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DERejected

SDE Intern at D. E. Shaw & Co

Difficulty
Process took
0-1 Weeks
Rounds
2
Format
On site
Applied via
Other

How it went

  • Not getting selected can be tough when you come this far, but each step improves your skills and confidence for the next big opportunity. Keep solving, keep learning and good luck to everyone aiming for top product roles.

What they would tell you

  • Not getting selected can be tough when you come this far, but each step improves your skills and confidence for the next big opportunity. Keep solving, keep learning and good luck to everyone aiming for top product roles.

How to prepare

  • DSA and CP both have equal weightage, so prepare both

Their background

I’m a Tier-1 (NIT) student with a CGPA 8.5 , and DE Shaw visited our campus offering a highly competitive stipend (₹1.5L/month) for a 6-month SDE intern position.

Round by round

  1. 1

    Online Assessment (OA)60 min

    Two coding problems Core Subjects MCQs: 20 questions covering operating systems, DBMS, OOP. Aptitude MCQs: 15 questions testing quick logic, pattern recognition, and basic mathematics.

    Out of 35 students, only 20 cleared the OA

  2. 2

    Technical Interview60 min

    Coding Problem: Insert Delete GetRandom O(1) I successfully provided a solution using hash sets and dynamic arrays. The interviewer then asked a follow-up question What if we insert duplicate elements? How would you improve your solution?, I explained how we could modify the data structure to handle duplicates and still maintain the O(1) operations for insertion, deletion, and random retrieval. OOP Questions:

    • What is Polymorphism and Inheritance?

    • Explain the types of Polymorphism and Inheritance. These were standard questions to test my knowledge of object-oriented programming. Semaphore:

    • I was asked to explain what a semaphore is and how it works in concurrency control. DBMS Indexing:

    • What do you mean by indexing in DBMS? Explain the types of indexing. I explained the importance of indexing in databases for fast search operations and discussed different types of indexing like primary, secondary, and hash-based indexing.

    Verdict: Rejected after this round. The Placement Committee informed me that I was not selected after this round.

What came up

MediumOn site0 1 years

A candidate-reported account, lightly edited. Interview processes change by team and date.

Sources