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Don’t neglect these. Fit matters as much as math.
| # | Question | Difficulty | Key Idea | |---|----------|------------|-----------| | 136 | What is the Black-Scholes formula? | ★★ | C = S N(d1) – K e^-rT N(d2) | | 137 | What is a call option? Put option? | ★ | Right to buy/sell | | 138 | What is delta? | ★ | ∂C/∂S | | 139 | What is gamma? | ★ | ∂²C/∂S² | | 140 | What is implied volatility? | ★★ | Vol that makes BS price match market | | 141 | What is the volatility smile? | ★★ | IV varies with strike | | 142 | What is the risk-neutral measure? | ★★★ | Measure where discounted prices are martingales | | 143 | What is a swap? | ★ | Exchange cash flows | | 144 | What is a futures contract? | ★ | Standardized forward | | 145 | What is the difference between hedging and speculation? | ★ | Reduce risk vs seek profit | | 146 | What is value at risk (VaR)? | ★★ | Loss quantile | | 147 | What is the Sharpe ratio? | ★ | (Return – RF)/Volatility | | 148 | What is the Greeks for options? | ★ | Delta, Gamma, Vega, Theta, Rho | | 149 | What is a binomial tree for option pricing? | ★★ | Discrete-time model | | 150 | What is put-call parity? | ★ | C – P = S – K e^-rT | 150 Most Frequently Asked Questions On Quant Interviews
Sample Questions: 21. The Secretary Problem (Optimal Stopping): You have $N$ candidates. You see them one by one. How do you maximize the probability of picking the best candidate? 22. The Monty Hall Problem: Three doors, one car, two goats. You pick a door. The host opens another door revealing a goat. Do you switch? 23. Birthday Paradox: What is the probability that in a room of 23 people, at least two share a birthday? 24. Nim Game: Variations of the subtraction game where players remove objects from heaps. Determine the winning strategy. 25. Bayesian Inference: A rare disease affects 1 in 1,000 people. A test is 99% accurate. You test positive. What is the probability you actually have the disease? Don’t neglect these
| # | Question | Difficulty | Key Idea | |---|----------|------------|-----------| | 81 | What is an eigenvector and eigenvalue? | ★ | Av = λv | | 82 | How do you compute the determinant of a 3x3 matrix? | ★ | Sarrus rule | | 83 | What is the rank of a matrix? | ★ | Number of linearly independent rows/cols | | 84 | What is the inverse of a matrix? When does it exist? | ★ | A⁻¹A = I, exists if det ≠ 0 | | 85 | What is a positive definite matrix? | ★★ | xᵀAx > 0 for all x ≠ 0 | | 86 | What is the trace of a matrix? | ★ | Sum of diagonal entries | | 87 | What is the gradient of f(x,y) = x² + y²? | ★ | (2x, 2y) | | 88 | What is the Hessian matrix? | ★★ | Matrix of second derivatives | | 89 | What is a convex function? | ★ | f(θx+(1-θ)y) ≤ θf(x)+(1-θ)f(y) | | 90 | What is Lagrange multiplier? | ★★ | For constrained optimization | | 91 | What is the derivative of xᵀAx w.r.t x? | ★★ | 2Ax if A symmetric | | 92 | What is SVD? | ★★★ | A = UΣVᵀ | | 93 | What is the pseudoinverse? | ★★ | For non-square matrices | | 94 | What is the condition number? | ★★ | Sensitivity to input errors | | 95 | What is the difference between row and column space? | ★★ | Span of rows/cols | | 96 | What is a projection matrix? | ★★ | P² = P | | 97 | What is the derivative of log(det(X))? | ★★★ | X⁻ᵀ | | 98 | What is the Jacobian? | ★★ | Matrix of first derivatives | | 99 | What is the Taylor expansion of e^x around 0? | ★ | 1 + x + x²/2! + … | | 100 | What is the gradient descent update rule? | ★ | θ ← θ – α∇J(θ) | | # | Question | Difficulty | Key