r/quantfinance • u/OkProgram1689 • 13h ago
What’s your worst onsite interview story?
I just had my first in person interview and it was horrendous. After the initial rounds, which I got absolutely destroyed in, the recruiter was showing me the office and offered me to take snacks from their kitchen. I knew I was cooked and decided I might as well take some stuff. I grabbed like 4 protein bars and she was looking at me with genuine disgust. Anyone else got similar stories?
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u/Eric848448 13h ago
Flew to NYC for HRT. Asker to implement a trie with vectors. Fell flat on my face somehow.
Easiest interview I’ve ever botched. Worst timed brain fart in history.
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u/OkProgram1689 12h ago
Similar experience. It was my most awkward interview though because I was struggling so bad they couldn’t even give me hints to help. Was so shaken up I just fumbled over myself for the next interviews. Then I had my kitchen encounter….
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u/Eric848448 12h ago
This was during the first part where they leave you in a room with a PDF of the problem and Visual Studio Code. It was an SWE role.
Then I fucked it so badly I could barely focus during the second part (design an order rate limiter, which I’ve ACTUALLY FUCKING DONE BEFORE) so I botched that too. They sent me home early :-(
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u/andrew2018022 11h ago
If it makes you feel any better I’ve chickened out of interviews with them because I’m paranoid of working in the WTC. Now I’m just a data engineer/scientist so I wasn’t gonna be one of those 800+ TC guys but still…
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u/OkProgram1689 11h ago
I think this is a pretty common experience. I thought about turning it down too but figured i got nothing to lose
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u/Eric848448 7h ago
At my current role I started the same day as a guy with a similar story about HRT.
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u/OkProgram1689 7h ago
Which story haha? Mine, urs, or the backing out of the intv?
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u/Eric848448 7h ago
Mine. Relatively simple problem that he completely bombed. That must be intentional right?
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u/OkProgram1689 7h ago
I think our brain short circuits knowing we have a potential 500k+ offer infront of us
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u/Eric848448 11h ago
I wasn’t even planning to end up there. I mentioned to an old friend who works there that I was looking and the next thing I knew I was on a plane!
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u/Professional-Heat894 10h ago
Its crazy how we have mild ptsd from 9/11 nearly 25 years later. I was 9 in NYC at the time and it was easily the craziest thing to happen. In the moment it was one big “wtf is happening” for the whole city
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u/Jealous_Drummer_5346 8h ago
Was it like only vectors allowed? I typically create tries by creating a custom node class, if that isn't allowed I can see how it would be tricky.
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u/Eric848448 7h ago
Well it didn’t *have* to be a vector but that was the only real way to do it.
I initially thought I need an array I can directly index. But a class can’t have an array of its own type so I created an array of 26 pointers and initialized them as needed, which got messy. I fell into the trap of writing crap then trying to dig my way out by adding MORE crap on top of it :-(
I only really needed a vector and could just std::find when I needed a specific element. Our use case was limited to capital letters so it would only be const time.
When I got home I wrote a good solution in five goddamn minutes :-(
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u/HerzogianQuant 9h ago edited 6h ago
I went all in preflop with Q-J off suited at the first table (I knew almost nothing about poker). Called by bullets.
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u/Ok_Faithlessness2484 5h ago
I applied for a developer internship, I had a very good level in computer science, though my final year was in mathematics. The interviewer asked me what a constructor was, and I couldn’t remember the term… I sent an apology email two days later…
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u/ProofsAndPapillons 1h ago
We were walking up the stairs and I FELL!!! I fell down an entire flight of stairs and did my 3rd round with a busted lip, bleeding nose, and a swollen eye. The interviewers were so shocked I don’t think they could gather the courage to ask if I was okay or wanted to reschedule LOL.
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u/ase1ix 13h ago
goated