Behavioural Interview Guide - Quant Trading

Behavioural interviews are a crucial part of the quant trading application process. They allow firms to assess whether you have the right personality, motivation, and soft skills to thrive in their fast-paced environment.

Expect questions covering your interest in trading, understanding of the company, and essential traits such as communication, resilience, and teamwork. The key to success? Proper preparation and structuring your responses effectively.

In this guide, we’ll break down the different behavioural interview formats, how each trait is assessed, and how to prepare for success.

📋 Behavioural Interview Formats

Phone Screenings 📞

These are phone calls often conducted by HR or recruiters to confirm if you have the right motivation and technical experience for the role. You should expect questions such as:

• Why are you interested in trading?

• Why did you pick your degree?

• What is market making?

• What do you get up to in your spare time?

• Do you have any coding experience?

• Other standard behavioural questions to gauge general suitability to the role.

Behavioural Interviews 👥

These are typically video or in-person interviews which go deeper into your culture-fit by assessing behavioural traits such as resilience, teamwork, and leadership.

Expect to provide detailed examples of past experiences, challenges, and how you work under pressure.

🔥 Key Traits and How to Ace Them

1. Interest in Trading 📈

Firms want to ensure you’re passionate about a career in trading and not just applying randomly. They typically assess this through:

'Why Trading?'

• Have a well-prepared, personal response. Mention what excites you about trading and tailor your answer to showcase your motivation.

• No excuse for poor preparation—this question will come up in every interview!

General Knowledge of the Industry

• Candidates can expect questions such as:

  • 'Can you explain what we do?'

  • 'Can you tell me what an option is?'

  • 'What is market making?'

• 👉 Read our Introduction to Quant Trading article for an overview.

Where else are you interviewing?

• Mention only related roles (e.g., trading, quant research) to demonstrate focused interest.

• Avoid mentioning recent rejections to prevent negative bias.

  
  

Involvement in relevant activities

• Following the news

  • Be prepared to give examples of recent news events and how they are impacting markets

• Investing

  • Previous investing experience, whether active or passive, will be looked upon favourably.

  • If you do invest, recruiters will be keen understand the rationale behind your investments.

  • If you don't invest, still demonstrating an interest in financial markets is a must!

• Strategy gaming and brainteasers

  • Some examples include chess, poker, monopoly, Catan, Wordle

  • Recruiters are keen to hear about any strategy games you enjoy playing.

  • Be prepared to explain the rules of games, how you play (i.e., socially or competitively) and the strategies you use to succeed.

• Video gaming

  • Recruiters may wish understand your experience with video games, particularly fast-paced and/or strategy based games which share overlapping skillsets with trading

  • Think First-Person shooter or turn-based games

• Betting or other risk-related activities

  • Sportsbetting

    • Educated bets based on sports knowledge

    • Promotions-based betting

    • Arbitrage betting bots

• Trading games such as fantasy sports

• Industry Events

  • Company or society run trading competitions

  • Pre-penultimate programs

2. Interest in the Company 🏢

Hiring managers want to see that you’ve done your homework and understand why you want to work at their firm specifically.

How to prepare:

• Visit the company’s website and review their values and career pages.

• Use GradIQ company profiles to gain insights.

• Research employee experiences on Glassdoor and Reddit.

• Prepare a personalised response that highlights company-specific details

🔥 Hot Tip: Avoid generic answers like "I want to work with smart people." Focus on what makes the company unique.

3. Communication Skills 🗨️

Effective communication is crucial in trading. Interviewers will evaluate your ability to:

• Structure responses clearly using the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

• Explain technical concepts in a simple and concise manner.

• Avoid jargon or overly complex terms when describing ideas.

4. Other Behavioural Traits 🧠

Expect to be assessed on the following key soft skills:

• Growth Mindset – Willingness to learn and adapt.

• Resilience – Ability to handle setbacks and pressure.

• Competitiveness – Drive to succeed in high-stakes environments.

• Confidence & Composure – Staying calm under pressure.

• Teamwork & Leadership – Collaborating effectively while taking initiative.

• Problem-Solving – Tackling complex challenges logically and creatively.

How they assess you:

Expect questions like:

"Tell me about a time you made a challenging decision under pressure."

👉 Check out our list of behavioural interview questions to prepare responses.

🔢 Preparation Tips

Preparing for behavioural interviews is easy if you put in the effort. Here's what we recommend:

• Tailor your resume for trading roles. A strong resume sets the foundation for behavioural interviews.

  • Check out our Quant Trading Resume Guide.

• Plan your responses using dot points. Read a wide range of practice questions and outline key stories.

  • 👉 Access a free list of behavioural questions under the behavioural interview section of GradIQ's Quant Trading Preparation Resources.

• Practice answering aloud. This helps with fluency and confidence.

• Mock interviews. Practice with friends or an interview coach to get feedback.

• Be authentic. Interviewers value honesty and self-awareness over rehearsed responses.

🏁 Final Thoughts

Behavioural interviews are your opportunity to show that you’re not only technically competent but also the right cultural fit for a trading firm. With the right preparation, structured responses, and a confident mindset, you’ll be well on your way to success.