I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Optiver (Chicago, IL) in Jan 2016
Interview
I had a 40 minute discussion with an inexperienced HR person with limited knowledge of the industry, and what software developers actually do inside trading firms.
The next step was to take a HackerRank test in one of 3 languages C++, C# or Java and then they decide whether to proceed, and if so what type of position they would consider you for.
I declined. I wasn't interested in taking a test to find out I'm interviewing for a job I'm not interested in. It's a lame process.
Good firms have experienced internal recruiters to handle initial calls, and the next step should be a phone screen with a technical person who has the experience to evaluate the candidate and discuss in more detail potential roles. From there a test or programming challenge. If all that looks good, onsite for some problem solving and face to face interviews.
A bit anxiety inducing, there were two developers observing and asking questions. Real-time problem solving required, conducted on Hacker Rank virtually, video and mic enabled - quite nervewracking to say the least
I had one round, which was an online HackerRank test. I wasn’t able to pass all the test cases, and as a result, I did not progress to the next stage of the process.
A lot of interviews. Started off with a call, then some online tests. Then a technical interview. Then a live coding interview along with a architecture interview. Last step would have been final day interview but I did not get that far.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How many bits do you need to store a number up to X. And how can you represent that.
