D.E. Shaw loves brain teasers. I interviewed there 11 years ago, at the same time I was interviewing for my current job.

Shaw was taking a long time with its interview process. Another company then started interviewing me, and Shaw consequently sped up its process.

I don't believe there was a phone interview. The first interview took a couple of hours with some nice developers who asked primarily brain teasers. This was followed by a phone interview with the hiring manager who, despite my recruiter's assurances to the contrary, immediately asked me another brain teaser.

While this question was much more interesting and more closely related to a real problem that Shaw might face, I was annoyed.

One brain teaser that I encountered, which came from Shaw, is the five pirate problem. The five pirates are perfectly logical and need to divide up 100 pieces of gold with the following stipulations:

• There is a pecking order for the pirates, from 1-5.
• The head pirate divides the gold as he sees fit, but obviously wants to not be killed and to maximize his share.
• After this, the captain and the crew vote on whether or not they mutiny and kill the captain. A tie means no one mutinies.