The short answer: Quantitative analysts at banks build the models that price, hedge and measure the risk of trades, and the models that forecast losses for regulators. Each bank names the job differently: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley call them Strats, and JPMorgan Chase calls them Quantitative Research or Quant Modeling. Goldman Sachs publishes the most about its campus process, including a 22-minute math test and a Superday of 2 to 5 interviews. JPMorgan Chase publishes its recorded video interview rules, and Morgan Stanley publishes general interview advice only. What happens inside each live round comes mostly from candidate reports, so ask your recruiter for the exact mix. Last reviewed October 2026.
Quantitative Analyst interview: quick answers
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| What does a quantitative analyst do? | Builds and maintains models for pricing, hedging, trading automation and risk, and works with traders, sales, bankers or risk managers who use them. Some teams validate models built by others. |
| What do the interviews test? | Probability and statistics, stochastic calculus and option pricing, coding in Python or C++, regression and econometrics for risk roles, and behavioral questions. Online assessments and recorded video interviews usually come first. |
| Can I use AI tools? | JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley publish no rule, so ask your recruiter. Goldman Sachs says one coding challenge has a limited built-in assistant, and a news report says it bars external sources such as ChatGPT for campus applicants. |
| How much do quantitative analysts make? | Posted US base ranges run from $115K for a Goldman Sachs Associate to $350K for a JPMorgan Chase Executive Director. Each bank's postings also mention a bonus, incentive pay or equity. |
| How is it different from a quant trader or quant developer? | Quant analysts own the models. Quant traders take the risk and make the trading decisions, and quant developers build the production systems. At banks the lines blur: Strats often write production code and sit beside traders. |
| How do students get in? | Through summer and off-cycle internships. All three banks run quant internships for undergraduate, master's or PhD students, and JPMorgan Chase says top performers may get a full-time offer. |
What quantitative analysts do
Most of the work is building models that a desk or a risk team uses every day. Goldman Sachs says Strats build models for pricing, prediction, trading automation and data analysis, and its Rates Strats run automated quoting, hedging and curve modeling. Morgan Stanley's Derivative Modeling Strats are the primary modelers for new products, and its Fixed Income Strats support daily pricing and hedging.
Risk is the other half of the field. JPMorgan Chase's Risk and Treasury Quantitative Research builds probability of default, loss given default and exposure models for CCAR, CECL and IFRS 9. Model validation teams, such as JPMorgan Chase's Model Risk Governance Review and Morgan Stanley's Model Risk Management, check other teams' models for soundness, assumptions and correct implementation.
Titles can mislead. A "quant" title at a bank is not always a quant finance job: JPMorgan Chase's Quantitative Analytics postings are business and marketing analytics roles. Goldman Sachs places Strats in its Engineering division, and Morgan Stanley also has Strats who support investment bankers on M&A and capital markets deals.
How 3 companies run the quantitative analyst interview
The short version of each process. Each company guide has the full detail, with links to the company's own pages, and says which parts come from candidate reports.
| Company | Screens | Main interviews | AI tools | What stands out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goldman Sachs | Online assessment with a 22-minute math test; recorded video interview | Superday of 2 to 5 interviews, 30 to 60 minutes each | Limited assistant in one challenge; news report cites ChatGPT ban | Strats sit in Engineering, beside trading desks |
| JPMorgan Chase | Recorded video; coding challenges for technical roles | Final round with several team members | No published rule; ask your recruiter | "Quantitative Analytics" titles are business analytics roles |
| Morgan Stanley | Possible coding assessment; one-way video (candidate reports) | Superday of 4 or 5 interviews (candidate reports) | No published rule; ask your recruiter | Four Strat profiles; kdb+/q in program postings |
The interview types in depth
Online assessments
Most bank loops start with a timed online test. Goldman Sachs says every campus candidate takes a 30-minute software fundamentals challenge, and Quantitative Strategist applicants add a 22-minute multiple-choice math challenge on probability, statistics, calculus and linear algebra. Morgan Stanley says you may be required to do a coding assessment, and candidate guides disagree on its length. JPMorgan Chase says technical roles may get coding challenges or an online technical assessment.
