D.E Shaw Interview Experience for Technology Developer Intern 2025

ROUND 1: Online Assessment

1. This round consisted of three coding questions based on topics such as binary search, dynamic programming, and prefix sums. The eligibility criteria were a CGPA of 7+ for the IT branch and 8+ for the ECE branch. Over 300 students were eligible for the online assessment.
2. The difficulty level of the questions ranged from medium to hard, and a total of 16 students were shortlisted for the next round.

ROUND 2: Technical Interview - 1

1. This round was conducted in both online and offline modes. I participated in an online interview via HackerRank CodePair.
2. There were two interviewers, and the round began with my introduction and a discussion about my projects. My project focused on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Deep Learning, and I was asked several related questions.
3. Next, I was presented with a coding question: N Repeating Substring. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/find-given-string-can-represented-substring-iterating-substring-n-times/
4. I was expected to explain my approach, code the solution, and pass the given test cases. I successfully coded the optimal solution, which satisfied the interviewer.
5. Following that, the first interviewer asked questions about Operating Systems (OS), covering topics such as virtual memory, paging, segmentation, physical vs. virtual memory, and fragmentation. The discussion delved into various related topics, requiring a comprehensive understanding of OS concepts.
6. The second interviewer focused on Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), asking questions about method overloading, method overriding, the static keyword, and runtime polymorphism.
7. The interview concluded positively, with the interviewers expressing satisfaction with my answers. They then invited me to ask questions, and I inquired about the work culture and technology stacks used by interns.
8. Out of 16 candidates, 10 students were shortlisted for the next round.

ROUND 3: Technical Interview - 2

1. This round was conducted offline for all students, with two interviewers on the panel.
2. The round began with my introduction, followed by questions about my project and related technologies.
3. I was then asked a Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) question: to create a custom class with the following specifications:
   • You are given a canvas of size n x m, initially filled with 0. You can perform the following operations:
     • draw(r, c): Draw a shape (represented by an alphabet from 'A' to 'Z') on cell (r, c). If multiple shapes are drawn on a cell, the most recent shape is displayed.
     • delete(r, c): Delete the most recent shape from cell (r, c). If multiple shapes are present, the most recent shape is removed, revealing the next most recent. If no shapes exist, 0 is displayed.
     • move(r1, c1, r2, c2): Move the shape from cell (r1, c1) to (r2, c2), following the same rules for multiple shapes. The question was initially vague, and I had to ask several follow-up questions to clarify the requirements. My first solution processed each operation in O(N) time. However, when asked to optimize it, I proposed a solution using a hashmap and queue that achieved O(logN) time per operation, which satisfied the interviewer.
4. The second interviewer then asked about OOP concepts, specifically regarding constructors and the private access specifier. I was challenged to create an object of a class with only a private constructor. I suggested various approaches using the static keyword and getter/setter methods, but the interviewer was not satisfied.
5. Another DSA question followed: Given two numbers represented as linked lists of the same length, I was tasked with adding the numbers under the following constraints:
   • Reversing the linked list is not allowed.
   • Modifying the linked list is not allowed.
   • Extra space is not allowed.
   • Recursion is not allowed. This problem was non-trivial since I had to add the numbers in reverse order. Initially, I proposed an O(N^2) solution, but the interviewer requested optimization. After spending 10-15 minutes thinking through the problem and explaining my thought process, I presented an optimized approach that seemed to satisfy the interviewer.
6. The interview concluded with the opportunity for me to ask questions.

Results were announced on the same day, with three students receiving offers.