You are caught off guard by tough quant interview question, what is your response?

[Jakelaker]

I'll start off with my response.

If this happened to me right now, I would say: "Please give me a moment", then look to a blank space (to focus) and attempt to think of a solution.

Since I think I'll be there all day thinking for the perfect solution, I'll needed a back-up strategy which is to think out loud. I'm used to this because I can't multi-task talking and intensive thinking...


Please share your responses and critique on my response!

 

[mhy]

One thing you can do is to begin thinking about the approach by reducing the complexity of the question and gradually adding the complexity back. For example, if they ask you something about Black-Scholes when there is nonconstant volatility, start off with the constant-volatility framework. It gives you time to think and re-establish your memory about the topic and you're not just sitting there doing/saying nothing.

 

[Jakelaker]

One thing you can do is to begin thinking about the approach by reducing the complexity of the question and gradually adding the complexity back. For example, if they ask you something about Black-Scholes when there is nonconstant volatility, start off with the constant-volatility framework. It gives you time to think and re-establish your memory about the topic and you're not just sitting there doing/saying nothing.

Thanks for the suggestion, especially the last sentence!

 

[Daniel Duffy]

I'll start off with my response.

If this happened to me right now, I would say: "Please give me a moment", then look to a blank space (to focus) and attempt to think of a solution.

Since I think I'll be there all day thinking for the perfect solution, I'll needed a back-up strategy which is to think out loud. I'm used to this because I can't multi-task talking and intensive thinking...


Please share your responses and critique on my response!

"Understand the problem" is often neglected as being obvious and is not even mentioned in many mathematics classes. Yet students are often stymied in their efforts to solve it, simply because they don't understand it fully, or even in part. In order to remedy this oversight, Pólya taught teachers how to prompt each student with appropriate questions,[7] depending on the situation, such as:

• What are you asked to find or show?[8]
• Can you restate the problem in your own words?
• Can you think of a picture or a diagram that might help you understand the problem?
• Is there enough information to enable you to find a solution?
• Do you understand all the words used in stating the problem?
• Do you need to ask a question to get the answer?

It's not always about getting an answer as such as the interviewer might be interested in seeing how you approach a problem that hasn't already been rehearsed by you.

Let's say you are presented with a problem with incomplete information?

Be creative.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

One thing you can do is to begin thinking about the approach by reducing the complexity of the question and gradually adding the complexity back. For example, if they ask you something about Black-Scholes when there is nonconstant volatility, start off with the constant-volatility framework. It gives you time to think and re-establish your memory about the topic and you're not just sitting there doing/saying nothing.

Indeed; Polya's Heuristics maybe.

How to Solve It - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Philip_Mitterrand]

The other tactic is to ask further questions back as you are enlarging the bandwidth of your thinking and stretching the space time in your favor to hit the 'Aha moment'. You need a bit of both method and magic for that creative leap when you hit unconventional problems.

I'll start off with my response.

If this happened to me right now, I would say: "Please give me a moment", then look to a blank space (to focus) and attempt to think of a solution.

Since I think I'll be there all day thinking for the perfect solution, I'll needed a back-up strategy which is to think out loud. I'm used to this because I can't multi-task talking and intensive thinking...


Please share your responses and critique on my response!