The typical interview process will look something like this:
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Take-Home Test: This test is for you to complete on your own, and is to weed out people who don't qualify for the basic skills necessary to be a good trader. The following sections usually appear on these tests:
- Lots of easy arithmetic problems to be done in a short period of time
- Multiple choice or short answer about slightly harder probability and math questions
- Game betting problem
- Coding exercise
Some advice for this test. As always, try to do as many problems as possible, as accurately as possible. But if you notice that you are stuck on a problem, move on.
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Phone Interview: Here, the interviewer gets learn a sense of how you think real time. They will ask you to solve probability and math questions on the spot. Make sure to guide them through your thinking process, but don't waste so much time that you don't have time to figure out the actual answer.
- It's very important on the phone to be very clear about what you mean, and in return, what you're understanding from the interviewer. If you don't understand a question entirely, or the interviewer doesn't understand your answer, you're in big trouble. So take extra precaution in coming up with clear communication over the phone.
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Onsite: If you've made it here, congrats! You have already done a lot, so don't be upset if you don't do well here. The onsite will probably be the most stressful part of the interview process. Here, the firm wants to know if you can think fast, show excellent quant skills, and really perform well under lots of pressure.
- One thing you might notice onsite is they really put you under pressure, whether it's them asking you a ton of questions very fast or asking extremely difficult questions that might be unreasonable to answer in short times. In these circumstances, the number one thing to remember is stay calm and do not lose your composure. What they are testing is in real trading hours, you might have some really stressful situations, and they want to see how you would perform under those circumstances. What they want to see is that you can still handle yourself, and you don't need to answer questions 100% properly, you just need to be able to think on your feet and provide reasonable answers that would help a hypothetical trading partner irl. The worst thing you can do is freeze up and stay silent, getting stuck in thought.