The Most Important Quantitative Finance Questions
A comprehensive dive into the most relevant and critical quantitative finance interview questions.
Quantitative Finance Inteviews
Quantitative Interviews are notoriously known to be difficult, due to the immense competition for the positions offerred. Therefore, preparation for these interviews is key! It is super critical to understand the types of questions asked to give yourself the best chance of landing the position. As such, we have compiled the 20 most important interview questions for quantitative interviews. Enjoy!
General Section
General questions regarding your motivations, values, personality, and work style allow the interviewer to further understand how you will integrate into the work environment. You can make a positive first impression by researching and understanding the values of the specific firm, the type of person they want to hire, and the roles of the position. And remember — honesty is key!
1. Why did you apply to this role?
This is an opportunity to discuss how the workload that is required from the position, the people you'll be around, and the environment that you will be in with this role is relevant to you. It is advised to research typical daily roles of the position you applied for. See our career categories here.
2. What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
The interviewer wants to see if your skills match the requirements for the role. For quant positions, strong foundations in mathematics, programming, resilience, and communication skills are valued most. Note that finance knowledge typically comes after you've secured the position.
3. Tell me about a time where you failed, and learnt from it to overcome similar problems in the future.
This question gauges how well you handle failure — a key trait for traders and other roles in quant finance, where volatility is common.
4. Do you prefer to work alone or as a part of a team? Why?
Communication in quant finance is a must. Having the soft skills to work in a team is imperative.
5. How would your friends describe you?
This is a personal question that gives insight to your character and personality.
Background Section
An interviewer would like to deep dive into your previous work experience, projects, and education to get a better understanding of how you qualify for the role. Here are some background questions:
6. What are your motivations behind pursuing your area of study?
Discuss why you like to study what you study. What brought you to this field? Explain how your academic interests align with your career goals.
7. Have you completed any prior internships or work experience in the field?
There is usually not too much pressure if you do not have prior work experience in quantitative finance. However, this should be made up by your academic record and your projects.
8. Have you done any projects while at university? Why did you create your project?
Talk about your motivations for your projects, what your mission was, what it achieved, and why it was useful to create. On the technical side, you could discuss what programming languages you used, the libraries were required, or any quantitative strategies you used to achieve your goal.
9. In your experience, how was it like working under pressure? What strategies did you use to navigate through pressuring situations?
This question seeks to understand your ability to stay calm and focused under stress—an essential quality in any high-stakes, high-pressure job.
10. If you could go back, what would you do differently in your project / work position?
Reflecting on past experiences shows you value growth and learning. Reflection is a very important part of quantitative finance.
Probability Section
Now, into the bread and butter of quant interviews. These questions will assess your understanding of probability and statistics. We will go through a few examples of these questions, but for optimal preparation, we suggest you view our course Probability for Quantitative Finance, and go through all our Interview Probability Questions.
Note that some of these questions are quite difficult. Often times, it is not a necessity to reach the correct answer. Usually, this is an exercise for the interviewer to understand how well you communicate your ideas and your thought process. Simply communicating your ideas effectively is an extremely underrated yet effective technique to make great impressions on the interviewer.
11. A recent survey found that 15% of individuals work in finance, and 65% of individuals drink coffee. If 75% of indviduals who work in finance drink coffee, calculate the probability of selecting someone who works in finance given that they drink coffee.
This is a relatively straightforward question involving the use of Bayes' Theorem. The answer can be seen here.
12. You have a bag containing 13 red marbles and 7 blue marbles. You draw marbles one at a time without replacement. For each red marble you draw, you win $5. However, if you draw a blue marble, the game ends immediately and you lose all your winnings. What is the optimal strategy for deciding when to stop drawing and cash out?
This question involves solving for expected value at various different states within the game, and drawing conclusions from those values. The answer can be seen here.
13. You enter a carnival game that costs $5. A dice is rolled, and if an even number is rolled, you recieve the value of the roll, and the dice is rolled again. If an odd number is rolled, the game ends. Is this a profitable game for the player?
This is quite a difficult expected value question, which requires knowledge of total expectation. View the answer here.
