Quant interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

53

Firms

15

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsOld Mission Capital12Tower Research Capital10Jump Trading7Akuna Capital5Citadel4DED.E. Shaw3Jane Street3ACAQR Capital Management2DRW2Millennium Management2Schonfeld2SCSquarepoint Capital2Susquehanna International Group2Belvedere Trading1Optiver1

Topic

All topicsProbability10Coins, cards and games6Expected value8Statistics11Market making15Estimation and mental maths4Stochastic processes4Regression5Machine learning6Time series6Programming10Options and derivatives8Fit and motivation7

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyBrainteaserTechnicalCaseMarket viewFit

1. 071Here is a scenario. Walk me through how you would analyse the trade.Market makingHardcase studySchonfeldQuantitative Research · New York · 2021

   Say this

   I would structure it as five questions: what is the thesis and what would make it wrong, what is the expected value, how do I size it, how do I hedge what I am not trying to be exposed to, and what is my exit. Then say the number, because a trade analysis without a number is an opinion.

   Then walk it

   1. Thesis first, stated as a falsifiable claim with a horizon. Not this looks cheap, but I think this spread compresses from 80 to 50 basis points over three months because of a specific mechanism, and if it is still at 80 in three months I am wrong.
   2. Expected value: probability times payoff on each branch. If there is a 60 percent chance of making 3 and a 40 percent chance of losing 2, that is 1.8 minus 0.8, so plus 1 with a 5-point range of outcomes. The range matters as much as the mean.
   3. Sizing: from the loss branch, not the win branch. I size so that the bad case is a loss I can carry, which in practice means a fraction of my risk budget, and I say what that fraction is.
   4. Hedging: separate the exposure I want from the ones that come attached. If the view is idiosyncratic, hedge out the market beta, the sector, and the rate duration, then check what basis risk remains after hedging, because that is the risk I did not choose.
   5. Exit and monitoring: the level or the date at which I am out, plus the two or three observables that would tell me the thesis is breaking before the P&L does. And I would name the thing I cannot hedge, because every trade has one and being explicit about it is what makes the analysis credible rather than promotional.

   Where candidates lose it

   Describing the thesis at length and never getting to sizing, hedging or the exit. Anyone can have a view. What a multi-manager platform is hiring for is the risk framework around it, so spend at least half your answer on size, hedge and exit, and name the unhedgeable residual yourself.

   Expect next

   • What is your stop, and why there?
   • What would make you double the position?
   • What risk are you left with after hedging?

   Reported by candidates at Schonfeld (Quantitative Research, New York, 2021). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 099Tell me about a personal investment decision and how you approached it.Fit and motivationIntermediatetechnicalSchonfeldQuantitative Research · New York · 2021

   Say this

   Pick a real decision, however small, and describe the process rather than the outcome: what you believed, why, how you sized it, what would have proved you wrong, and what happened. A modest position analysed honestly beats a large winner you cannot explain.

   Then walk it

   1. State the thesis as it was at the time, not as hindsight has edited it. Include the number: what it traded at, what you thought it was worth, and what the market was apparently assuming that you disagreed with.
   2. Then sizing, which is where most candidates are silent and where a hedge fund is listening hardest. What fraction of your capital, and why that fraction. The answer it was a small position because I might be wrong is fine and honest.
   3. Then the falsification: what would have told you the thesis was breaking, and did you actually watch for it or did you stop looking once you were up.
   4. Then the outcome, separated from the process. It is entirely acceptable to say the thesis was wrong and I made money anyway, or the thesis was right and I lost because I was early. Being able to separate those two is the single most valuable thing you can demonstrate.
   5. Close with what you changed afterwards. A specific process change, like I now write the thesis down before I buy so I cannot rewrite it later, is worth more than any performance claim. And if your investing is simply index funds because you have no edge, say that. It is a defensible and intellectually honest answer, as long as you can explain why you think you have no edge there and would have one in a research seat.

   Where candidates lose it

   Telling a story about a stock that went up and claiming credit for it, or describing crypto gains with no process. They are testing whether you separate skill from luck. Also do not fabricate a sophisticated process. If your real answer is index funds plus one small position you researched properly, say exactly that.

   Expect next

   • How did you size it, and why?
   • What would have made you sell?
   • Was the outcome down to the thesis or to luck?

   Reported by candidates at Schonfeld (Quantitative Research, New York, 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.