Coding questions
D. E. Shaw Online Assessment
Overview
Here is how public prep guides and student write-ups describe the D. E. Shaw online assessment. This is not an official company brochure.
Quant/finance-tech bar: OA and interviews pitched harder than mass IT hiring.
Usual selection rounds
Rounds students usually mention: Online test (~60 min aptitude/verbal/reasoning/tech MCQs/coding) → Technical interviews (often 2+) → Managerial (some drives) → HR
| Item | From student reports |
|---|---|
| Platform | Campus online test |
| Online test summary | FACE Prep: ~60-minute online test mixing aptitude, verbal, reasoning, technical MCQs, and coding. Difficulty above standard IT services screens; negative marking discussed in related FACE Prep papers guides. |
| Eligibility notes | FACE Prep cites ~65% aggregate, no active backlogs for many campus drives |
| Branches (reported) | Primarily CSE/ECE for tech roles |
Online test sections
| Section | Questions | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aptitude / verbal / reasoning / tech MCQs / coding | - | ~60 min total (FACE Prep overview) | Confirm sectional breakdown in your college placement email |
Extra notes from sources
- Hyderabad-centred India entity for many tech roles.
Sample practice question styles
These are practice questions for speed - not claimed to be from a real D. E. Shaw live paper.
Coding Q1: Linked list cycle
Problem: Given the head of a linked list, return true if there is a cycle and false otherwise.
Approach: Floyd’s tortoise and hare: move one pointer one step and another two steps. If they meet, a cycle exists. If the fast pointer hits null, there is no cycle.
Complexity: O(n) time, O(1) space
D. E. Shaw 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: Binary tree level order
Problem: Given the root of a binary tree, return the level-order traversal (breadth-first) as a list of levels.
Approach: Use a queue. For each level, drain the current queue size, collect values, and enqueue children for the next level.
Complexity: O(n) time, O(n) space
D. E. Shaw 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: Coin change (min coins)
Problem: Given coin denominations and an amount, return the fewest coins needed to make that amount, or -1 if it is impossible.
Approach: Unbounded knapsack DP: let dp[x] be the minimum coins for amount x. For each coin, update dp[c..amount]. Initialize dp[0] = 0 and the rest to a large sentinel.
Complexity: O(amount × coins)
D. E. Shaw 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: Binary search
Problem: Given a sorted array of distinct integers and a target, return the index of target or -1 if missing.
Approach: Maintain lo/hi. Compare mid with target and shrink the half that cannot contain it. Careful with overflow-free mid and empty arrays.
Complexity: O(log n) time
D. E. Shaw 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
- Train above services-company OA difficulty
- Practice narrating DSA aloud
- Prepare a clear Why D.E. Shaw (tech + finance) answer
Sources
- D.E. Shaw Recruitment Process 2026 - FACE Prep (faceprep)
- D.E. Shaw Interview Rounds - FACE Prep (faceprep)
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.
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