Headlands Technologies Interview Questions
& Process

I interviewed at Headlands for the role of a quantitative researcher. The interview started with introductions, but it felt rushed. The interviewer seemed more interested in how I solved a specific options problem at my previous job than my candidacy, which felt like a knowledge grab. I suspected they weren't interested, so I asked about the next steps. The interviewer seemed unprepared, and as expected, my recruiter later told me they weren't proceeding with my application.

I had an easy online assessment. They suggested C++, but I used Python and still moved on. The next step was a phone screening on Teams with a researcher who asked about common machine learning techniques. I didn't pass because my background is more in SWE. It would be easy if you have research experience, as the questions felt pretty standard.

It was quite disappointing how the interview was set up. I was interviewed by someone who had only been with the company for a few months, and it felt like they weren't really serious about hiring from the start. I have years of experience in the asset class, while the interviewer had only been trading for a few months. The whole process seemed more like an attempt to extract information rather than a genuine interest in hiring me.

The overall process felt fair. The first round was pretty tough. It started with a HackerRank challenge that was medium to hard, more tough due to the time limit than the actual question, but I passed. Then I had a one-on-one with a developer. The interviewer was nice and seemed engaged, really representing the company well. The questions weren't basic definitions, but more about data structures (STL specifically) and very open-ended problems like why code might be slow or how to approach debugging with different tools. I didn't move on after the second round because I wasn't as prepared as I should have been. I asked for feedback on how to improve but never heard back.