14. You are given an even coin, and 50 flips of this coin. You can choose to flip, or cashout. Every time you flip a heads, $10 is added to your winnings. You can cashout only when a heads is present, But you will no longer be able to play the game. If you reach the end of the 50 flips, and the last flip is a tails, then you recieve no money. What is the optimal strategy for this game?
This probability question combines your ability to optimise and strategise, and the answer can be found here.
15. I pick a random number from 1 to 100. I offer you $5 to guess my number, but every time you get it wrong, I deduct $1 off of the total. If you get it wrong, I will tell you whether the number is higher or lower. Should you play the game?
This question emphasises your knowledge of pathfinding algorithms. The answer is here.
Brainteaser Section
Brainteasers are a great way for interviewers to determine your abstract reasoning and problem solving ability. Similar to probability questions, effective communication is key. Be sure to ask several clarifying questions, and communicate your ideas in a simple and concise manner.
16. What is the difference in the smallest angle on an analogue clock between 4:00 and 4:15?
This brainteaser hones in attention to small details. Answer can be found here.
17. You have 9 gold slabs, whereby all of them are completely identical in shape and appearance. However, one of the gold slabs is slightly lighter than the other 8 gold slabs. To assist you with identifying the light gold bar, you have a balance which allows you to put gold bars on either side of the balance, and it shows which side is heavier/lighter. Can you figure out which bar is the lightest in just two measurements on the balance?
A classic problem in quantitative interviews, this tests your ability to devise efficient solutions to abstract problems. View the solution here.
18. How can you use a biased coin, with a fixed unkown bias, to make unbiased decisions?
While a simple concept, this becomes quite difficult to conceptualise and provide an answer, due to it's abstractness and unique problem solving requirement. The answer can be seen here.
19. You and a friend are playing a game where you start at 0 and each pick a number from 1 to 3, adding the number to the tally. The first one to reach 20 wins. Can you gaurantee a win if you go first? If your friend goes first?
A combination of strategy and abstract reasoning, this question challenges your game theory skills. View the answer here.
20. Estimate the smallest amount of land area required to stand the entire human population (~8 billion people).
This is commonly known as a fermi question; the attempt to accurately estimate large and non-exact problems. We have left this question open for interpretation. Feel free to email your answer and thought process to our customer service! :)
Bonus: Asking Questions
It is often important to be curious in the values and traditions of the company you are applying to. Asking insightful questions demonstrates genuine interest in the role. Therefore, the following are a few questions you can ask in quantitative finance interviews:
21. What is the work culture at this firm like? How is the work culture different than other firms?
Understanding the firm's culture is crucial for aligning your personal goals with the company's values.
22. What does the high achieving employee in this position look like?
This shows you are thinking about how you can contribute to the firm and whether your values align with their expectations.
23. What teams are there in this role, and how do they deviate from each other?
Understanding the work structure, and specific workloads of each team in the firm can be important for your holistic understanding of what to expect at a quant firm, and the unique challenges or opportunities each team faces.
24. What roles should I expect to be completing in the first few weeks/months of onboarding?
Asking about onboarding expectations shows you're eager to dive into the work and want to understand your responsibilities.
25. What are the biggest challenges I may face in this position?
Understanding potential challenges prepares you for what lies ahead and shows you are proactive.
Kickstarting your Quant Career
Due to the competitive nature of quantitative finance positions, even reaching technical interviews can be difficult. The field of quantitative finance attracts the brightest minds, making it essential to stand out not just with strong technical skills, but also with a solid understanding of financial markets and the ability to think critically under pressure.
Reinforcing Fundamental Concepts
A basic understanding of mathematics, probability, and trading is essential to prospering in quantitative finance. Our courses outline all relevant concepts required to break into quantitative finance.
Projects
Engaging in projects relevant to quantitative finance is a greate way to understand the intricacies of quantitative finance and stand out in the application process. At EverythingQuant, we have developed a comprehensive simulated algiorithmic trading project for our users, offering a hands-on platform to explore and implement trading solutions using Python.
Acing Online Assessments
Online assessments are typically the first screening process of many positions in quantitative finance, which clears out a great portion of candidates. We have provided over 25 OA tools to crush your online assessments.