Speed and accuracy both count. Practice short probability and calculus questions under a timer, and write correct code on the first try for medium data structures problems. Take any practice test the company offers so the platform does not cost you time.
Recorded video interviews
Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase use one-way recorded video, and candidate reports describe one at Morgan Stanley. Goldman Sachs describes about 30 minutes of situational and behavioral questions. JPMorgan Chase allows unlimited practice and one re-record per answer, and keeps responses valid for 6 months. Candidate reports for Morgan Stanley describe five questions with about 30 seconds to prepare and one take.
Prepare four or five short stories with a clear result, and practice speaking to a camera without feedback. Keep each answer to one example.
Probability and statistics
Expect probability puzzles, expected values, distributions and regression in the live rounds. Candidate reports describe probability at the Goldman Sachs Superday, probability and statistics at JPMorgan Chase, and probability, regression and expected value questions at Morgan Stanley.
Say your setup before you compute, then check the answer a second way, such as a bound, an edge case or a simulation in your head. For statistics, know what a regression coefficient, an R-squared and a standard error mean on financial data, and where they fail.
Pricing and stochastic calculus
Pricing questions test whether you can reason about derivatives from first principles. Goldman Sachs tells candidates for math-heavy roles to expect stochastic calculus or differential equations. JPMorgan Chase's QR program asks for probability theory, stochastic calculus, PDEs and numerical analysis. Candidate reports for Morgan Stanley describe Brownian motion questions.
A structure that works: state the payoff, price it by no-arbitrage or replication where you can, then use a model such as Black-Scholes or a tree and name its assumptions. Know Ito's lemma, put-call parity, the main Greeks and one numerical method well enough to derive results on a whiteboard.
Coding
Banks test coding because quant analysts ship code. Goldman Sachs says Engineering live coding interviews run 45 to 60 minutes and are scored on problem solving, code quality, reading and writing code, and communication. Candidate reports describe a short live coding task at JPMorgan Chase and Python tasks in the Morgan Stanley assessment.
Practice a Monte Carlo pricer, a binomial tree and a data analysis task in Python, with tests. Know the time and space complexity of what you write, and keep it readable.
Behavioral and resume deep dives
Every bank asks behavioral questions, and interviewers dig into your resume projects. JPMorgan Chase lists teamwork, analytical skills, drive for results and presentation skills as themes. Morgan Stanley says to know your resume well enough to discuss it without reading it, and to have a clear reason for the firm and the division.
Pick two projects you can defend in depth, including the method, the result and the limits. Practice explaining one model to someone with no quantitative background.
Pay in US job postings
US salary ranges from each company's own postings for this role, seen October 29, 2026. They are base salary unless the company guide says the posting lists total salary. Each company guide has the postings and links.
| Company | Titles in the postings | Posted US pay range |
|---|---|---|
| Goldman Sachs | Strats (Quantitative Strategist), under the job function Quantitative Engineering | $115K to $300K |
| JPMorgan Chase | Quantitative Research (QR), Quantitative Trading & Research (QTR) and Quant Modeling | $135K to $350K |
| Morgan Stanley | Strats (Strategist) in the Quantitative Finance division, with titles such as Vice President, Strats | $120K to $250K |
Entry-level paths
- Goldman Sachs: The Americas Summer Analyst Program is a 9 to 10 week internship usually taken in the third or penultimate year, and the EMEA Summer Associate Programme is a 10-week internship for quantitative graduate students.
- JPMorgan Chase: The Quantitative Finance programs list 2027 US summer internships in QR Markets, Risk and Treasury, and Asset Management, with deadlines from November 6 to December 15, 2026, plus off-cycle internships in London, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore.
- Morgan Stanley: New York programs include 10-week Strats and Quantitative Investment Strategies summer associate programs and a four to six month off-cycle program for PhD students, and London runs a six to nine month Quantitative Finance off-cycle internship.
AI tools in quantitative analyst interviews
Rules on AI differ by company, so ask your recruiter before every round.
