Been going through and compiling a lot of recent QR/QT/Strat interview experiences lately and honestly surprised by how repetitive some firms are.

A lot of the same probability, stats, brainteaser, market making, ML, and stochastic process questions keep showing up across cycles.

Feels like once you see enough reports, certain firms become weirdly predictable 😭

Not giving away everything for free of course haha, but happy to talk with people recruiting this cycle.

Like a Jane St? I’m about to start my PhD after I finish my internship as a quant dev. Was wondering if I can have a crack at other firms after like a summer internship during my PhD. For no reason other than pay.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for realistic advice on how to position myself for Quant Trading roles.

I’m currently doing an MSc in Finance at a solid European business school, but not a traditional quant target. My geography is also non-target. I understand this puts me at a disadvantage compared with candidates from maths, physics, CS, statistics, engineering, or top quant finance programmes.

Given the constraints of my university, I tried to take the most technical courses available: Machine Learning, Numerical Methods for Finance, Derivatives, Risk Management, Financial Econometrics, Fixed Income, Investments, Hedge Funds, and Game Theory. Most courses included practical projects in Python/R/Excel, which is where I learned the most.

Before that, I did a Bachelor’s in Finance at a non-target university, but with a relatively rigorous and theoretical curriculum. I was also admitted to an internal excellence college for top students. Relevant coursework included financial mathematics, statistics, econometrics.

Outside university, I joined a student quant trading club, where I worked on testing trading strategies in Python. I also participated in the IMC Prosperity competition. My team did not perform well, largely due to poor collaboration, but the experience confirmed that quant trading is the field I want to pursue.

I know my background is not ideal. I don’t have formal coursework in real analysis, stochastic calculus, advanced probability, optimization, or heavy CS/math subjects. I’m trying to understand the most rational way to improve my profile from here.

My questions are:

1. How can I differentiate myself given this background? Are there specific types of projects that would actually be taken seriously by QT firms? For example: market making simulations, sports betting/market microstructure-style projects, etc.
2. Are projects likely to move the needle, or would I need another degree to be competitive? I’m trying to assess if strong self-study plus projects can compensate for my academic background, or whether a more technical MSc is realistically necessary.
3. If another master’s degree is needed, what type of programme offers the best value? I’m not necessarily asking for rankings, but for what characteristics matter most: maths/stats depth, placement into prop shops/MMs/HFs, alumni network, location, brand, etc.
4. What are the best adjacent roles as a backup? If I cannot enter QT directly, which roles would be most useful for a later transition? For example: quant research, systematic trading analyst, risk quant, model validation, electronic trading, trading analytics, structuring, S&T, data science in finance, etc..

I’m not looking for interview preparation tips. I’m mainly trying to understand strategy, positioning, and whether this path is realistic.

Any blunt feedback is appreciated.

Thanks.

Currently in middle office role at platform shop and looking to move to another platform shop. Curious how non-competes usually work in practice. does your employer decide the actual enforced NC length when you leave and have you sign an agreement confirming it? Also, does the new employer typically ask for that document to verify your NC length, or do they usually just rely on your representation?

Hi, so when is it feasible to apply for QT/QR internships for next year? I plan to do so in mid September or even beginning of October. Is this considered too late?

I know this is a place for quant topics but I cannot post anywhere else due to low karma!!

I know getting into quant finance has a very slim chance. So I need to know other options too because I have dived into this degree on pure interest and have not really searched for career options

I plan to do master in statistics after this and many of my classmates have already figured out their career. I plan to learn python, start leetcode, Andrew NG ML course(worth it?), BMC certificate (for tge cv), SQL.

What more skills would I need to get a good profile?And are there any unnecessary ones in those mentioned above??

Tldr:
Applying for 2027 internship roles at Citadel.

Studied Maths at a T20, got quite a lot of quant interviews from some companies like JS, Optiver etc, but not Citadel/Citsec.

Shit undergrad gpa, but 4.0 on my masters @ the same college. Will this hurt my chances?

So basically the title says it: I’m applying for the summer 27 roles @ Citadel, mainly focusing on research analyst roles (and possibly Trading at Citsec/Investment at HF).

When I applied for 2026 internships, I passed the filter for several well-known companies. Had interviews for JS, Optiver, Belvedere, SIG, Old Mission, several BBs, Blackrock, etc. Made it to several superdays, but it was very rough and I did not get much offers :( .

