Study programme for quant researcher interviews

[achirikhin]

Anyway, I think we established something important for the third party readers. The jobs you are describing are, essentially, trading jobs. People can massage their ego by calling themselves "quant traders", but "trader" is the key word. There is nothing wrong with being a trader, but quants and quant devs proper are simply different jobs. Different personal motivation, different skillset

 

[AkashA]

I didn't apply for QR jobs last year, but I plan on doing so this year, so let's see. To be honest, it might be way too difficult for me get a QR job, so my other options are to go into software engineering or to become a "research engineer".

Also, you're welcome for the study guide, but having spent some time preparing for QR interviews I think it's a stupidly overcomplicated guide... IMHO, getting a QR job really just boils down to the following three points:

1. Having something that shows you have really good STEM skills (e.g. degree from a top uni, winning maths/coding competitions, PhD with good publications, quant internships, etc); this is what gets you past the CV screening stage
2. Strong interview skills: this comes down to studying quant interview books and doing coding puzzles (like Leetcode) while knowing the following basic topics (i.e. at undergrad level) really, really well: linear algebra, multivariable calculus, probability and statistics; this gets you past the interviews
3. Having the skills to actually do the job; this could be pricing, data analysis, development, etc; this keeps you in your job

My guide is meant to address point (2) - getting strong interview skills - and I can't really help with points (1) and (3). To get strong interview skills, I'd recommend doing the following steps:

1. Learn linear algebra, multivariable calculus, probability and statistics really well*
   1. Linear algebra by 3Blue1Brown
   2. Calculus by 3Blue1Brown
   3. Linear algebra by Khan Academy
   4. Calculus by Khan Academy
   5. Probability and statistics by StatQuest
   6. Probability by brilliant.org
   7. Statistics in Introduction to Statistical Learning
   8. Tradermath or Zetamac for mental maths (moreso for trading tbh)
2. Go through quant interview books and coding puzzles**
   1. A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews (often called the "green book")
   2. Other quant interview books (but the green book is the one I see the most)***
   3. Leetcode roadmap by Neetcode
   4. 14 patterns for coding interviews
   5. Blind 75 or Neetcode 150

The above are a large part of QR interviews: know linear algebra, multivariable calculus, probability and statistics really well, and be very familiar with quant interview/coding puzzles. Of course, you'll be asked more in-depth questions like about your research or your projects, but you should know those very well anyway since you're the one that executed them.

There's also this Reddit post summarising a lot of research about quant finance careers so that you don't waste time like I did.

Hope this helps and good luck

*3Blue1Brown is better for getting the intuition/visualisation, Khan Academy is better for learning by doing examples.
**In my last post I said you can figure out what to study by failing interview questions. You can still do this: fail the questions in the green book, which will tell you which of linear algebra/calculus/probability/stats you need to study.
***I've read that there aren't as many option pricing jobs these days compared to pre-GFC, so you don't need to go heavy on option pricing/stochastic calculus; just knowing the basics and knowing the Greeks is a good place to start. Also, skip the coding/algorithms questions which will be handled by doing Leetcode.

Great