Software Engineering Interview Experience - North Chicago, Illinois
Process
First, you have an on-campus interview or phone interview to get into their Superday in Chicago.
Then, you go to Chicago for presentations at their building, then dinner, and then rollerball. Rollerball is fun, and they take you to a very nice restaurant (with super small portions for a steakhouse?) and put you up in a swanky hotel. However, most of the interview candidates are for trading and are future MBA types, so you don't get a software culture vibe.
The second day in Chicago starts in the morning and involves three interviews. The interviews I got were the same ones that they apparently give every year. I wouldn't have disclosed these questions, but I was super disappointed when I looked online after my interview and found that people had gotten these same questions for the previous Superdays.
Overall, they are nice, but sometimes you get a nasty vibe from younger guys. I guess it just comes with the territory in trading firms, even with software.
Questions
Testing (JUnit) and then redesigning some Java math function library to use interfaces.
How many ways to permute coins, and then what if you can rotate the positions of the coins?
Group interview about how to implement some network strategy.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the DRW Software Engineering role in North Chicago, Illinois.
Success Rate
DRW's interview process for their Software Engineering roles in North Chicago, Illinois is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having mixed feelings for DRW's Software Engineering interview process in North Chicago, Illinois.
DRW Work Experiences
- 5.0Great Perks, Comp, Highly RecommendSoftware Engineering • Current EmployeeChicago, Illinois, United StatesAugust 5, 2023Pros: Great perks and compensation. Highly recommend.Cons: None that I can think of
- 4.0Great place to workSoftware Engineering • Current EmployeeChicago, Illinois, United StatesOctober 28, 2014Pros: Great compensation, nice perks, and benefits. The job is extremely fast-paced; the organization is quite meritocratic. There's a no-BS mentality. Some of the people are extremely smart, but not all. Most people are street-smart rather than book-smart.Cons: Very hard work, minimal collaboration between groups. Occasionally this leads to issues or conflicts, but nothing serious. Really very few cons. Company lacks a strong quantitative culture. It retains the old floor trading mentality, although the quality of software engineers is very high.
- 2.0Decent Peers, Green ManagementSoftware Engineering • Current EmployeeNew York, New York, United StatesDecember 20, 2013Pros: Partners are decent and upstanding people.Cons: Management is very green. The tech and trading teams are quite bloated; they can do with less than half the people. They are not entrepreneurial. The problem is they worry about school brand names and hire people who are happy to play around with technology but don't really produce any new businesses. You can tell. People hang around there for above-average pay and low stress, but I wouldn't consider it a trading firm in the real sense of the word.
DRW Interview Questions
