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. 094Why trading?Fit and motivationCorephone / first roundSusquehanna International GroupProp Trading · Dublin · 2025

   Say this

   Because it is decision-making under uncertainty with a fast, honest scoreboard. I want a job where I have to commit to a number with incomplete information, find out quickly whether I was right, and improve from that. Very few careers give you that feedback loop.

   Then walk it

   1. Lead with the mechanism of the job, not the glamour. The daily activity is estimating probabilities, pricing them, sizing the bet and managing the position. Say that you find that specific activity interesting and give evidence.
   2. Evidence beats assertion. Poker, prediction markets, a trading competition, a sports betting model, chess, a project where you had to make a call on thin data. Anything where you can describe a decision you made under uncertainty and what you learned when it went wrong.
   3. Then name what you like about the accountability: your P&L is your result, it is not filtered through a committee, and you cannot argue with it. That appeals to some people and repels others, and saying it plainly shows you understand what you are choosing.
   4. Say why trading and not research, or the reverse, because they will ask. Trading suits fast feedback and comfort with acting on incomplete analysis. Research suits patience and deeper statistical work. Pick the one that is true for you.
   5. And be honest about the parts you have thought about and accepted: you will be wrong often, most days are not dramatic, and the learning curve is steep and public. A candidate who mentions the unglamorous reality is more credible than one who only describes the upside.

   Where candidates lose it

   Saying you love markets and are passionate about finance. It says nothing and every candidate says it. The other trap is talking about money, which reads as short-term. Ground it in a concrete decision-under-uncertainty story of your own, and make it specific enough that nobody else could give your answer.

   Expect next

   • Why not research, or engineering?
   • Tell me about a decision you made with incomplete information.
   • What do you think you would find hardest about the job?

   Reported by candidates at Susquehanna International Group (Prop Trading, Dublin, 2025). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 095What do you like about our culture, and why us rather than another prop shop?Fit and motivationIntermediatetechnicalSusquehanna International GroupProp Trading · Dublin · 2025

   Say this

   Pick two or three things that are specific to them and that you can trace to something you have actually done or want. Generic praise is worse than saying less. And make one of the reasons about the work rather than the perks.

   Then walk it

   1. Do the homework that is actually available. How they train juniors, whether they trade their own capital, which products they are strongest in, whether teams are small and autonomous or large and specialised, and how they talk about decision-making in their own materials.
   2. Then connect it to yourself with evidence. If a firm is known for a structured decision-theory and poker-influenced training culture, say that you have played seriously, what it taught you about sizing and about separating process from outcome, and why you want that as the house language.
   3. Name the products or the seat. Wanting to trade options because you find the surface a genuinely hard pricing problem is a specific, checkable reason. Wanting to be at a firm because it is prestigious is not.
   4. Reference people if you have spoken to them, honestly. What you asked, what surprised you. A single concrete detail from a conversation beats a paragraph of adjectives.
   5. And say one thing you are testing rather than asserting. For example: what I have read suggests decisions are pushed down to small teams, and I want to check whether a first-year really gets to argue with a senior trader about a price. That turns the answer into a two-way conversation, which is what the question is for, and it is much harder to fake than flattery.

   Where candidates lose it

   Praising collaborative culture and meritocracy, which describes every firm's website. Also do not name a culture attribute you cannot connect to your own behaviour. The interviewer is testing whether you would fit and whether you have done any real diligence, so bring two specifics and one genuine question.

   Expect next

   • Who have you spoken to here?
   • What would make you turn down an offer from us?
   • What is your understanding of how we make money?

   Reported by candidates at Susquehanna International Group (Prop Trading, Dublin, 2025). 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.