Hedge Funds interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

39

Firms

16

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsMan Group10Balyasny Asset Management7Bridgewater Associates3DED.E. Shaw3Apollo Global Management2KKR2Oaktree Capital Management2Point722SCSquarepoint Capital2ACAQR Capital Management1BGBaupost Group1Coatue Management1HPS Investment Partners1Northern Trust1Viking Global Investors1Wolverine Trading1

Topic

All topicsStrategy taxonomy8Stock pitch10Short selling6Portfolio construction8Risk and drawdown8Performance and alpha7Event-driven and merger arb8Distressed and credit5Fund structure and economics7Financing, NAV and operations6Compliance and research process5Quant and systematic6India and Category III AIFs5Career and fit11

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalMarket viewBrainteaserCaseFit

1. 083What is the angle between the hands of a clock at 3:15?Quant and systematicCorephone / first roundMan GroupEquity Hedge · London · 2016

   Say this

   7.5 degrees. The minute hand is exactly at 90 degrees, but the hour hand has moved a quarter of the way from 3 towards 4, which is a quarter of 30 degrees, so it sits at 97.5. The difference is 7.5.

   Then walk it

   1. Set up the units once and the whole family of these questions becomes trivial. The hour hand moves 360 degrees in 12 hours, so 0.5 degrees per minute. The minute hand moves 360 in 60 minutes, so 6 degrees per minute.
   2. Positions from 12 o'clock: minute hand is 15 times 6, which is 90. Hour hand is 3 times 30 plus 15 times 0.5, which is 90 plus 7.5, so 97.5.
   3. Difference is 7.5 degrees, and it is the smaller of the two angles, which is what the question means unless it says otherwise.
   4. The general formula worth memorising: the angle equals the absolute value of 30 times hours minus 5.5 times minutes. At 3:15 that is 90 minus 82.5, which is 7.5.
   5. The whole trap is the hour hand. Candidates say zero because they picture the hour hand parked on the 3. It is not; it moves continuously, and that is the entire point of the question.
   6. Say the answer, then say the setup in one line. In a phone screen this question is testing whether you can be quick and precise about a small thing, so do not over-narrate.

   Where candidates lose it

   Answering zero. It is by far the most common response and it comes from forgetting that the hour hand moves continuously. Also, say which angle you are giving, the smaller one, and do not spend ninety seconds deriving a formula the interviewer already knows.

   Expect next

   • When is the next time the hands overlap exactly?
   • How many times a day do the hands form a right angle?
   • What is the angle at 9:45?

   Reported by candidates at Man Group (Equity Hedge, London, 2016). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 090Why do you want to work at a hedge fund?Career and fitCorephone / first roundMan GroupEquity Hedge · Boston · 2019

   Say this

   Because I want the scoreboard. A hedge fund tells you whether you were right, in money, quickly, and the whole organisation is built around that feedback loop. I also want the freedom of the mandate: if I can find the mispricing, I can express it, long or short, rather than being limited to what a benchmark allows.

   Then walk it

   1. Lead with accountability, not with markets. Everyone in the room likes markets. What distinguishes a hedge fund seat is that your work becomes a position and the position becomes a number, and I want to be measured that way.
   2. Then the breadth of expression. The ability to be short, to size by conviction, to hedge out what you do not have a view on. That is intellectually satisfying in a way a long-only relative-return mandate is not.
   3. Then give one piece of evidence from your own behaviour. A personal book you have run for three years with a written thesis per position, a case competition, a published pitch, something you did without being asked. Evidence beats enthusiasm every time.
   4. Then say something specific about this firm, and make it about the process rather than the brand. A systematic and discretionary house, a pod platform, a concentrated fundamental fund and a distressed shop are four different jobs, and knowing which one you are applying to is most of the answer.
   5. Then acknowledge the hard parts without flinching. Short-horizon measurement, drawdown limits, the fact that a large part of the year's P&L can arrive in a few weeks, and the possibility of losing the seat. Saying that you have thought about it reads as maturity, not doubt.
   6. Keep it to about sixty seconds. This is a screening question, not the main event, and a four-minute answer signals you cannot prioritise.

   Where candidates lose it

   Saying 'I am passionate about markets' or citing compensation. Both are non-answers. Also, giving a generic hedge fund answer to a firm with a distinctive philosophy. If they run systematic and discretionary strategies side by side and you talk only about stock picking, you have told them you did not look them up.

   Expect next

   • Why this firm rather than a long-only manager?
   • What would you do if you did not get an offer anywhere in the industry?
   • Which of our strategies interests you and why?

   Reported by candidates at Man Group (Equity Hedge, Boston, 2019). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

3. 094What will you do if you do not get this internship?Career and fitCorefirst roundMan GroupEquity Hedge · London · 2021

   Say this

   Keep doing the same work somewhere else. I would take the closest adjacent seat I could get, sell-side research, a smaller fund, an asset manager, and keep running my own book and writing pitches, because the way into this industry is a track record rather than a particular internship.

   Then walk it

   1. Do not say 'I have no plan B, this is my only goal'. It sounds like commitment and lands as poor judgement. Everyone gets rejected, and they want to know how you respond to it.
   2. Give a specific and realistic alternative path: research at a broker, an asset manager, a smaller fund, a family office, an equity research role at a GCC or a ratings agency. Each of those builds the same skill and people move across from all of them.
   3. Then say what you would keep doing regardless, which is the part that actually answers the question. Maintaining a personal portfolio with written theses, publishing pitches, following your sector through earnings. That is what makes you hireable next year.
   4. Then reframe rejection as information. If I do not get it, I would ask for the reason and work on the specific gap, whether that is modelling speed, sector depth or the quality of my pitches.
   5. Keep it short and keep the tone even. This question is a temperament test more than a planning test. Any hint of entitlement or of catastrophe both read badly.
   6. And if there is a genuinely strong version of your alternative, say it without apology. 'I would take a research seat covering the same sector and reapply with two years of coverage behind me' is a confident answer and it is also what the successful applicants actually do.

   Where candidates lose it

   Either 'this is the only thing I want, I have no alternative', which reads as inflexible, or listing five unrelated industries, which reads as uncommitted. The right answer is one coherent adjacent path plus the work you would keep doing anyway. Keep it under a minute.

   Expect next

   • What would you work on to be stronger next year?
   • Have you applied elsewhere?
   • Tell me about a time you were rejected and what you did.

   Reported by candidates at Man Group (Equity Hedge, London, 2021). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

Firm tags come from public, anonymous candidate reports on Wall Street Oasis: strong signal, not sworn testimony. Firms are named as the places a question was reported, not as partners of Fin Maverick. Answers are written for this page to show how to think out loud; they are not scripts to recite.