Squarepoint Capital

Data Engineer Interview Experience - New York, New York

December 1, 2016

Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

This was for the position of a data engineer in their core data group. Skills with Python and some C++ are expected. The interviewer began by telling me about the company. Next, he discussed my experience at my most recent two positions. After this, he proceeded with a technical interview on CoderPad. I recommend practicing various dynamic programming questions using recursive solutions.

Questions

Write a function to compute and return the number of ways in which to climb a flight of n steps, taking 1, 2 or 3 steps at a time.

Using Python, write a one-liner function to return a list containing only the unique elements of the given list. Order doesn't matter.

Next, write a function to return an order-preserving list containing only the unique elements of the given list.

Explain the Python GIL.

In Python, what is the difference between a generator expression and a list comprehension?

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Squarepoint Capital Data Engineer role in New York, New York.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Squarepoint Capital's interview process for their Data Engineer roles in New York, New York is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive100%

Neutral0%

Negative0%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Squarepoint Capital's Data Engineer interview process in New York, New York.

Squarepoint Capital Work Experiences

Like working at University

Data Engineer • Former Employee

London, United Kingdom

November 26, 2024

Pros: The company offers great benefits, lunch, and healthcare.

Cons: Final say is often coming from outside of London

Like working at University

Data Engineer • Former Employee

London, United Kingdom

November 26, 2024

Pros: The company offers great benefits, lunch, and healthcare.

Cons: Final say is often coming from outside of London

nice place to work at

Data Engineer • Current Employee

Montreal, Canada

November 17, 2022

Pros: Nice place to work at; free lunches, nice project, nice manager.

Cons: The development environment is very bad. Xforwarding application GUI; directly coming out of the 70ies.

nice place to work at

Data Engineer • Current Employee

Montreal, Canada

November 17, 2022

Pros: Nice place to work at; free lunches, nice project, nice manager.

Cons: The development environment is very bad. Xforwarding application GUI; directly coming out of the 70ies.

A good place to start in finance, but don't stay

Software Engineer • Current Employee

London, United Kingdom

November 27, 2021

Pros: Speaking as someone who was in the Technology side: - SquarePoint hires a lot of post-graduate developers, it's a really nice entrance to Finance and Electronic trading. - (This hugely depends on the team you are in) You would get involved immediately by doing tickets, this gives you the opportunity to learn from practice. - A lot of offices and a company growing fast. The company is making a name for itself (Although now not for the good reasons). - The only company that I know of that would contribute 10% to your pension.

Cons: Squarepoint used to be a very nice company that had many good advantages while expanding, however it got very bad during the Covid period. I wouldn't recommend to anyone that isn't a Junior. If I had to sum-up the biggest negative points: - Working 50 hours a week during first lockdown. - Squarepoint decided that the second wave (September 2020 and onward) of Covid that the lockdown "didn't applied" to them and began constantly harassing their employees to come to the office 4 days a week. A lot of people felt uncomfortable to ask personal "exemption" to this new policy. Middle-management *strangely* didn't step into the office for another half-year. - The period of bonus and raise after Covid was terrible all-across the board. Some people even got close to nothing while this year was the second best of the company. - Middle-management seems to have issues with reporting to upper-management (I'm saying *seems* because some people are very good at it! And I hope you'll get to work with them). The solution from the upper-management was to enforce more engineers/middle-management meetings, which was just you and your manager reading the same 5 bullet-points quarterly. - Progression internally is very difficult if there is no specific opening. I personally wasn't looking for it. - Squarepoint salaries, bonuses, and benefits are not competitive anymore. They are desperately trying to hire people to make up for all the people that left after Covid (reasons I explained above). If you wish to try a finance company/enjoy the pay bump for your career, go for it, but don't expect to stick in Squarepoint.

A good place to start in finance, but don't stay

Software Engineer • Current Employee

London, United Kingdom

November 27, 2021

Pros: Speaking as someone who was in the Technology side: - SquarePoint hires a lot of post-graduate developers, it's a really nice entrance to Finance and Electronic trading. - (This hugely depends on the team you are in) You would get involved immediately by doing tickets, this gives you the opportunity to learn from practice. - A lot of offices and a company growing fast. The company is making a name for itself (Although now not for the good reasons). - The only company that I know of that would contribute 10% to your pension.

Cons: Squarepoint used to be a very nice company that had many good advantages while expanding, however it got very bad during the Covid period. I wouldn't recommend to anyone that isn't a Junior. If I had to sum-up the biggest negative points: - Working 50 hours a week during first lockdown. - Squarepoint decided that the second wave (September 2020 and onward) of Covid that the lockdown "didn't applied" to them and began constantly harassing their employees to come to the office 4 days a week. A lot of people felt uncomfortable to ask personal "exemption" to this new policy. Middle-management *strangely* didn't step into the office for another half-year. - The period of bonus and raise after Covid was terrible all-across the board. Some people even got close to nothing while this year was the second best of the company. - Middle-management seems to have issues with reporting to upper-management (I'm saying *seems* because some people are very good at it! And I hope you'll get to work with them). The solution from the upper-management was to enforce more engineers/middle-management meetings, which was just you and your manager reading the same 5 bullet-points quarterly. - Progression internally is very difficult if there is no specific opening. I personally wasn't looking for it. - Squarepoint salaries, bonuses, and benefits are not competitive anymore. They are desperately trying to hire people to make up for all the people that left after Covid (reasons I explained above). If you wish to try a finance company/enjoy the pay bump for your career, go for it, but don't expect to stick in Squarepoint.