Now we’re back for round 2! Applying for the same companies, including the ones that autorejected me back then.

I’m having a ton of worries, because the previous interviews I’ve had in the past either did not need me to give my GPA, or at least asked for just “GPA” so I could give my major GPA instead. Citadel explicitly asks for “Overall GPA”, and unsurprisingly
I have never gotten a Citadel interview, not even an OA. I applied for pretty much every entry level QR, QT, Analyst and Equities role available at the time.

Now that I’m in my masters, and my performance has been pretty good, how much weight would be put onto the undergrad performance?

Additionally (this is very stupid), but will ATS order matter? Maybe I’m overthinking it, but will it make a difference if I list my undergrad as a second entry on the educations tab, so my achievements for grad school are on top? This is not my resume but the application portal at Citadel’s webpage.

Background:

Triple majored in Maths, Statistics, and Economics in undergrad. Without disclosing too much, got fucked over in my first two years because of health, mental health, and financials. GPA tanked like crazy after freshman year. Last few semesters are basically As and the occasional A-, with courses mostly in the 400s to 600 levels. GPA still is really subpar, (think 3.5-3.6 for major gpa, 3.3 overall).
Took a bunch of masters and PhD level coursework while in undergrad in maths and stats to make up for first and second year fuckups. Got As in pretty much every single one.

Got several quant competition 1st places in 2025-2026, and handful of research work in pure and applied maths. Also built a bunch of projects from sophomore - senior year, either trading related or work on state space models. Competed in IMC Prosperity (didn’t win, but at least we made it to the finals!). Professors were super kind to write me some killer recs. I’ve always loved school, but looking back at my freshman year does give me a lot of insecurities about myself.

Recently, I was accepted to a masters program in stats at the same school. All grad courses I’ve taken will transfer over and double count towards my masters GPA, which essentially makes it a 4.0. Courses are mainly in probability theory, machine learning, time series, adv. bayesian methods.

TLDR 2.0 :
NGMI or am I safe? :(

+

Any advice for the application process at Cit for equities or QR/QT? Thank you!!

Applied for the launch program this year, made it to the final round and fucking sold the bag. Actually made me wanna kms. Rejection email encouraged me to apply for the SWE intern program this July. Haven’t had luck making it past resume screen at places like Jane Street though. Should I be good to at least get an interview?

Hi,

I am a computer science graduate, who left physics in high school, I used to be good at it but still didn't really scratcch beyond the surface of special relativity. Recently I was talking to a physics + CS grad working in quant in commodities trading and he told me that most of his alphas come from some modification of applying his understanding of space time to market dynamics. That left me curious, how direct is the application of such thinking when formulating alphas ? Do some model dynamics in quantum / relativistic physics really translate directly to the stock market that well ? Thanks !!

For trading internships do many firms give coding interviews? My understanding is that it is mostly maths, stats, probability and mental maths, but do many firms ask for coding as well? What about research internships?

What kind of questions can I expect from coding interviews? Will firms give interviews or take-home projects? I only ask because I don't see many people getting rejected after coding interviews, compared to after interviews testing the topics I mentioned before.

Should I be preparing seriously for coding interviews alongside maths interviews?

I took hard classes this semester and I screwed up some of my classes (I do claim full responsibility but I believe that outside circumstances prevented me from doing as well as I could). My overall gpa is a 3.7, but I got a B- in DSA and a B+ in machine learning.

I wanted to eventually go into ML research at anth or oai (dream), and have the door open for quant or big tech. I am at a great overall school, but its not known for CS at all (lowk known for grade inflation as well [which is not the case for CS, but could potentially affect the overall reputation and perception of my grades and gpa i think]). What do you think are my chances for these three career paths based on my gpa and classes?

What would you advise me to do going forward?

Specifically for masters. Also what course?

Hi guys,

Im a political science and sociology major at Pen State and I jisg graduated this semester as you may know this is not the best moment for humanities mayor so I decided to switch to quant. What would be the best way to enter maybe something like Jane Street or something under I guess I would be satisfied. Thank you!

A bit more about me 22M 2.3 GPA and I took a stats class in political science. How far Im I from entering quantity?

