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TL;DR

Expected Depth in a Random Treap: A canonical quantitative trading interview question at foundation difficulty. Commonly asked at Jane Street, HRT, Two Sigma.

By Valenke Exam Prep Team·Last updated 2026-06-01
foundationRandomized Data Structures

Expected Depth in a Random Treap

Asked at: Jane Street, HRT, Two Sigma

Problem
A treap stores nn keys with random priorities. The tree is simultaneously a BST on keys and a max-heap on priorities. Show that the expected depth of any node is O(logn)O(\log n) by proving it equals the expected number of "ancestors" — which relates to the same indicator variable trick used in quicksort.

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