How to Prepare for a Quant Research Role
What actually matters when you are aiming for research, not pure development
Preparing for a quant research role is often confusing because the expectations are rarely stated clearly. Many candidates try to cover everything. Advanced models, complex codebases, exotic strategies. In reality, quant research is not about being an expert developer. It is about reasoning, modeling, and explaining uncertainty with rigor.
The skills required overlap with quant development, but the priorities are different. What matters most is your ability to think statistically, structure a research question, build something original, and explain it clearly. This newsletter focuses on the few elements (non exhaustive) that actually make a difference when preparing for a quant research position.
1. Revisit the Fundamentals. Stats, Algebra, Calculus, Logic
Quant research interviews almost always start with the basics. Not because firms want to trick you, but because these fundamentals reveal how you think. Probability, statistics, linear algebra, and calculus are the language of the role. You do not need to master every advanced topic, but you must be comfortable with the core concepts and especially the intuition behind that.
Typical questions revolve around conditional probabilities, common distributions, expectations, variance, and basic matrix operations. Logical reasoning questions are also frequent. They test how you structure a problem and how you react under uncertainty, not how fast you recall a formula.
About the logic/probability questions, you should take a look to https://www.quantguide.io
2. Personal Projects Matter More Than Fancy Strategies
Good projects often revolve around a specific behavior you are trying to isolate, not around a ready made strategy. This can take many forms. For example, you might design:
An alternative optimization method that focuses on stability across regimes instead of maximizing a single metric.You could explore how combining simple strategies changes their joint behavior rather than their standalone performance.
Another strong angle is feature engineering aimed at highlighting a particular market behavior, such as volatility compression, intraday flow effects, or cross asset interactions.
Projects like these tend to trigger interviews because they stand out. But they also come with a requirement. You must master them completely. Interviewers will often dig into your assumptions, your methodology, and your results.
If you cannot explain why you made certain choices or how the conclusions were reached, the project quickly becomes a liability instead of an asset.
A strong project is not just interesting. It is something you can defend in detail.
3. Do Your Own Research and Learn to Explain It
Doing personal research is only valuable if you can explain it clearly. In a quant research interview, you will usually face two very different audiences. A senior quant will focus on your reasoning, your assumptions, and the technical consistency of your work. A hiring manager or HR interviewer may be less technical, but they will still want to understand what you did and why it matters.
You must be able to adapt your explanation without changing the substance. With a technical interviewer, you should be comfortable discussing data choices, statistical tests, modeling assumptions, and limitations. With a non technical interviewer, you should be able to explain the same project in simpler terms, focusing on the intuition, the objective, and the conclusions.
This ability to translate your work across audiences is not secondary. It signals that you truly understand what you built. If you cannot explain your research clearly, it usually means the ideas are not fully structured in your own mind.
These points focus on what truly matters from a quant research perspective. They do not replace the standard HR advice that is also essential when applying for a role. CV structure, interview behavior, communication, and general professionalism still matter and are well covered elsewhere.
If you are looking for solid and practical guidance on these aspects, the CareerVidz YouTube channel explains them very clearly and complements the research focused preparation described here.
Think of this as a split. HR fundamentals help you get through the door. Research skills determine whether you belong inside.