Cubist / Point72 Intern Quantitative Researcher Interview Experience — Two Teams and a Lasso Derivation

Point72·Quantitative Researcher·Sep 2026
Technical ScreenInternRejectedmedium

I applied for QR Intern and QR Alpha Intern positions based in Hong Kong.
There was no online assessment. HR matched me with two teams.

One Hong Kong team working on APAC equities. Three interviewers, one PM, one MLE, and one QR, for 30 minutes. They mainly asked about an internship on my resume involving quantitative work and algorithms, in very fine detail. I basically had to explain every step of the formulas. They asked a lot about the quantitative experience: how I constructed factors, what the IC was like, why I used that model, and whether I'd tested it in live trading. At the end, they came back to that internship and asked how I'd go deeper if I had more time, what needed improvement, and why I wasn't retained. A week later, HR told me I'd been rejected.

The NYC IAC team. One interviewer, 45 minutes, asking about my resume. Since my background is in optimization, I got a Lasso derivation question: Can it be expressed equivalently as a quadratic program? If so, prove it rigorously. I didn't understand the question at first and only managed to answer after a hint. Two days later, HR told me I'd been rejected.

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Curated and edited by PracHub

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Interview at a glance

Company
Point72
Role
Quantitative Researcher
Level
Intern
Rounds
Technical Screen
Outcome
Rejected
Difficulty
medium
Interview date
Sep 2026
Questions from this interview
2 questions

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