Basic Information

  • Company Name: Optiver
  • Name: Kshitij Vaidya
  • Role: Software Engineering
  • Location: Amsterdam

Please elaborate on your internship role and/or any projects that you did?

I joined the Global Data Engineering team at Optiver and my project was focused on developing automated solutions for ingesting external data coming from sources outside the exchanges. The primary programming component was in Python and any additional knowledge that was required could be easily picked up along the way.

Please describe the selection process in detail (tests + interviews)?

Optiver has a fairly unique selection process where the first round of testing was actually a series of games (reaction testing, mental math with the well known Optiver 80-in-8). This might be more relevant for trading roles but still an important part of the assessment according to Optiver. For software engineering, we had a DSA round with coding problems all of moderate difficulty. The focus was on clean code, simple and readable solutions. For the interviews, we had 3 rounds of 40 minutes. One live coding round where again the question was easy and the emphasis was on how well ideas can be conveyed and an outline of the code be made. There was a system design round where the problem was to setup a trading system between a trader and an exchange which were at different locations. This was an open ended discussion. The final round was the HR round where I was asked some questions based on my resume (mostly about my experiences in my tech team)

What was your preparation strategy for Quant roles (trading and/or software)?

For the software role, the preparation was mostly focused around DSA. Practicing Medium level problems on patterns asked in tests was the primary focus. Emphasis was also laid on being able to verbally explain algorithms and approaches to problems. While not particularly relevant for tests, this was very helpful in interviews where live coding was asked. A strong theoretical DSA foundation is also important so I spent sufficient time on theory as well and not just with problem solving. For interviews, networks and operating systems are also important topics. Having a decent understanding of these domains and being comfortable with common terminology is helpful. I started with these topics pretty early in my preparation as well so that by the time the interviews came, I was confident in my knowledge of these domains.

What were the working hours like?

For me the working hours were 9am to 6pm with the occasional stretch to 7pm depending upon the work at hand

How would you describe the structure, work culture and work-life balance of the company?

The company is very well structured with clear role definitions and job outlines for all the teams. At the same time, the environment is extremely collaborative and friendly. People were welcome to discussions and bouncing of ideas. The working hours are flexible in the sense that we were free to choose suitable working hours for ourselves. The balance is also well-maintained, managers and mentors ensured that interns did not spend unnecessarily long hours in office and took time off work as well.

A lot of Quant firms claim they don’t have silos, and use this as a USP. How true is this for the company you interned at?

This was very true in Optiver. There was a very healthy culture of cross-team collaboration. There were several instances of people smoothly transitioning between teams and information sharing was constantly talked about as an almost necessity of a healthy working culture in the company and was also followed by the people as a practice.

Was there any evaluation criteria followed by the company, if yes could you elaborate?

We had 2 formal feedback sessions throughout the internship with mentors and trainers providing feedback both technical and behavioural. The emphasis was laid on designing simple solutions, writing clean and easily maintainable code. The exact evaluation criterion were never directly revealed but they always talked about being prompt with discussions and laid a lot of emphasis on the behavioural aspects of the expectations laid out at the start of the program.

How did the internship influence your career interests?

The internship maintained and even increased my interests in Software Engineering as a broader domain. It also showed me the areas that I needed to improve in regards to my coding and communication skills.

How would you rate your overall internship experience?

The overall internship experience was excellent. Both work and outside was amazing. Amsterdam is a great city to be in and my team, my co-interns made the overall journey unforgettable

Any myths or unknown facts you would like to bust/reveal? Feel free to add in any comments you have.

While DSA is extremely important during the testing and interview stage, during the actual internship, your ability to solve DSA problems has very little bearing on your projects. An understanding of DSA is still required, but your communication skills, your ability to think and design solutions for problems is far more important in the actual internship setting

One piece of advice for someone preparing for similar roles.

For SWE roles, DSA is the most important thing you need to work on. At the same time, you dont need to solve 100s of problems. Understanding important patterns and solving relevant problems in a more structured and targeted manner is more efficient and a better approach.