WorldQuant Quantitative Researcher Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Resumes are shorlisted based on GPA of 8.5 for Computer Science and Mathematics and Computing and 9.0 for Electronics and Electrical Engineering Students.

Round: Test
Experience: Questions were individually timed, and were a blend of very simple, interesting and tough questions. Most of them are based on Probability and Random Processes or Combinatorics. Some of them would be solvable by geometrical techniques, some by reduction and some by mere brute force!
Tips: I would recommend revising probability and permutations and combinations. If really interested, a book on Algorithmic Puzzles by Levitin and Levitin might help.
Duration: 120 minutes

Round: Puzzle Interview
Experience: The interview rounds consist of 6-7 telephonic interviews (on your mobile, so try to have a good connection) from different WQ offices around the world. Also, they start sharp at the time allotted (in my case, they started at 4 AM and I was late!), so be sure to be ready at the time.

Each round is of about 25 mins, with a 3 min chat about resume and the rest on puzzles/questions. About 2-3 puzzles can be asked during that time. The problems are algorithmic puzzles of the same kind but slightly tougher than those in the test. I recall one question that was solvable by application of Markov Chains, another was a variation of the Binary Search Algorithm.

There is no HR round!
Tips: The questions are tough, but you need to remember they are tough for everyone. The interviewer is more interested in your approach than your solution. So, keep talking to him while you attempt to work out the solution. He would keep providing you hints and help to get through those problems. Also, there are some very simple questions thrown in between tough questions, try to not get those wrong.

General Tips: Be conversant in algorithms and quantitative analysis.
Skills: Algorithms And Data Structures, Algorithmic Approach To Problem Solving, Quantitative Aptitude, Quant+Math
College Name: IIT Kharagpur
Motivation: Good work (if interested in mathematics and algorithms), opportunity to learn, good money
Funny Moments: I was late on morning of December 1, but since WQ had telephonic interview, the first interviewer called me when I was still cycling to the placement center in my institute. So, I had to park my cycle in the middle of the road. And my first interview was with me sitting on the ground near my hall in Kharagpur.

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Top 10 students from CSE are asked to send their resumes. The Company generally selects top 4 students after going through the resume.

Round: Test
Experience: Online test checking your mathematical skills mostly. Statistics, Probability, P & C is a must.

Round: Other Interview
Experience: 9 rounds of telephonic interview (Generally in continuous sets of 3 interviews) Mostly an hour each. They revert back with results after some days.

General Tips: It was challenging and exhausting too. Have the will power to go on as 37 lakhs is a hugea mount. Keep trying and never give up. At least read your mind aloud so that the interviewer knows the lines on which you think.WorldQuant even has other profiles like Software Engineer, Data Analyst etc where the salary is around 16 lakhs. So, clarify the post for which the interview is being taken.
Skill Tips: Any book on Combinatorics. Probability is the major component of most interview questions.Financial knowledge( on shares, stocks etc.) always helps.You actually don't need preparation. If you are naturally good at maths, it shall reflect in your interview. Solve as many puzzles as possible to gain confidence. Take some rest before the interviews.
College Name: NIT SURATHKAL

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: A Good Resume is the one with a clear message in one glance. One usually doesn't have much time go through the specifics. Also, most of the resumes look more or less the same if you start reading thoroughly. So what distinguishes you is how much you can convey to a third person in one glance. However a crucial point that one needs to keep in mind is - The third person may be an IITian or may be not. So your resume needs to be optimally elaborate and detailed. Good at glance and not boring with details.