I'm a rising sophomore at UMiami studying quantitative econ & math - stats & prob from the bus school. Currently recruiting for IB bc I do need a job out of college and I'm worried about my chances of getting quant for junior summer or even post-grad. I wouldn't grad on time if I took a comp sci minor unless I forgo my abroad (and even then it might not fit), currently taking a fin minor so I can take the derivatives & speculative markets class. There's a new intro to quant finance class too that I'm looking to take. Additionally, there's a Mathematics of Finance class at a higher lvl of my stats major where I can learn, but during senior year only.

GPA: 3.974 (A's in everything but marketing A-), Full tuition merit scholarship, part of a bus frat + the top investing club on campus (there's a quant arm... i'm just not in it rn)

Our math dept is .... bad, but I can't transfer bc it's the cheapest school available and my family can't really afford full tuition

Current plan: Stay on the IB or AM track and get a junior summer offer (+ hopefully a return offer), then go to grad school for an MFE or smthg of that sort (no phd). From there, try to break into Quant based on my higher ed.

I would love any advice that can be provided! I know basically nobody in the industry and my school has no pipeline or alums. We have like 3 grads to break in w/o an MFE. I also have very little info about the industry, but I am a math brain, and prefer such tasks in the workforce bc tbh IB is quite under stimulating.

Is it better to go to an MFE straight out of college? After say ~2 or 3 yrs at an IB firm? Is there anything I can do to maximize my chances?

Are there any resources that you recommend for learning the technicals and such? I think I can mostly learn to program on my own, but which languages are most common?

**UPDATE: if i get a good ib offer for junior summer, I've been told to ditch the dreams lol. else, I'll go to grad school. the end haha, I'm not really full of options

https://preview.redd.it/ok6moo6q5i1h1.jpg?width=1674&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=165acbd231342c7a81f754f0e84301e2f62ec6c1

https://preview.redd.it/emq1xp6q5i1h1.jpg?width=1441&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b5f3adf8bccc2b17df04fbae75be840bc4db8f4

https://preview.redd.it/efiolo6q5i1h1.jpg?width=1384&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c140e0ff4800156527ca826bb5e46226fad77f22

https://preview.redd.it/ciovxs6q5i1h1.jpg?width=2462&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d1040505bac17ef28a7009a630c199a18d32103b

I’ve been building a project called MeetProba for students preparing for quant interviews.

The idea came from a frustration I had while preparing myself: probability resources are often either too theoretical, poorly structured, or not really aligned with what gets asked in quantitative finance interviews.

And even when you find good exercises, the solutions are often not detailed enough or skip important reasoning steps.

So I started building a platform specifically focused on:

• combinatorics
• random variables
• stochastic processes
• Markov chains
• Brownian motion
• and other probability topics commonly used in quant interviews

The main idea is to make preparation more structured and interview-oriented through:

• carefully selected exercises
• detailed step-by-step solutions
• roadmap/dependency graphs inspired by NeetCode
• progression between topics

The platform is currently free to use.

I attached a few screenshots of the current version and would genuinely love feedback from people preparing for quant roles or probability-heavy interviews.

https://meetproba.com

I started fresh out of a math PhD, completely sure I understood how this industry worked.

I was wrong about almost everything non-technical.

Things I wish someone had told me:

1. The math is the easy part. The hard part is dealing with data quality, infrastructure, and the fact that markets change faster than your models.
2. A strategy that worked for 3 years can stop working in 3 weeks. And you often won't know if it's regime change or a bug until it's too late.
3. The smartest people I've worked with were obsessed with being wrong. They spent more time looking for reasons their strategy shouldn't work than reasons it should.
4. Sharpe ratio is the most gamed metric in the industry. Always ask what the turnover assumption is and what the transaction cost assumption is.
5. The strategies that make the most money are almost never the ones you're intellectually proud of. They're boring. They're obvious. And they work because everyone else is too busy being clever to look there.
6. Your best strategy will eventually stop working. How you handle that moment will define your career.

What's the thing YOU wish someone had told you before entering this field?

I’m expecting to receive multiple internship offers for quantitative trading roles over the next week (Think IMC, Optiver, Citadel...). Some of these firms reportedly give only about one week to accept or decline an offer of it being formally extended, so I’m trying to think ahead about how to handle the process professionally.

My main question is: how can I appropriately leverage competing offers to make the best decision and potentially negotiate? What’s the best way to communicate that to recruiters? Are internship offers usually negotiable in terms of compensation, signing bonus or other perks?

I’d really appreciate any advice from people who have gone through this process before, especially in quant trading or similar recruiting pipelines. Thanks!