Coding questions
Arcesium Online Assessment
Overview
Here is how public prep guides and student write-ups describe the Arcesium online assessment. This is not an official company brochure.
DE Shaw affiliate process: OA then strong DSA + LLD emphasis.
Usual selection rounds
Rounds students usually mention: Online assessment → DSA rounds → LLD / design → Sometimes DB design → HR
| Item | From student reports |
|---|---|
| Platform | Online OA (Instahyre-triggered in one post) |
| Online test summary | LinkedIn account: MCQs (aptitude, DSA, computer fundamentals) + 2 coding questions (medium + hard). |
| Eligibility notes | Not consistently published in cited posts |
| Branches (reported) | Software/SDE tracks |
Online test sections
| Section | Questions | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCQs | Aptitude + DSA + fundamentals | - | - |
| Coding | 2 (medium + hard) | - | - |
Extra notes from sources
- Check your college placement email for the platform, section order, and timing.
Sample practice question styles
These are practice questions for speed - not claimed to be from a real Arcesium live paper.
Coding Q1: Two Sum
Problem: Given an array of integers and a target, return indices of two numbers that add up to the target. Assume exactly one solution and you may not use the same element twice.
Approach: Walk the array once. For each value x, check whether target − x was seen earlier in a hash map of value → index. If yes, return both indices; else store x.
Complexity: O(n) time, O(n) space
Arcesium tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Coding Q2: Longest substring without repeating characters
Problem: Given a string s, find the length of the longest substring without repeating characters. Example: ‘abcabcbb’ → 3 (‘abc’).
Approach: Sliding window with a map (or last-seen index) of characters. Expand the right pointer; when a duplicate appears inside the window, move the left pointer past the previous occurrence.
Complexity: O(n) time
Arcesium tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Coding Q3: Merge overlapping intervals
Problem: Given a list of intervals [start, end], merge all overlapping intervals and return the non-overlapping set that covers the same ranges.
Approach: Sort by start time. Walk once, merging into the last interval in the result when the next start is ≤ current end; otherwise append a new interval.
Complexity: O(n log n) time from the sort
Arcesium tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Coding Q4: Top K frequent elements
Problem: Given an integer array and an integer k, return the k most frequent elements. Order among equals can be arbitrary unless the problem says otherwise.
Approach: Count frequencies with a hash map, then use a heap of size k (or bucket sort by frequency) to extract the top k keys.
Complexity: O(n log k) with a heap
Arcesium tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Prep tips from those student reports
- Medium-hard DSA with clear narration
- LLD practice (games/object models)
- Resume ownership stories
Sources
- Arcesium interview experience - LinkedIn (Anshu Garg) (other)
- Arcesium SDE-1 interview experience - LinkedIn (Rishi Sharma) (other)
These notes come from public reports and can differ by campus, year, and role. If your college placement email or the official careers/notification PDF says something different, follow that.