Quant Trader Interview

We run a structured, efficient process designed to minimize unnecessary back-and-forth. We evaluate candidates continuously and may decline to move forward at any stage of the process.

1. Application
The application is used to understand your background and assess initial fit for the role, including experience, technical background and market interest.

2. Candidate Project
The candidate project is an important part of our process. It is used to evaluate how you approach an open-ended quantitative problem, how you structure your work, and how well you can explain your decisions.

We care far more about the quality of the work than about whether you “find alpha” in the dataset. In particular, we are looking for clean, well-structured code, thoughtful data handling, awareness of common pitfalls, and the ability to explain the work end to end.

Candidates should expect to submit complete code and any instructions needed to run it and reproduce results end to end.

3. Project Review and Follow-Up
After reviewing the project, we will often follow up by email with questions about the work, your assumptions, implementation choices, validation, or possible issues we noticed.

This step is part of the evaluation process. We value candidates who can discuss their work clearly, respond thoughtfully to feedback, and make corrections when appropriate. If something was intentional, we expect candidates to be able to explain and defend it. If a mistake was made, it is generally better to identify it directly and address it than to defend it unnecessarily.

In some cases, this follow-up step may be brief or skipped if the project is already clear and strong.

4. Interview 1: Intro and Q&A
This is a two-way conversation. It is an opportunity for you to ask questions about QSG, the role, and trading at the firm, and for us to learn more about your background, interests, and goals.

5. Interview 2: Technical Interview
This interview starts with discussion of your candidate project and may also draw on your prior research, coding, academic, or market experience. We are interested in how you reason through problems, defend decisions, identify weaknesses, and improve your own work.

Interviews may also include short exercises or discussions involving probability, decision-making, games of chance, strategy, or market scenarios, which help us better understand how you think.

6. Interview 3: Final Interview:  Fit, Decision-Making, and Motivation
The final interview is focused on long-term fit for the role and the environment. We use it to better understand your judgment, motivation, self-direction, seriousness about markets, and how you approach ownership, feedback, and long-term development as a trader.

We typically communicate next steps within 1 to 2 weeks after the final interview, although timing may vary. 

We strongly prefer in-person interviews when practical, but we recognize that this is not always possible. Interviews may be conducted in person or by video conference.

For candidates interviewing onsite, it may be possible to complete all interview rounds in one day depending on scheduling.

The full process typically takes 2 to 4 weeks, depending on scheduling, candidate project timing, and project follow-up.

We hire on a rolling basis and may waitlist candidates.

Interview order may vary based on scheduling. In some cases, the technical interview may occur before the intro/Q&A interview.

This is a general guide to how we structure our process. Steps, timing, and interview order may vary based on scheduling and the specifics of a candidate’s background and application.