How Virtu Financial's process runs, as candidates and the firm describe it, and the questions candidates report, each with a worked solution. Free, no sign-up.
Quantitative trader candidates report questions on how Virtu makes money, how you would approach high-frequency trading, what you bring from past experience, and why quant trading. Another report mentions clock-hands and hundred-doors puzzles.
Try each one before opening the solution. Interviewers change the numbers, so learn the method.
Trader · Interview · Behavioural · reported by a candidate
Behavioural questions candidates report:
How does Virtu make money? How would you approach high-frequency trading?
What skills from your previous experience would you bring?
What motivates you to become a quantitative trader?
Answer one out loud, as you would in the interview.
Model answer
Use a short story: the situation in one sentence, what you did (not the team), the result with a number if you have one, and what you'd do differently. Aim for about two minutes.
On the business: an electronic market maker across many asset classes earns small spreads on very large volumes, so technology, risk limits and cost control matter as much as prediction.
Quant intern · Interview · Statistics · reported by a candidate
Give an example of two random variables that are dependent but uncorrelated.
Also reported by a Two Sigma quant research intern.
Model answer
Take X uniform on [−1, 1] (or standard normal) and Y = X². Y is completely determined by X, so they're dependent. But Cov(X, Y) = E[X³] − E[X]E[X²] = 0 − 0 = 0, because X is symmetric around 0. Correlation only measures linear dependence; Y = X² is a perfect but non-linear relationship. Say this before giving the example: interviewers want to hear that zero correlation doesn't imply independence (except for jointly normal variables).