ( O(n) time and O(n) Space Complexities) Link : https://ide.codingblocks.com/s/302907 II. Greedy Algorithm Based Medium Level ( They told me to do in the Best time and space

2. Second Round (Technical Interview - 1) (Almost 2 hrs 40 mins)

This was an Online F2F Technical Round conducted on CodePair : Hackerrank ( You can try it by this Link : CodePair - Technical Interview Platform). So, Basically You have to Run and Submit ( Pass All Test cases) in the Interview Round also (Like normal Coding Test) in Codepair : Hackerrank & along with that You should have to explain your Code and Approach to the Interviewers. I. Dynamic Programming Based Medium Level ( O(n) time and O(n) Space Complexities) Link : https://ide.codingblocks.com/s/302907 II. Greedy Algorithm Based Medium Level ( They told me to do in the Best time and space complexities i.e. They didn’t gave me the hint of Time and Space Complexities) Link : Policeman catch thieves III. Dynamic Programming Based Hard Level Link : Freedom Trail (Question was Not Exactly Same but 60-65% Similar Approach , I don’t remember the Exact Question cause it was very lengthy) IV. Dynamic Programming Based (Variant of 3rd) Interviewer asked me “Can you Solve the above Question in Better space complexity” ? Just Discussion , They didn’t ask me to write the Code Again. V. How will you traverse the Multidimensional Array (100 Dimension or More) , you do not have the rows, columns, size of the array and datatype of Array nothing. In short you have to transfer all the elements of that Multidimensional Array to an 1-D Array. This Round was Conducted on CodePair : Hackerrank (Video Meeting). After this Online Test round 8 Students were Selected out of 24 Students.

3. Third Round (Technical Interview - 2) (Almost 3 Hours)

This was also an Online F2F Technical Round conducted on Codepair: Hackerrank. I. Dynamic Programming Based Not So Easy Level 121. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/problems/stock-buy-and-sell-1587115621/1 122. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock II https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/problems/maximum-profit4657/1 II. Dynamic Programming Based Not So Medium Level 309. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock with Cooldown 714. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock with Transaction Fee III. Dynamic Programming Based Hard Level 123. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock III 188. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock IV IV. They asked me a Lot of Questions like ? How did you arrive at this Solution ? ? Why is this Approach Right ? , ? Can You do this in Better time & space complexities ? (Although I have done in Best time Complexity but they asked this to check my confidence level on my codes). ? A lot of Variants based on Constraints. ? They will ask you to write the final code for every question before Submitting it(run all test cases) so you won’t get any hints after running test cases in the IDE. ( So don’t Submit your code before dry running it on a lot of Test Cases on pen & paper , they allow to use pen & blank paper at the time of Interviews) So the Summary is Even if you have done the same ditto problem before , they will test your Problem Solving skills at that time anyhow. So, Learning(Remembering Line to Line) the Codes Won’t Help You !!. I do not know how many Students got Selected from those 8 Students after this Technical Round - 2 , cause everyone got a personal email for the HR Round.

4. Fourth Round ( HR Round) (Almost 30 minutes)

This was a Telephonic Round (Audio Call). I. How was your Interview Experience ? II. What difficulty did you face this time in the Virtual Recruitment Process ? III. If the Questions were relevant those were asked in the Interviews ? IV. Have you worked in a Team Before ? V. If you will have a contradiction with your colleague then how will you sort this ? VI. What major Projects did you have made ? VII. If not D.E Shaw then What ? ( I was so Happy after this Question :) ) VIII. Next Five Year Goals ? After this Round 2 Students were Selected with a Full Time Offer, I was one of them. Prepare Subjects in Depth for Technical Coding & Interview Round. Cracking the DE Shaw interview is not possible just by reading the short articles one night before.They ask the questions in-depth. All the Questions were basic in the HR Round !! ... Be Honest in HR Round (Also in Technical Rounds xD). All the Best for Your Placements !!