DE shaw Interview Experience | Member Technical (MTS) | India | January 2025 [Offer] | 2023 Grad
Summary
After a comprehensive interview journey spanning from September 2024 to January 2025, I successfully cracked the DE Shaw SDE interview for a Member Technical position and received an offer. The process involved multiple coding, system design, CS fundamentals, and behavioral rounds, culminating in a final hiring manager discussion.
Full Experience
DE Shaw SDE Interview Experience – Cracked it (Sept 2024 – Jan 2025)
Education: B.Tech in CSE
Years of Experience: 1year 6 months (at the time of initial interview)
After what felt like a mini UPSC journey with debugging instead of essays, I’m thrilled to share that I finally cracked the DE Shaw SDE interview and received an offer! Here's a light-hearted (but honest) take on the whole ride:
🎯 Coding Round (Sept 2024)
HR slid into the inbox with an opening for SDE, asked for my resume, and boom—a HackerRank link appeared like a boss level in a game.
Contents of this boss battle:
- 3 medium DSA problems
- 10 MCQs on math & probability (because who doesn’t love random number fun?)
- 10 MCQs on CS fundamentals (the classic CPU-meme material)
🕵️♂️ Screening Round – Round 1 (Sept 2024)
- DSA: Solved Binary Tree Cameras — yes, trees again
- System Design: Had a low-level design discussion on Stack Overflow — ironically, without actually looking it up on Stack Overflow 👀
🧠 Tech Onsite – Round 2 (Oct 2024)
DSA:
- Maximize Score of Numbers in Ranges
- Given a string and an integer k, return the lexicographically smallest string after at most k deletions.
CS Fundamentals:
- Difference between primary and alternate keys
- Is function overloading/overriding possible in Java main()?
- Encapsulation vs Abstraction
SQL: Given a history table with columns (userLoginId, location, loginTime), write a query to fetch the first login time per userLoginId (note: IDs can repeat).
- What is method hiding? (Hint: It’s not magic, it’s just static.)
- What are macros in C++? (Answer: The preprocessor’s version of ‘YOLO’.)
🧩 Tech Onsite – Round 3 (Oct 2024)
- DSA: Count inversions where arr[i] >= 2 * arr[j], i < j
- OOP: Composition vs Inheritance — or why has-a sometimes beats is-a
- System Design: Low-level design of Google Classroom (teachers, students, subjects)
- Project discussion based on resume
👨💼 Hiring Manager Round (Nov 2024)
Welcome to the final boss fight. This was the most challenging and in-depth round:
- Resume walkthrough, discussion on full-time and internship projects
- SQL: Query for A-B table difference
DBMS:
- What is isolation in DBMS? How is it handled at the application level?
- Indexing strategies, B-Tree vs B+Tree, why not AVL?
OS: Scheduling strategies, optimal approaches
- 32-bit vs 64-bit CPUs
DSA:
- Good chips / bad chips problem (CLRS)– proposed O(n²), was expected to optimize further
Behavioral:
- A typical day at work
- A time when I handled a critical problem collaboratively
- Why DE Shaw? (Because it’s awesome. And also... please hire me :p)
📣 Result (Dec 2024)
Received the offer letter! Felt like finally unlocking the legendary loot box.
📞 Offer Call (Jan 2025)
Final formalities, discussions, and yes, finally, celebration.
Interview Questions (22)
Binary Tree Cameras
Low-Level Design of Stack Overflow
Low-level design discussion on Stack Overflow.
Maximize Score of Numbers in Ranges
Solved the Maximize Score of Numbers in Ranges problem.
Lexicographically Smallest String After K Deletions
Given a string and an integer k, return the lexicographically smallest string after at most k deletions.
Primary vs Alternate Keys
Discussion on the difference between primary and alternate keys.
Function Overloading/Overriding in Java main()
Is function overloading/overriding possible in Java main()?
Encapsulation vs Abstraction
Discussion on Encapsulation vs Abstraction.
SQL Query: First Login Time Per User
Given a history table with columns (userLoginId, location, loginTime), write a query to fetch the first login time per userLoginId (note: IDs can repeat).
Method Hiding
What is method hiding? (Hint: It’s not magic, it’s just static.)
Macros in C++
What are macros in C++? (Answer: The preprocessor’s version of ‘YOLO’. )
Count Inversions (arr[i] >= 2 * arr[j])
Count inversions where arr[i] >= 2 * arr[j], i < j.
Composition vs Inheritance
Discussion on Composition vs Inheritance — or why has-a sometimes beats is-a.
Low-Level Design of Google Classroom
Low-level design of Google Classroom (teachers, students, subjects).
SQL Query: Table A-B Difference
SQL query for A-B table difference.
DBMS Isolation
What is isolation in DBMS? How is it handled at the application level?
Indexing Strategies (B-Tree, B+Tree, AVL)
Discussion on indexing strategies, B-Tree vs B+Tree, why not AVL?
OS Scheduling Strategies
Discussion on OS scheduling strategies and optimal approaches.
32-bit vs 64-bit CPUs
Discussion on 32-bit vs 64-bit CPUs.
Good Chips / Bad Chips Problem (CLRS)
Good chips / bad chips problem (CLRS)– proposed O(n²), was expected to optimize further.
Typical Day at Work
Describe a typical day at work.
Handled Critical Problem Collaboratively
Describe a time when I handled a critical problem collaboratively.
Why DE Shaw?
Why DE Shaw?
Preparation Tips
⚠️ Tips / Reality Checks
Be very patient — DE Shaw has a slow but very deliberate process. They interview in batches and shortlist from the pool.
Interview difficulty: Medium to Hard
Good preparation and consistent revision = very crackable
If you're prepping — good luck, and remember: you're just one optimized SQL query and a good night’s sleep away from cracking it xD.