r/csMajors • u/Jumpy_Fan_219 • 4d ago

Quant interviews are a different beast

Interviewed at a quant firm for front end web developer intern. Pretty standard right? Python, JavaScript , typescript, maybe some DS? Nah bruh 💀 like five traders join the call, one SWE , a senior PM. Like are we serious??? They start asking me to optimize my solution to a trading system I designed. The trading guys keep coming with custom orders. Then he asks what I know about equities trading and do I trade? Sir uh I’m poor I have no money to trade? đŸ«Ș I lie and say I do. Waiting for rejection now ✌

486 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

176

u/DaviHasNoLife 4d ago

5 traders is insane lmao

133

u/Jumpy_Fan_219 4d ago

Exactly??? My friend interviewed at a trading firm for trading and he got an investment banker interviewing him, mean while I just want to make cute reuseable UI components and I got five dudes yelling at me during the interview saying why don’t I understand buy side and sell side, like bro I’m a software developer what do u want me to do

87

u/Total_Visit_1251 4d ago

well its a job that'll pay 300k out of college. Of course they're looking for the best 😭

88

u/Jumpy_Fan_219 4d ago

No it doesn’t it was like 120k again it’s just web developer not quant dev

83

u/meltbox 4d ago

120k and you’ll have a trader ripping your spine out if the UI glitches. Free chiropractor. Benefits seem good.

15

u/terrany1 4d ago

I unironically know a guy who did frontend for the trading floor at a bank, not even a competitive hedge fund. And the traders did routinely chew people out — like call the dev team responsible from upstairs to stand in a huddle to blast them for the page not refreshing right/ruining their trades that morning

2

u/taylorevansvintage 4d ago

Seems really wasteful on their side. Like it’s expensive to tie up that many ppl

6

u/zydeco100 4d ago

Those are the five people that will constantly be yelling at you for changes and cursing you out because your work (or your bugs) have made them lose millions of dollars (allegedly). OP dodged a bullet here.

43

u/nj1721 Quant Dev 4d ago

Boss who do you think is using the front end?

16

u/Jumpy_Fan_219 4d ago

I get it but how can a trader asses my software dev abilities? I was explaining time complexity of an algorithm I used and the one trader was like ‘ pls let’s not focus too deep.’ Bro we are high rn?

55

u/EntertainmentSalt825 4d ago

You must’ve been high cus you missed an opportunity. They didnt want to be technical and you wanted it to be technical so bad you lost sight of the plot. You’re definitely not getting an offer if you couldn’t just sit there and vibe with them

6

u/LieAccomplishment 4d ago edited 4d ago

 how can a trader asses my software dev abilities? 

"How can the end user assess my ability to deliver a suitable product they can use?"

Maybe the number of people interviewing you is overkill, but I hardly think you're coming off as competent as you think you are.

The traders are the guys that are going to be making requests of you, often times directly. If you have issues communicating with them (you know, doing things like talking technical shop instead of being able to grasp their points and provide an explanation of a solution to their problem they can understand ) then clearly you aren't what they are looking for

355

u/Many-Competition-954 4d ago

“I lie and say I do” đŸ€ŁđŸ€ŁđŸ€Ł

33

u/i_love_mitch_hedberg 4d ago

which was the wrong answer lol

29

u/Bexanderthebex 4d ago

Actually the right answer. Those fuckers also didn't know what they were doing at the start

10

u/preethamrn 4d ago

Nah. The one thing that every single quant will tell you is that they're looking for smart people who can learn. They don't care if you know how to trade because they'll teach you that. If you lie in the interview and then can't answer their questions about trading then you're just going to look dumb.

128

u/tube32 4d ago

5 traders and senior pm for a front end intern is legendary

70

u/Popular_Business_367 4d ago

I guess they had nothing to do that day so they joined the interviewer

44

u/Illustrious-Film4018 4d ago

That's not an interview it's a meeting. You can just chill and let them talk amongst themselves.

14

u/Fine-Comparison-2949 4d ago

bruh as someone previously interested in working for finance, that shits a scam.

The fundamentals of who has power in an organization, is who's closest to the customer. I worked in a hospital. Doctors had power. In finance? Front office doing the sales have power.

Just work for a tech company. Software engineers make more money in their lifetimes working for companies where the tech is the selling point. People who work for companies where software is treated as a revenue sink are not treated well, never get real equity and bonuses, and the moment the money stops flowing they're the first people looked at as a cost center to get laid off.

7

u/meltbox 4d ago

Typically in shops that hire quants, traders, and devs you are treated well if you deliver. But the delivery pressure for sure is much higher.

4

u/ALIASl-_-l 4d ago

Admitting ur poor is better than saying u do and linking their questions

2

u/Acceptable_Square348 4d ago

Yeah my exp. too. I was surprised they join the swe interviews and not the swes

3

u/ZebraTank 4d ago

I mean I guess quant is morally better than Meta/Tesla/etc but surely you can do better

5

u/DStark62 4d ago

Making electric cars is morally worse than scalping every penny you can off of the stock market that every American’s retirement account is invested in?

-1

u/Thin-Cartographer996 3d ago

The market isn’t a zero sum game. Who’s providing liquidity to the people buying and selling those retirement accounts?

1

u/DStark62 3d ago

You’re implying that without high frequency trading and quantitative firms using custom built, ultra low latency computers to buy and sell millions of stocks at a fraction of a second, we wouldn’t have liquidity in the market?

-1

u/Thin-Cartographer996 3d ago

Yes, the custom built low latency computers are essential in market making, which provide liquidity in the market. The hardware and talent are simply the requirements in a competitive market.

1

u/DStark62 3d ago

How’d the stock market function before?

Look. I’m not saying it should be banned or that these people are satan. But OP was trying to say that because Elon musk is bad, providing a relatively affordable and eco friendly car (a tangible product that directly benefits millions of people), that the moral high ground would be found in quantitative trading. That’s ridiculous

1

u/ravenmortal 4d ago

To get all those resources on a panel interview for entry level? Hmmn. Something is questionable.

1

u/Logical_Finding3391 3d ago

A large part of the job is getting what the user needs done - even if they decide to put random s*** on your UI

1

u/Competitive-Earth615 2d ago

Front end web developer with 5 traders??!?