Goldman Sachs. Goldman's own guide to its online assessment says the Software Diagnostics challenge includes a built-in limited AI assistant that will not provide the full solution but can help with navigation, syntax or the problem statement. It mentions no assistant for the math challenge that Quantitative Strategist applicants take. Separately, a news report says a Goldman campus recruiting email prohibited external sources, including ChatGPT or Google search, during the interview process, and that a spokesperson said the same language goes to campus applicants for all positions. That rule comes from the report, not a Goldman page.
JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase does not publish a rule on AI use in interviews; ask your recruiter.
Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley does not publish a rule on AI use in interviews; ask your recruiter. One candidate guide reports questions about AI as a topic in a 2026 video interview.
A 6-week prep plan
| When | Focus |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Read the target bank's postings and student pages. Write down the team, the title, the assessment format and the AI rule. Pick two projects you can defend in depth. |
| Week 2 | Probability and statistics: conditional probability, expected value, common distributions, regression and standard errors. Do timed sets of short questions. |
| Week 3 | Pricing and stochastic calculus: no-arbitrage, put-call parity, Black-Scholes and the Greeks, Ito's lemma, binomial trees and Brownian motion. |
| Week 4 | Coding: a Monte Carlo pricer, a binomial tree and a data analysis task in Python or C++, plus medium data structures problems under a timer. |
| Week 5 | Team depth: rates and options for desk roles, or credit models, econometrics and validation for risk roles. Record practice video answers to behavioral questions. |
| Week 6 | Two mock Superdays with back-to-back technical and behavioral interviews, explaining every step out loud and following the bank's AI rule for each round. |
Courses for each round
- Probability for Quant Interviews
- Financial Mathematics
- Applied Statistics
- Advanced Statistics
- Time Series Forecasting
Practice questions
Questions from our bank, then practice prompts from the company guides.
Questions from our bank
From the DataInterview question bank, picked for quantitative analyst interviews. Open one to answer it.
Covariance in Bivariate Normal
Lognormal Basics
Normal Deviation Probability
Separable Data Regression
Managing Imbalanced Data
Model Deployment Metrics
Trinomial Call Pricing
Call Option Vega
Deep Put Delta
Probability and statistics practice
One prompt per company, from the company guides. These are our prompts, not reported interview questions.
A rates desk's daily P&L is normal with mean 0 and standard deviation $1M, independent across days. What is the chance that at least one of the next 5 days loses more than $1.645M?
Sample Answer
A loss beyond 1.645 standard deviations has probability 0.05 on one day. The chance that no day breaches is 0.95^5. Compute it in steps: 0.95^2 = 0.9025, 0.9025^2 = 0.8145, and 0.8145 x 0.95 = 0.7738. So the chance of at least one breach is 1 - 0.7738 = 0.2262, about 22.6%. A quick check: 5 x 0.05 = 0.25 is an upper bound, and the true answer sits a little below it.
A loan book holds 50 independent loans, each with a 2% chance of default this year. What is the expected number of defaults, and the chance of no defaults at all?
A systematic strategy earns a mean daily return of 0.05% with a daily standard deviation of 1%. What is its annualized Sharpe ratio, and what assumption does that rely on?
Pricing and stochastic calculus practice
One prompt per company, from the company guides. These are our prompts, not reported interview questions.
A 1-year European call on a stock with no dividends costs 10.45. The stock is at 100, the strike is 100 and the continuously compounded rate is 5%. What should the put with the same strike and expiry cost?
Sample Answer
Put-call parity says C - P = S - K e^(-rT). Here K e^(-rT) = 100 x e^(-0.05) = 100 x 0.9512 = 95.12. So P = C - S + K e^(-rT) = 10.45 - 100 + 95.12 = 5.57. Parity needs no model. As a check, these are the Black-Scholes prices for 20% volatility: 10.45 for the call and 5.57 for the put.
EUR/USD spot is 1.10 dollars per euro. The dollar rate is 5% and the euro rate is 3%, both continuously compounded. What is the 1-year forward?
