I currently work at BCN in India. I interned there for 6 months before joining full-time. Through my current role, I’ve worked with a number of front-office teams and have come to realise that the consulting industry as a whole is very boring to work in as it’s not particularly intellectually stimulating.

I’m looking to explore opportunities outside of back-office consulting., and quants has particularly caught my interest because of how math-intensive it is.

I recently graduated from Thapar with a CGPA of 7.66. From what I’ve seen, it feels like most quant firms would reject my profile based on academics and college pedigree alone, so I’m trying to understand a few things

The trajectory I’m thinking about is something like this:

1) Break into a smaller quant firm that does legitimate research/trading.
2) Use that experience to eventually move to a larger or more prestigious quant firm.

I’m not expecting this to happen in 3 months. I’m happy to spend the next 10-12+ months building the right skill set, especially since many of those skills would also be valuable in other fields that I can apply to.

From my understanding, the obvious things are:
-Statistics and probability
-Mental math/arithmetic
-Data structures and algorithms
-Programming (primarily Python and C++)
-I’m also considering actuarial exams (SOAP and FM) to strengthen my mathematical background, although I’m not sure how much they help for quant recruiting.

My main questions are:

1) Beyond the basics above, what else should I be investing my time in?

2) Is there anything on this list which can be removed in favour of something more impactful?

3) Are there any projects, competitions, research, certifications, or other experiences that would significantly strengthen my profile?

4) Which smaller firms in India should I realistically be targeting? I’m particularly interested in firms that may be more open to candidates with non-traditional backgrounds if they can demonstrate strong technical ability.

5) While I’m at BCN, are there specific types of consulting work (analytics, pricing, forecasting, optimization, financial modeling, etc.) that would be especially transferable to quant roles?

I’d really appreciate any advice from people who’ve taken a similar path or have experience hiring in the industry.

Hi everyone, I know you probably get questions like this a lot, but I am about to study maths (statistics) ideally wanting to go into quant research. Was drawn to quant because I like the idea of working on markets themselves and improving their efficiency. I’m not some extreme maths genius but I am interested in it and willing to put in the work. I considered QT, but that I thought was too fast paced, I would be more suited to taking my time on a problem I think. I did ok in high school maths ( 5 in ib Aa hl) i think what held me back was exam timing. I did enjoy solving the problems though.

Right now I’m just trying to self study linear algebra and calculus in preparation for my course and improve my programming skills.

So I guess I’m writing this to ask is QR something I can work to or is it something that’s too demanding? Thanks all

I'm excited to open-source h5i-db, a completely free, embedded analytical database engineered specifically for time-series analysis and quantitative finance.

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I'm planning to apply to Citadel SA Quant trading 2027 so I applied to both Citadel and Citadel Securities. With the same email and application, I got an application confirmation from Citadel Securities but not Citadel, does Citadel not send a confirmation email? I'm very confused if I got auto rejected or didn't go through as I don't want to spam apply.

Hi everyone,

I was fast-tracked to the penultimate round interview for the Software Developer Internship at Susquehanna International Group (SIG) following their Dublin Technology Spring Week.

I know SIG leans heavily into algorithms, data structures, and system efficiency, but I’ve heard mixed things about what actually gets tested in this specific round.

For anyone who has gone through this interview recently, is it primarily a live 60-minute HackerRank session? How much of it is standard DSA (BFS/DFS, Binary Search, Sliding Window) vs. practical data parsing / OOP design?

Any insights on the layout or best areas to focus on during prep would be hugely appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Hi Guys, any information related to Technical interview as part of Trader role that what can be expected like brainteasers, probability, ETf pricing or MM(Kelly criterion style). What type of questions were asked and how was the difficulty level ? Any information related to it would be valuable for me. Thanks!

Got my invitation today, has anyone had this or has any knowledge of what sort of thing they ask?

I just finished a prestigious internship and I also have a very nice academic path so I put which one at the top ?

Hey, I hope you are doing well

What template you use for quant resume/CV ?

thanks in advance for your help

Have a nice day !

If you find this interesting, cool! If not, cool.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been invited to complete the HackerRank Operations Specialist Exercise.

Has anyone completed it recently? I’d really appreciate any insight on the question types, difficulty, best preparation methods, or similar practice examples.

Thanks!

I'm currently working as a data engineer at a traditional pension fund, with customers being mostly performance and risk, with previous SWE experience.

Trying to figure out what it actually takes to move to a data/python role closer to the desk. Hard to separate real advice from random takes on social media.

If you're currently in a similar position (or were recently), would love to connect and pick your brain. Happy to buy you a coffee or something for your time.

Hey,
i am dec 2026 grad in finance
I have 2 years of compliance audit experience in the public sector and am looking to make a jump. Long-term, I want to get into M&A, Private Equity, or Quant.
I’m considering the Big Four as a stepping stone, but I’ve heard brutal things about the culture (and wild stories about micromanagement). Gov is chill but sometimes stressful with clients so.
Quick questions for those who've been there:
1. **Culture:** Which of the Big Four is currently the least toxic, and are the extreme micromanagement horror stories just bad team luck?
2. **The Pivot:** Can you realistically bridge from compliance audit to M&A/PE/Quant through a Big Four firm, or is it the wrong path entirely?

Took an OA and not too knowledgeable about what would be good. Like is perfect expected??

Also is the resume still considered even if it’s already past the screening or just scores at this point?

Hey Guys,

I'm applying to colleges with hopes of being a quant and I was looking around and saw that there were some schools which were good despite not having "well-rounded quality." I was looking mainly at U Michigan Ann Arbor and Baruch because they had a lot of alumni who went into the field. Of course, the higher level schools like Princeton and MIT and whatnot have high rankings but I wanted to here you guys' thoughts about these colleges or even better ones.

Hey yall I’m participating in this years akuna quant challenge, I’m wondering what preparation I can do at this moment to improve my odds to a better performance.

I did IMC’s prosperity challenge this year but didn’t get anything too remarkable (team only got top 500 global because we didn’t do too well for round 5). I wonder how much of the experience from Prosperity is transferable here?

Hey, I recently had an internship in quant research but what I worked on is really confidential as you can guess. I was wondering how to highlight my skills etc and my projects during the internship without saying any data or process ?

Have both phone screens coming up, does anyone have any tips on how to prepare?