D E Shaw Interview | Set 7 (Off Campus)

I applied in D E Shaw through their online job portal. My profile got selected after 1-2 months. The HR called me and told that they want to have a telephonic round which was scheduled after 4 days.

• Telephonic Round: (1 Hour)
  1. Tell me something about yourself and Introduction.
  2. He asked about the coding language I use and asked questions on OOPs concepts like Abstraction, Inheritance, and Polymorphism.
  3. As I told I code in C++ he asked me about Virtual function, what the problem with multiple inheritance is and how C++ resolve that. Some questions on STL and design of the Templates.
  4. I told him to ask question from DS and Algorithms as that was the part in which I was prepared.
     There is a class of N students and you have to find the top K marks scorers.
     (This questions was slight different from the common top K element question ,for example we have to find the top 3 marks scorers as that can be entire class if they all get same top 3 marks, after some discussions I answered the question.)
  5. He then asked questions on Indexing in databases. (That day only I read it :P)
  6. Again a DS question he told me what data structure you will use to design a google search, having the key words from the respective sites. (I suggested tries with Link Lists, He was happy)

  This round went quite well, I knew that they will call me for the In House Interviews. So I started preparing for it. After few days I got a call for the interviews at Hyd.

  D E Shaw has awesome office, we were waiting in the room where HR came and guided to the Interview rooms. (All rounds were 2 Interviewers)
• Interview Round 1: (1:30 hours)
  1. Brief Introduction.
  2. They ask some questions from the language you use for coding (They were expecting Java). In C++ they asked from virtual functions, STL, copy constructors etc. (After this,he knew that I know my language well.)
  3. I told them to ask me from DS and Algorithms.
     They asked the question like you have timing of arrival and departures of the trains you have to find the minimum l number of platforms required to accommodate them.
     (I told them I know the answer, after this they didn’t even asked me single DS questions (I got screwed)???)
  4. He asked me to design a database which could handle the quick changes in the shares which happen in the market.(I didn’t knew how to use indexes and other stuffs)
  5. He told me how would you buy the shares of the companies if you know the future for some period of time.( I gave a layman solution)
  6. He then started to ask queries, Indexing, Normalization in databases in deep.
     (Find the 2nd maximum number in a table)(I used top command after that he told me the case in which it will not work, and then I corrected accordingly)
  7. After that came a designing question.
     Design a class which has the director, HOD, Professor and students. They all are reporting to their respective heads. I have to display the hierarchy structure of the information in a Site.
     He also told me that if a new designation comes or new employee comes then your class should handle those cases without any change. (With help I designed a tree, but he was expecting something else.) After that he told me to design a database for it which I did and he was happy with the solution.

  After this round I thought that they would send me home, there was a mixed feeling. But I was waiting for them for a round of DS and Algorithms: P.
• Interview Round 2: (1:10 hours)
  1. Tell me a brief about yourself.
  2. Questions on your language C++( Basics)
  3. Various sections of memory stack, heap, data. Explain them using a code.( Answered perfectly)
  4. Find the endianness of a machine using a function ( I knew the answer).
  5. Median of two sorted arrays (I told I know the answer).
  6. About semaphores and monitors.
  7. Producer consumer problem, reader’s writer’s problem with proper code using the semaphores.
     I wrote the complete Galvin code and explained in detail.
  8. Thrashing and why it occurs. (Explained in detail)
  9. He was really impressed till then as I answered all questions perfectly, he then asked some real time examples about polymorphisms, inheritance)
  10. He then asked about Normalization in databases and by luck, I remembered the Normal forms and answered.
  11. He then asked me to explain the steps when we enter a URL into a browser.
      (I told I know the solution, then he told me to answer whether I knew it or I was just saying in every question I know, I explained the answer to them after that both of them became really impressed)
  12. Some questions on protocols and layers of the OSI model. (Answered)

  I answered every question in this round (Gangnam Style).

• HR round: (20 minutes)
  Some general questions.
  Interests, weakness, strength, Package of the current company.
  Only 4-6 students of 20-25 had their HR rounds that day, so I thought I may have a chance but I still had very bad 1st round in my mind.
  On the next day I got a call for some details of my present company, after that few days later I got a call of the offer from them with a good package.
• Some tips:
  1. For D E Shaw you need to be good in all the subjects.
  2. Be truthful in the interview if you know the answer tell them, they may like your honesty (Depends on individuals).
  3. Most of them lack in databases, so come prepared with it thoroughly.
  4. Best of luck.

Geeks for Geeks helped me lot in my preparations. I followed GFG thoroughly during my preparations, hope that my experience would help you in your interviews.

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