Round: Test
Experience: Various tests aim at identifying different skill sets. And each skill set testing needs different approach and different preparation material and style. Also, not all tests are actually looking for excellent performers. So sometimes you might be surprised to see not so good performers being preferred over the best ones.
Tips: Keep calm during all tests. No need to panic after seeing unfavourable results. It's just the beginning of an entirely new world. For preparation, begin well in advance. Take as light load as possible in your placement semester. Talk to seniors and the placed ones about the preparation style for various skill sets. There are several great books on most of the skill set, and just like JEE if you spend quality time on a book on a particular skill set you are likely to do well.For your core jobs preparation, you need to revise your basic concepts and prepare specifically for various areas that you are mostly interested in. For example, in EE, you can have a look at various job roles - system designing, power systems, device and circuits, communication, computer vision and image processing etc, which companies have come in the past for what kind of roles. And what were there expectations from the candidates.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: I sat for only one GD that was for ITC. I did not prepare at all for it and relied mostly on my speaking cum shouting skills that I developed over the years, thanks to my fundae sessions and most importantly TAship sessions. I enjoyed the GD which was a problem statement on a guy's death with a brief description of the circumstances, and was asked to discuss who was guilty for the guy's death. I enjoyed the discussion, and found the problem pretty exciting, but only to find out later that it was a routine problem for GDs.
Tips: My agenda was simple for the GD - I took it as yet another discussion session. Hearing others opinions and pointing out mine. Occasionally I also asked the quite ones to share their views. There are often several tricks that seniors tell the juniors - start early, take the lead, try to summarize, take everyone along etc etc. I like to put it this way - Don't speak non-sense, do speak some sense, let others speak, try to distinguish the sense and the non-sense from others views, and encourage the quite ones to speak a bit in order to have a sensible and wholesome group discussion. If you think you can lead, then lead. If you think you might want others opinions to kick start your thought process, then wait for some points from others. So basically do what seems sensible to you, but do something!

Round: HR Interview
Experience: All the questions that I was asked, I have already put up at my blog raazdwivedi.blogspot.in. And I am in no mood to repeat them here by classifying. I would summarize some key points in the tips section.
Tips: Before I forget, usually at the end of interviews, the interviewers ask you if you have some questions about them, be prepared with some questions which can be like - what do you usually look for in a good candidate, what is the work culture at the company, the career path of the individual in the company or otherwise etc etc. You can google things, or you can be innovative. Innovation might pay off very well or it may just kill your chances. But that's life - more risk, more reward.And another point, some of your interviews might be telephonic - in such cases, many more factors come into picture which might spoil the mood of the interview ( I would let you to think about the possible glitches that you might have because of this technological advancement). But as usual, I would advice you to keep calm and just give your best.Puzzles Interview:Prepare from the standard blogs and books, like cseblog and heard on the wall street. Ask seniors about the trending books.For the interview, do what is asked of you. Try to solve the problem. If you have already soled the proble, try to outline the steps and the solution, but don't be over or under excited any time. Sometimes the interviewer might be curious about the steps, and about your thought process. He might be looking for how many different ways you can think of attacking the same problem (At times they give a wrong problem just to check that!). However at times, you might not be that lucky and the person in front of you might value only accuracy and speed - that makes the task tougher - you have to be quick and you have to be correct, 
I would suggest you to trying being accurate, even if the guy in front of you is checking your patience by bugging you about your speed. In all cases, keep your calm.HR Interview:Technically, I didn't give an HR interview (at least I don't think I gave one!) but standard preparation includes questions of the sort - walk me through your resume, tell me about yourself, tell me about yourself BEYOND the resume (meaning what is not covered in the resume), strengths and weaknesses, your learning experience, capabilities as an individual, team player and team leader, some illustrations of them, why the XYZ role in ABC company probably over DEF company, why not higher education, why a job of this pay scale, your expectations of the firm etcCase Studies and Guesstimate:The only thing that I can think about such interviews (I had only one and I didn't do very well) - during some stage of preparation preferably 60-70% of it, prepare and discuss in groups, work many problems, and learn from your mistakes. As usual try to value the thought process than the answers only!
Before I forget, usually at the end of interviews, the interviewers ask you if you have some questions about them, be prepared with some questions which can be like - what do you usually look for in a good candidate, what is the work culture at the company, the career path of the individual in the company or otherwise etc etc. You can google things, or you can be innovative. Innovation might pay off very well or it may just kill your chances. But that's life - more risk, more reward.And another point, some of your interviews might be telephonic - in such cases, many more factors come into picture which might spoil the mood of the interview ( I would let you to think about the possible glitches that you might have because of this technological advancement). But as usual, I would advice you to keep calm and just give your best.Puzzles Interview:Prepare from the standard blogs and books, like cseblog and heard on the wall street. Ask seniors about the trending books.For the interview, do what is asked of you. Try to solve the problem. If you have already soled the problem, try to outline the steps and the solution, but don't be over or under excited any time. 
Sometimes the interviewer might be curious about the steps, and about your thought process. He might be looking for how many different ways you can think of attacking the same problem (At times they give a wrong problem just to check that!). However at times, you might not be that lucky and the person in front of you might value only accuracy and speed - that makes the task tougher - you have to be quick and you have to be correct, I would suggest you to trying being accurate, even if the guy in front of you is checking your patience by bugging you about your speed. In all cases, keep your calm.HR Interview:Technically, I didn't give an HR interview (at least I don't think I gave one!) but standard preparation includes questions of the sort - walk me through your resume, tell me about yourself, tell me about yourself BEYOND the resume (meaning what is not covered in the resume), strengths and weaknesses, your learning experience, capabilities as an individual, team player and team leader, some illustrations of them, why the XYZ role in ABC company probably over DEF company, why not higher education, why a job of this pay scale, your expectations of the firm etcCase Studies and Guesstimate:The only thing that I can think about such interviews (I had only one and I didn't do very well) - during some stage of preparation preferably 60-70% of it, prepare and discuss in groups, work many problems, and learn from your mistakes. As usual try to value the thought process than the answers only!

