Interview questions / Quantitative Analyst
Quantitative Analyst interview questions
These are questions Quantitative Analyst candidates often hear, with a short note on what a strong answer covers. Reading them helps; saying your answers out loud helps more.
You flip a fair coin until you get two heads in a row. What is the expected number of flips?
Set up the states and solve step by step out loud; the answer is 6.
Explain how you would backtest a trading strategy and avoid fooling yourself.
Mention look-ahead bias, survivorship bias, transaction costs and out-of-sample tests.
What is the difference between correlation and causation, with a market example?
Give a concrete case and how you'd test for causation.
How would you estimate the volatility of a stock?
Discuss historical returns, time windows, and implied volatility from options.
Tell me about a model you built and how you validated it.
Be precise about data, method, metrics and limits.
Explain the Black-Scholes model's key assumptions.
Name them and say which ones fail in real markets.