Idea Transcript
Chandini Jain Follow Oct 14, 2017 · 5 min read
Quant/Finance Interview Guide for Students As placements season draws near, it’s always a scramble to figure out how exactly to prepare for your interviews. And when you are interviewing in a completely new field like Finance, it’s even harder. Based on my experience working and interviewing with these firms, I made a list of resources and some interview tips to help students prepare for Quant and Finance interviews. Many prop trading(eg KCG, SIG) , quant trading(Two Sigma, Jane Street, WorldQuant) and market making focused firms (Optiver, IMC, Flow, Finance Interview Stress?
Akuna) follow this pattern.Please note, the pattern of interviews may change
with time, it’s recommended to do your due diligence about the companies you are interviewing with.
Math/Logic/Numerical tests: Many companies like Optiver, IMC, WorldQuant like to do math or logic tests as their first step. The pattern varies by company, but the idea is to test your logical abilities. •
Optiver: Their first step is 8 mins , 80 questions MCQ math test made of simple arithmetic questions designed to assess your mental math speed and accuracy.
•
IMC: 18 mins, 24 questions math/reasoning/pattern matching MCQ test to test your logical thinking
•
WorldQuant: Mostly Probability puzzles and Math(brush up on prob and stats for this)
•
Some tests might also include simple algorithm questions and questions based on linear algebra.
Here are some online resources to practice:
Trader Test TraderTest.org is a free service which provides practice tests, answers to frequently asked questions, peer contact and… www.tradertest.org
Arithmetic Game - Online Speed Drill The Arithmetic Game is a fast-paced speed drill where you are given two minutes to solve as many arithmetic problems as… arithmetic.zetamac.com
Mental Math Test | Arithmetic speed test | Train mental math Improve your mental math test results by playing our free mental math speed drills. Apply your mental math tricks and… rankyourbrain.com
HR Screens These intend to test your motivation to join the firm and switch to finance. Most questions will be based on your resume, your projects (non-technical), what are your ambitions and life goals etc. Expect questions like why do you want to be a trader/quant/researcher? Why will you be a good trader? Why this company? and other similar questions to check for your motivation and if you are a good fit for the company. Do your research on the company to understand their business and decide if there is a mutual fit. Make sure you go through company website and glassdoor to have a good understanding of the company and their culture for this round. Try to speak to a few employees/alumni of the company to understand their work environment.
Technical Rounds These rounds test your math, analytical skills and logical reasoning abilities, interest in finance and maybe coding skills if relevant to the job. You are not expected to have a background in finance or any prior experience, however if you mention something of the sort on your resume, expect questions on it. Questions will involve probability puzzles similar, stats/maths questions, logic puzzles, possible a simple trading exercise to check how quickly you learn new concepts. (Read about market making games, how to make markets and trading games) Also expect questions on current finance news, levels of major world indices, forex, major events that moved markets over the last year, what trade would you make in such and such situation etc. Brush up on prob stats from college and practice! There are a lot lot of online resources on this, attaching some below. •
Books:
1. Heard on the Street by Timothy Falcon Crack 2. Fifty Challenging Problems in Probability With Solutions by Frederick Mosteller 3. Entertaining Mathematical Puzzles by Martin Gardner 4. Mathematical Puzzles : A Connoisseur’s Collection by Peter Winkler 5. A Practical Guide To Quantitative Finance Interviews by Xinfeng Zhou •
A few Blogs and websites to help
Welcome | Brainstellar Puzzles from Quant Interviews Brainstellar - Puzzles From Quant interview: This is a placement preparation portal and a forum for discussing the most… brainstellar.com
Wall Street Oasis "The WSO Investment Banking Interview Course was my main study guide and I landed the exact job I wanted, so obviously… www.wallstreetoasis.com
A Collection of Quantitative Riddles With Answers The quant riddles or logic or lateral puzzles 1-19 appear in the book 'Heard on The Street: Quantitative Questions from… puzzles.nigelcoldwell.co.uk
The Puzzle Toad Puzzle 38 -- Crush the Rebellion and Solution Puzzle 37 -Zeroise Me and Solution Puzzle 36 -- Nunchuk Supreme and… www.cs.cmu.edu
Puzzles Edit description gurmeet.net
IBM Research | Haifa IBM Research - Haifa is the largest lab of IBM Research Division outside of the United States. Founded as a small… www.research.ibm.com
[ wu :: riddles(easy) ] you are a prisoner in a foreign land. your fate will be determined by a little game. there are two jars, one with 50… www.ocf.berkeley.edu
People - Microsoft Research If you were formerly an employee or intern at Microsoft Research, join the newly formed LinkedIn Microsoft Research… www.microsoft.com
CSE Blog - quant, math, computer science puzzles Quant, Math & Computer Science Puzzles for Interview Preparation & Brain Teasing A collection of ~225 Puzzles… www.cseblog.com
Nick's Mathematical Puzzles Mathematical puzzles, with hints, full solutions, and links to related math topics. Fun, with an educational element. www.qbyte.org
Tanya Khovanova's Math Blog Archive for the 'Puzzles' Category. I do not remember where I saw this problem. Problem. Invent a connected shape made… blog.tanyakhovanova.com
Me, Myself and Mathematics October 20, 2011 It's been a while since I posted anything here. In addition to me being lazy and busy, I did not… sbjoshi.wordpress.com
The Math Less Traveled In my previous post I mentioned Fermat's Little Theorem, a beautiful, fundamental result in number theory that… mathlesstraveled.com
If you are interviewing with a company that looking for algorithmic traders, also expect interviews on algorithms and data structures (you will most likely be asked to write psuedo code).
Chat with Senior Executives If you have made it this far, they already like you and are looking for final red flags. This is mostly a personal fit interview to see if you will fit well with company culture. They might also test how you deal with stress, react to high pressure situations, collaborate within a team etc. Other reading:
Good luck!