PDT Partners Interview ProcessTier 1

Systematic Quant Fund - New York

53 practice questions → Apply at PDT Partners → Learn more about PDT Partners ↗ Report a question from your PDT Partners interview

problems

10 easy 29 medium 15 hard

hires: Quant Researcher, Software Engineer

Interview funnel

These stages are the quant tracks. Software engineering loops are only mapped where a stage names them.

1 Recruiter / Screen
2 Take-Home / Coding
3 Probability & Statistics
4 Regression, ML & Time-Series
5 Onsite - Hardest Rounds

Recruiter / Screen

Phone - background + fit

An intro conversation about background and interest, sometimes with a quick technical warm-up.

Practice this round →

Editorial round — no practice problems.

Unlock the full interview funnel

The first stage is on us — you're seeing it in full. Unlock every later round, the must-do problems, and stage-by-stage prep across all 56 firms with QuantVault Pro.

56 firmsEvery stageMust-do problems

Take-Home / Coding

Take-home + algorithms

A coding take-home plus clean algorithm/data-structure problems (merge k sorted streams, reference-counted smart pointer, lazy-propagation stack).

Practice this round 40 problems →

#920 Decode Number String coding medium #1286 Maximum Profit from ETF Premium Trading coding medium #1717 All-Pairs Two-Sum With Stable Ordering coding medium #2575 Merge Two Sorted Iteratorsseen 2018-08 coding medium #2577 Implement a Reference-Counted Smart Pointer in C++seen 2018-05 coding medium #2582 Design a SuperStack With a Bulk-Increment Operationseen 2018-07 coding medium #546 Add Two Numbers (Linked List)seen 2018-05 coding easy #2574 Sum of Odd Integers Up to Each Valueseen 2024-02 coding easy #2576 Maximum Root-to-Leaf Path Sum in a Binary Treeseen 2018-08 coding easy #2580 Maximum Difference With the Larger Element on the Rightseen 2018-07 coding easy

Probability & Statistics

45-60 min - video Round guide →

Probability, expectation, statistics, and combinatorics -- estimator reasoning and Bayesian updates.

Practice this round 40 problems →

#2579 Sum of All Repeating Decimals 0.abcabc... With Distinct Digitsseen 2018-05 combinatorics medium #219 Ten-Sided Die Payoff Game expectation medium #118 Optimal Position for the Birthday Match probability medium #1187 Optimal Estimate from Two Scales statistics medium #570 Covariance of Sample Means for Points on the Unit Circle expectation easy #127 Pattern Race: HTH vs HHT probability medium #1463 Order Statistics and Inverse Transform Sampling statistics medium #142 The Gaussian Integral probability medium #2420 Finding the Story in Employee Productivity Data statistics easy #424 Generate Uniform 1-7 from Uniform 1-5 probability medium

Regression, ML & Time-Series

45-60 min - research Round guide →

Regression pitfalls, machine learning, linear algebra, and time-series with a research flavor.

Practice this round 40 problems →

#1421 Inverting a High-Dimensional Covariance Matrix linear-algebra medium #2126 Comparing Forecasting Models for Daily Asset Returns machine-learning medium #1613 Loss Function Minimizers and Regression Variants regression medium #1913 Block Bootstrap for Trading Signal Robustness time-series medium #1734 Eigenvalues of the All-Ones Matrix Plus a Scalar Multiple of Identity linear-algebra easy #2284 Predicting Platformer Level Difficulty from its Layout machine-learning medium #1801 Ridge and LASSO: Closed-Form Solutions and Gradient Descent regression medium #2173 RiskMetrics EWMA Variance Forecasting and Half-Life time-series medium #2529 Building a Trading Signal From Very Noisy Data machine-learning medium #1840 Deriving the OLS Estimator regression medium

Onsite - Hardest Rounds

Final rounds - the toughest reported problems

The hardest reported PDT Partners problems across every topic. (Hard-rated only; earlier rounds cover easy/medium, so nothing repeats.)

Practice this round 40 problems →

#1691 Split Array to Minimize the Largest Subarray Sum coding hard #2581 Greedy Candy Collection Avoiding a Forbidden Running Sumseen 2018-07 combinatorics hard #323 30-Sided vs 20-Sided Dice Game expectation hard #2053 QR Factorization via Householder Reflectors linear-algebra hard #1949 EM Algorithm for PCA with Missing Returns machine-learning hard #1718 Angle Between y and y-hat in Ridge Regression regression hard #1596 KMV Distinct Counting statistics hard #1813 Streaming Top-K Sum With Updates coding hard #1384 Coupon Collector With Unequal Types: Playing Cards expectation hard #1920 Breusch-Pagan Heteroskedasticity Test statistics hard #2293 Avoiding the Monsters coding hard #2048 Power and Sample Size for Sharpe Ratio Detection statistics hard

The day before

Take-Home / Coding
Probability & Statistics
Regression, ML & Time-Series
Onsite - Hardest Rounds

Cheatsheet →

Looking for other firms?

Every firm has a curated interview-questions playlist — a ready-to-drill set of problems matched to how that firm interviews, each with a full worked solution.

Practice every firm's OA: timed replicas, free game replicas and guides in one place →

Drill the PDT Partners practice set (53 problems) → Browse all company playlists →

PDT Partners round-by-round guides

PDT Partners interview guide: the firm, culture, roles and pay →

Stage guides for every firm: superdays · behavioral questions · market-making games

PDT Partners interview — FAQ

What is the PDT Partners interview process?

PDT Partners (Peter Muller's Process Driven Trading) is a research-deep systematic fund. Engineers face clean C++/algorithms (smart pointers, merge-k, stacks) and a take-home; researchers get probability, statistics, and modeling. No game. The loop runs 5 stages: Recruiter / Screen, Take-Home / Coding, Probability & Statistics, Regression, ML & Time-Series, Onsite - Hardest Rounds.

How many rounds does PDT Partners have?

5 stages in total, starting with the Recruiter / Screen and ending with the Onsite - Hardest Rounds.

How do I prepare for the PDT Partners interview?

Work the stage notes above, then drill the PDT Partners interview-questions set and the PDT Partners online-assessment practice — each problem has a full worked solution.