DRW Interview Questions
& Process

So, they bring in people from rival companies to ask them what their competitors are up to, where they're making bank, and basically try to nab their ideas. They don't seem to actually want to hire anyone. The questions are less about what I've done or can do, and more about what the firm is doing. It's a really sketchy way to do things, I'd say don't spill any beans once they start asking these kinds of questions because they're not really interested in you as a candidate. The whole process kicks off with the head honcho of the whole business grilling you on strategies, which is pretty unusual for normal hiring.

I first got in touch with a DRW internal recruiter about what seemed like a VERY Senior Trade Support Engineer position, suggesting they needed to fill a spot quickly. The HR call went fine, followed by an interview with the hiring manager focusing on my experience and learning about the team and role. The manager seemed a bit distracted during this interview. Although it was an okay interview, I didn't proceed for that specific role as they were looking for someone much more senior. A few months later, I noticed the same team still had an opening and reached out to the DRW recruiter. We reconnected internally and there was mutual interest. I then had 3 interviews, all of which went well, and I liked the people I met. The recruiter had initially confirmed that hiring me from my current location would be acceptable. This all happened just before the holidays, and I was informed that the final decision might take a while. By mid-January, I still hadn't heard back. After following up, they apologized and explained that while the team liked me, they couldn't hire me due to my location, despite earlier assurances. This was frustrating after months of effort, especially since they'd initially said my location was fine. I wish I hadn't bothered interviewing if that was going to be the outcome. It felt like a waste of my time and energy, but ultimately, seeing how this played out, I'm glad it didn't work out.

The first round was a technical interview, but it felt fair. We began by discussing the projects on my CV in detail, particularly the technical choices I made and any difficulties I encountered. After that, we moved on to basic questions about Operating Systems, specifically memory management, and Networking, focusing on TCP/IP. The person interviewing me seemed to know their stuff.

First, there was an online assessment with 7 questions covering linear algebra, calculus, and probability. Then a behavioral question focused on mental maths. This was followed by a technical interview involving market making games and some medium-difficulty probability questions. This led to a Superday. The whole process felt pretty standard in terms of length and what was involved.