Round: Summary
Tips: There are many things that I would like to convey to the students regarding the placement process.On the preparation side, one must give his best - visit websites, read blogs, attend presentationsand various related sessions, ask seniors who have been placed, talk to anyone who you think canprovide some help. These practices will give you enormous data - and your job is to filter and use itwisely, at your own discretion. Read relevant material from books and internet, practice problemsand tests, do mock interviews and GDs with your friends, prepare your resume well - in short - dowhat is to be done. Depending on job profiles that you target, the preparation keeps varying, askaround and work hard.With that being said, I would like to say that placement is not simply about merit - independent ofwhether you appreciate this fact or not. 
Various companies value compatibility over the merit of thestudent (which is quite logical thing to do!) and sometimes you may under-qualify and sometimesover-qualify on those standards - and rarely will you be just at an optimal level. Consequently, manyresults(in fact most, to be even more precise all except one) will not go in your favour - either accept them or challenge them (if you think you have beendenied of something that you truly deserve) but never lose your heart - this is simply a welcomesong to the real world. In the long run, this short and (most likely a difficult and) tough experiencewill prove to be one of the most memorable and a great learning experience.
In a nut shell "Keep Calm and Give your Best! - Karm karte raho, fal ki chinta mat karo."

Round: Puzzle Interview
Tips: Prepare from the standard blogs and books, like cseblog and heard on the wall street. Ask seniors about the trending books. For the interview, do what is asked of you. Try to solve the problem. If you have already solved the problem, try to outline the steps and the solution, but don't be over or under excited any time. Sometimes the interviewer might be curious about the steps, and about your thought process. He might be looking for how many different ways you can think of attacking the same problem (At times they give a wrong problem just to check that!). However at times, you might not be that lucky and the person in front of you might value only accuracy and speed - that makes the task tougher - you have to be quick and you have to be correct, I would suggest you to trying being accurate, even if the guy in front of you is checking your patience by bugging you about your speed. In all cases, keep your calm.

General Tips: There are many things that I would like to convey to the students regarding the placement process.On the preparation side, one must give his best - visit websites, read blogs, attend presentationsand various related sessions, ask seniors who have been placed, talk to anyone who you think canprovide some help. These practices will give you enormous data - and your job is to filter and use itwisely, at your own discretion. Read relevant material from books and internet, practice problemsand tests, do mock interviews and GDs with your friends, prepare your resume well - in short - dowhat is to be done. Depending on job profiles that you target, the preparation keeps varying, askaround and work hard.



With that being said, I would like to say that placement is not simply about merit - independent ofwhether you appreciate this fact or not. Various companies value compatibility over the merit of the student (which is quite logical thing to do!) and sometimes you may under-qualify and sometimesover-qualify on those standards - and rarely will you be just at an optimal level. Consequently, manyresults(in fact most, to be even more precise all except one) will not go in your favour - either accept them or challenge them (if you think you have been denied of something that you truly deserve) but never lose your heart - this is simply a welcome song to the real world. In the long run, this short and (most likely a difficult and) tough experience will prove to be one of the most memorable and a great learning experience.



In a nut shell "Keep Calm and Give your Best! - Karm karte raho, fal ki chinta mat karo."
College Name: IIT BOMBAY