A stock at 100 will move to 120 or 90 in one period, and the interest rate is 0. Price a call struck at 100 and give the hedge.
Modeling practice
One prompt per company, from the company guides. These are our prompts, not reported interview questions.
You are testing a systematic option-selling strategy on currency options. How do you design the backtest so you can trust it?
Sample Answer
Start with a written hypothesis and fix the rules before looking at results. Use only data available at each decision time, including point-in-time vol surfaces, and include bid-offer and hedging costs. Hold out a later period for validation and test separate regimes, such as calm markets and stress periods. Report drawdowns and tail losses along with the average return. Document every choice, since the Goldman posting stresses bias controls, regime and stress tests and documentation.
You are building a probability-of-default model for wholesale credit that will feed CECL and stress testing. How do you approach it?
You join Quantitative Investment Strategies and are asked to backtest an FX carry strategy. How do you build it?
Behavioral practice
Prompts we wrote for quantitative analyst behavioral rounds, with what a strong answer covers.
Explain a model you built to someone with no quantitative background.
Sample Answer
Lead with the decision the model supports and the result in plain numbers. Give one limitation that matters and what you would watch for. Check understanding by asking what they would do with the result.
Tell me about a time your model or analysis was wrong.
Describe a time you had to justify your approach to a skeptical colleague.
Why this bank and this team?
Are you ready for quantitative analyst interviews?
1 / 5Can you solve probability and expectation puzzles out loud and check your answer a second way?
Company guides
Read the guide for each company you are interviewing with:
- Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs hires quantitative analysts as Strats in Engineering. Campus candidates take an online assessment with a math test, a recorded video interview and a Superday.
- JPMorgan Chase: JPMorgan Chase hires quantitative analysts into Quantitative Research and Quant Modeling. Expect a recorded video interview, coding challenges and a final round with several team members.
- Morgan Stanley: Morgan Stanley hires quantitative analysts as Strats in its Quantitative Finance division. Candidate reports describe an online assessment, a video interview and a Superday.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a quantitative analyst at a bank called?
It depends on the bank. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley use Strats, short for Quantitative Strategists or Strategists. JPMorgan Chase uses Quantitative Research, Quantitative Trading & Research and Quant Modeling. Each company guide explains how its titles map to the role.
How much do quantitative analysts make at banks?
Posted US base ranges in our three company guides run from $115K at Associate level at Goldman Sachs to $350K for an Executive Director at JPMorgan Chase. Vice President postings run from $120K to $300K across the three banks. The postings also mention a bonus, incentive pay or equity. Internship pay is not included.
Can I use AI tools in quant analyst interviews?
Only where the bank allows it. Goldman Sachs says one coding challenge has a limited built-in assistant, and a news report says it bars external sources such as ChatGPT for campus applicants. JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley publish no rule. Ask your recruiter before each round.
Do I need a PhD to become a quantitative analyst?
Not always. Campus programs at all three banks take undergraduate or master's students as well as PhD students, and Goldman Sachs says finance knowledge is a bonus and is not required. Some senior postings ask for an MS or PhD, and Morgan Stanley's Institutional Equity Strats off-cycle program is for PhD students.
What math do quant analyst interviews cover?
Probability, statistics, calculus and linear algebra come up most, followed by stochastic calculus and differential equations for pricing roles. Goldman Sachs lists probability, statistics, calculus and linear algebra for its math challenge. Risk roles add econometrics such as logistic regression and time series.
How is a quant analyst different from a model validator?
Quant analysts build and own models for a desk or risk area. Validators in groups such as JPMorgan Chase's Model Risk Governance Review or Morgan Stanley's Model Risk Management review those models independently. The math overlaps, but validation interviews focus more on testing, assumptions and limitations.
How long does a bank quant analyst interview process take?
Banks publish little on this. Goldman Sachs says to expect word within three weeks of its assessment and aims to respond within two weeks of an interview. One JPMorgan Chase candidate report took three to four months. Campus recruiting follows application deadlines, so apply early in the season.