Like working at University

Data Engineer • Former Employee

London, United Kingdom

November 26, 2024

Pros: The company offers great benefits, lunch, and healthcare.

Cons: Final say is often coming from outside of London

3.0
Like working at University
Data Engineer • Former Employee
London, United Kingdom
November 26, 2024
Pros: The company offers great benefits, lunch, and healthcare.
Cons: Final say is often coming from outside of London

nice place to work at

Data Engineer • Current Employee

Montreal, Canada

November 17, 2022

Pros: Nice place to work at; free lunches, nice project, nice manager.

Cons: The development environment is very bad. Xforwarding application GUI; directly coming out of the 70ies.

4.0
nice place to work at
Data Engineer • Current Employee
Montreal, Canada
November 17, 2022
Pros: Nice place to work at; free lunches, nice project, nice manager.
Cons: The development environment is very bad. Xforwarding application GUI; directly coming out of the 70ies.

A good place to start in finance, but don't stay

Software Engineer • Current Employee

London, United Kingdom

November 27, 2021

Pros: Speaking as someone who was in the Technology side: - SquarePoint hires a lot of post-graduate developers, it's a really nice entrance to Finance and Electronic trading. - (This hugely depends on the team you are in) You would get involved immediately by doing tickets, this gives you the opportunity to learn from practice. - A lot of offices and a company growing fast. The company is making a name for itself (Although now not for the good reasons). - The only company that I know of that would contribute 10% to your pension.

Cons: Squarepoint used to be a very nice company that had many good advantages while expanding, however it got very bad during the Covid period. I wouldn't recommend to anyone that isn't a Junior. If I had to sum-up the biggest negative points: - Working 50 hours a week during first lockdown. - Squarepoint decided that the second wave (September 2020 and onward) of Covid that the lockdown "didn't applied" to them and began constantly harassing their employees to come to the office 4 days a week. A lot of people felt uncomfortable to ask personal "exemption" to this new policy. Middle-management *strangely* didn't step into the office for another half-year. - The period of bonus and raise after Covid was terrible all-across the board. Some people even got close to nothing while this year was the second best of the company. - Middle-management seems to have issues with reporting to upper-management (I'm saying *seems* because some people are very good at it! And I hope you'll get to work with them). The solution from the upper-management was to enforce more engineers/middle-management meetings, which was just you and your manager reading the same 5 bullet-points quarterly. - Progression internally is very difficult if there is no specific opening. I personally wasn't looking for it. - Squarepoint salaries, bonuses, and benefits are not competitive anymore. They are desperately trying to hire people to make up for all the people that left after Covid (reasons I explained above). If you wish to try a finance company/enjoy the pay bump for your career, go for it, but don't expect to stick in Squarepoint.

2.0
A good place to start in finance, but don't stay
Software Engineer • Current Employee
London, United Kingdom
November 27, 2021
Pros: Speaking as someone who was in the Technology side: - SquarePoint hires a lot of post-graduate developers, it's a really nice entrance to Finance and Electronic trading. - (This hugely depends on the team you are in) You would get involved immediately by doing tickets, this gives you the opportunity to learn from practice. - A lot of offices and a company growing fast. The company is making a name for itself (Although now not for the good reasons). - The only company that I know of that would contribute 10% to your pension.
Cons: Squarepoint used to be a very nice company that had many good advantages while expanding, however it got very bad during the Covid period. I wouldn't recommend to anyone that isn't a Junior. If I had to sum-up the biggest negative points: - Working 50 hours a week during first lockdown. - Squarepoint decided that the second wave (September 2020 and onward) of Covid that the lockdown "didn't applied" to them and began constantly harassing their employees to come to the office 4 days a week. A lot of people felt uncomfortable to ask personal "exemption" to this new policy. Middle-management *strangely* didn't step into the office for another half-year. - The period of bonus and raise after Covid was terrible all-across the board. Some people even got close to nothing while this year was the second best of the company. - Middle-management seems to have issues with reporting to upper-management (I'm saying *seems* because some people are very good at it! And I hope you'll get to work with them). The solution from the upper-management was to enforce more engineers/middle-management meetings, which was just you and your manager reading the same 5 bullet-points quarterly. - Progression internally is very difficult if there is no specific opening. I personally wasn't looking for it. - Squarepoint salaries, bonuses, and benefits are not competitive anymore. They are desperately trying to hire people to make up for all the people that left after Covid (reasons I explained above). If you wish to try a finance company/enjoy the pay bump for your career, go for it, but don't expect to stick in Squarepoint.

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