D.E. Shaw Interview Questions

75 total interview insight submissions
Interview Experience (86%)

The Interview Experience is a score from 1 star (very negative) to 5 stars (very positive) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the donut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire dataset.

3.6
  • Very Negative
  • Negative
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Very Positive
Interview Difficulty (100%)

The Interview Difficulty is a score ranging from very difficult (red) to very easy (green) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. The higher the number, the more difficult the interviews on average. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more insights, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire data set.

3.5
  • Very Easy
  • Easy
  • Average
  • Difficult
  • Very Difficult
% Interns - FT Offers (60%)

The % of Interns Getting a Full Time Offer chart is meant to provide a realistic estimate of the hiring practices of the company based on the reviews at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few reviews). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to the simple company average and away from the average of the entire data set.

34%
  • 0%
  • 10%
  • 20%
  • 30%
  • 40%
  • 50%
  • 60%
  • 70%
  • 80%
  • 90%
  • 100%

Interviews at D.E. Shaw

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Filter by:
Year
Job Title
Group/Division
Location
Experience
Difficulty
Intern
Year 2022
Job Title Intern
Group/Division System Integration
Location London
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Student / Prospective Monkey
Year 2022
Job Title Student / Prospective Monkey
Group/Division Generalist
Location Washington
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Summer Associate Intern
Year 2021
Job Title Summer Associate Intern
Group/Division Commodities
Location New York
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Average
Student / Prospective Monkey
Year 2021
Job Title Student / Prospective Monkey
Group/Division N/A
Location New York
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Average
Student / Prospective Monkey
Year 2021
Job Title Student / Prospective Monkey
Group/Division Generalist
Location New York
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2021
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Generalist
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2021
Job Title Intern
Group/Division N/A
Location New York
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Difficult
Summer Associate Intern
Year 2021
Job Title Summer Associate Intern
Group/Division Investment Research
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Difficult
Intern
Year 2021
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Quantitative Research
Location New York
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Very Difficult
1st Year Associate
Year 2021
Job Title 1st Year Associate
Group/Division Equity Capital Markets
Location new york
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy

Interview Questions & Answers - D.E. Shaw Examples

Rotational Associate Interview - Rotational

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: September 2023
Date Submitted: Oct 03, 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Applied online and heard back within 3 weeks. I interviewed over webex for 30 minutes. Got asked about two experiences and they dived deep into each. One question I got was to. describe a time I worked with a lot of data and faced inefficiencies.
Interview Questions
How would I fix inefficiencies in the data?
Sample Answer

Investor Relations Interview - Business Development

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: September 2023
Date Submitted: Sep 28, 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
HR was extremely slow at coordinating a time, I had to bug her twice to get me a time with someone from the firm for a first round. I was interviewing for a back office investor relations role, but somehow I ended up getting an interviewer who was challenging me to do probability brain teasers on the spot. This was the most random conversation ever and I came totally unprepared. thought IR roles were usually qualitative but this one hit me extremely in my face lmao.
Interview Questions
Expected Value brainteaser
Tell me the most quantitative challenging project you've done
Sample Answer

Trading Intern Interview - Prop Trading

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: May 2023
Date Submitted: Jul 03, 2023
Outcome
Declined Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Background Check
Interview
Applied Online -> Recruiter screen -> Case study -> Onsite with trader interviews -> Background/Reference Check
Less technical than most interviews, but they ask really weird/bad tech questions. Lots more behavioral/situational questions.
Interview Questions
I'm not allowed to be specific, but there was a question where my interviewer expected me to derive gambler's ruin on the spot.
Sample Answer

Prop Trading Intern Interview - Prop Trading

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: February 2023
Date Submitted: Jun 18, 2023
Outcome
Declined Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Generally straightforward, started with a behavioral, then a case study, followed by a super day, HM convo, and references.
Interview Questions
The case study was unconventional, since typical interviews are just probability questions
Sample Answer

Proprietary Trading Intern Interview - Prop Trading

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: March 2023
Date Submitted: Mar 09, 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
I had the phone screen with a trader who had just graduated and participated in the Junior Year Prop Trading Internship with DE. I got no technicals. Walked through my resume, and a bunch of situational and behavioral questions. Very friendly interview, got sent the case study not too long after this interview was completed. Case was not too difficult, though I did not get selected to move forward.
Interview Questions
What is a heavily agreed with preconceived notion that you disagree with? Why?
Sample Answer

Quant Researcher Interview - Quantitative Research

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: December 2022
Date Submitted: Jan 27, 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Staffing Agency
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
There was a virtual interview initially. It followed with a day of three interviews, where you may get kicked out in the middle if didn't go well. After that, there were two more interviews on another day.
Interview Questions
How does JVM implement switch by string.
Sample Answer

Generalist Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: November 2022
Date Submitted: Dec 26, 2022
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Recruiter
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Skills Test
Other
Interview
First round is like a recuiter call except it's with an employee. Non-technical, just want to know who you are and how you think through behavioral questions. Second round is a case study that is given to you via email. Can't ask questions, have to response with basically a report .
Interview Questions
How do you teach?
Sample Answer

Rotational Associate Program Interview - Rotational

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: October 2022
Date Submitted: Nov 22, 2022
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
IQ / Intelligence Test
Personality Test
Interview
Applied online from a target school. Received an invite for a video interview after a week. The video interview was 30 minutes long, focused on behavioural questions, and delved into my resume. Had a probability brain teaser at the end which I guess they asked based on my technical background. Heard back pretty quickly about a rejection.
Interview Questions
Why did you not use the Pareto optimal solution to tackle this problem?
Sample Answer

Strategy and Business Development Interview - Corporate Development

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: June 2022
Date Submitted: Oct 19, 2022
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Employee Referral
Length of Process
2-3 months
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
1st round casual conversation with employee. very chill. heard back same day. second round is case study. heard back 3 weeks later. Then Superday. then Conversation with SVP.
Interview Questions
Estimation problem
Sample Answer

Generalist Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: October 2021
Date Submitted: Sep 24, 2022
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
first round 1 on 1 zoom interview with VP. All behavioral. More focused on character and personality than resume experience.
Interview Questions
What tradeoff did you face?, With unclear problem, how did you break it into smaller problems and tackled them
Sample Answer