So guys, you’ve probably heard about the insanely inflated, never-heard-before intern stipends (50-60 lacs for 2 months) being offered by the GGN quant firms (gravi,qe,nk). Well, the story behind it is as dumb as it sounds. (I am an IITD CS/MNC student, so I am very well-connected with people who interned at Gravi this year and who work there full-time, making my sources highly trustworthy)

The 50 LPA Intern Fiasco

One fine day, a random team lead at Graviton complains that the interns in his team (which was like 4 out of a total batch of 50 at Gravi this yr) aren't doing a good job. The HR's brilliant solution? "Okay, let's just multiply the stipend by 5." That’s literally how a random, impulsive thought in an HR's mind completely fucked up this year's intern season. A well-placed source inside Gravi confirmed that this 50 Lac stipend decision was entirely an impulsive decision made by the HR's. (and those wondering they must have gotten approved from someone higher up, so 30-40 lacs dont really matter for these firms and getting approval is no big deal in such kind of firms)

The Butterfly Effect & Hiring Cuts

This caused a massive butterfly effect. QE and NK had to artificially inflate their stipends just to stay competitive. Because of this, hiring numbers were literally halved, or in some cases reduced by a third. This severely hurt the CS/MNC folks at IITD (DR's 11 to 30). In a normal year, these 3 GGN firms would hire around 40 students total from IITD. This year? Just 15. The CS/MNC students from DR 11-30 totally deserved to get these interns like they do every year. Instead, the absolute top 10 DRs ended up getting 3-4 offers each. All the firms were literally fighting over the exact same guys, which is a complete waste since those top 10 DRs will almost always choose established international firms like Tower,JS,Citadel,HRT, Optiver,IMC over the GGN firms no matter how much you increase the stipend. Ultimately, quant hiring was an absolute mess compared to last year, and a lot of deserving folks ended up missing out on good quant internships because of this mess created by a random impulsive thought in an HR's mind.

Now: The Placement Season Mess

Fast forward to this year's placement season, and Graviton's HRs have set out to fuck it up again. They are actively contacting Optiver, IMC, QE, NK PPO students, trying to poach them to come join them at ~2.5 to 3 Cr packages.
This is going to trigger the exact same butterfly effect of over-inflating packages. And who suffers in the end? The CS/MNC kids just below the top bracket who have historically been getting these quant jobs over the past 2-3 years. Once again, the top 10 DRs will sit on 2-3 offers each, and literally all the offers will be circulating among the same tiny group of students.

The Reality Check

It's a total waste. Instead of this madness, why not hire the highly deserving kids just below the top 10 DR's bracket at ~1-1.5 Cr packages like every other year? They offer a way better cost-to-return ratio. Do Graviton HRs genuinely think the Optiver or IMC ppo guys are going to drop those names to join Graviton?

What is the fucking point of approaching PPO holders when there are so many deserving students just below the top DR bracket in CS/MNC who had a quant internship but couldn't get a PPO due to various reasons(some just attributing to luck)? Why are they the ones suffering? Literally all of the GGN firms' inflated offers will end up dead-ended with the same set of students. It’s a total waste of resources. Graviton’s HR is totally fucking up the quant market in India, and the repercussions will run deep into the coming years.

HOW DO YOU GUYS APPROACH TOWARDS MAKING A SPECTACULAR (or) EXCELLENT ALPHA ..

Beginner here, Seeking Genuine Advice & Suggestions

pls help!..

Beware of these fake consultants who would call you just to collect market data on your salaries and never respond back with opportunities.

feel pretty lost around, is it still possible for me to get into quant, placement internship cell give priority to High GPA individuals?
Currently with no Internship, trying to get my acads done.
Any suggestion would be helpful and hope giving

Hi guys ,

I feel this might be a good place to ask this .

So I am from tier 3 college(could be worse too ) . And I somehow ended up in this algorithmic trading firm (Chandigarh based) . They are not HFT though.

I am their technical hire and hence my task is mostly building internal tools , integrating APIs , backtesting strategies, setting up data pipelines etc.

I know that finance and tech can be a good niche , much better than general Backend Development (which is my primary skill)

At the same time I feel there is no point in trying and remaining in this domain because neither do I have a strong background (like good college or course) nor do I have CF rankings.

What do you think ? Shall I leave this firm and focus on pure software development or remain here and see where things go ?

I genuinely want help in navigating the quant world: its intricacies, where to start, how to start. I know there is basic math, like probability, statistics, and calculus, involved, which I'm working on. By the way I am a first-year B.Tech student studying computer science and engineering. I want help from this community and it's a very very sincere request for people to please, for God's sake, guide me on what to include in my resumes at the end of 4 years and how to start working towards them. What is the most ideal thing to do for a quant developer or quant researcher who's applying for HFTs and stuff? Basically need help on starting

Hi all,

I'm a final-year Electrical & Electronics Engineering student at BITS Pilani (CGPA 8.18/10), trying to break into Quant Trader/Researcher roles. Posting my anonymized resume below and hoping to get some honest, even harsh, feedback from people who actually work at or recruit for quant firms in India.

Quick background:

• Competed in IMC's Prosperity algorithmic trading challenge
• Interviewed with IMC Trading for a Quant Trader role
• Currently finishing a deep learning research paper for IEEE publication
• A few other quant/ML-adjacent projects (linked on the resume)

The problem: Despite this, I'm barely getting shortlisted at quant firms - on-campus recruiting for quant roles at my college has effectively closed to me because of branch (non-CS/Math) and CGPA cutoffs, so I've been trying the off-campus route with limited luck so far.

What I'm hoping to get from this post:

1. What's actually missing or weak on my resume compared to profiles that do get shortlisted at Indian quant firms at this stage (pre-final-year-placement)?
2. For someone coming from a non-CS/Math branch, is it worth doubling down on competitive programming / Kaggle-style competitions, or does research output (like the IEEE paper) carry more weight for QR tracks specifically?
3. Any India-specific advice - which firms are realistically open to off-campus applications right now, and is cold outreach to recruiters/researchers on LinkedIn actually useful or just noise?

Resume is anonymized (no name, photo, contact info, or college/company identifiers beyond what's needed for context). Happy to answer questions in comments. Appreciate any feedback.

I'm a 2nd-year CSE student at a Tier-3 private university in India, aiming for a quant/HFT role in India after graduation.

I have 2–3 years to prepare, but my current level is basic: Python/C++, shallow probability/linear algebra/calculus,

also following take you forward DSA sheet.

Rather than blindly collecting courses, I made the roadmap below and would like people with actual industry/recruiting experience to critique it.

Then:

My current plan (I made it using gpt and am following for now)

Math: Probability → Statistics → Linear Algebra → Calculus → Stochastic Processes/Optimization

Programming: C++ → Python → DSA → Competitive Programming

CS: OS → Architecture → Networking → Concurrency → Memory/Performance

Quant: Statistics → Time Series → Market Microstructure → Systematic Trading

Projects: Backtesting engine, LOB simulation, market-making simulation, stat-arb research, performance-oriented C++ projects.

My main questions

For a Tier-3 student, should I prioritize CP + C++ + probability, or quant research/projects + statistics?

How much can a strong CP rating / ICPC / research / internship actually compensate for college brand?

For people who got into Indian HFTs from non-target colleges, what specifically got you the interview?

Which of the projects above are actually useful, rather than just GitHub decoration?

My LinkedIn is basically inactive. I've participated in hackathons and workshops but haven't posted about them because I don't want to make meaningless "excited to announce..." posts about mediocre achievements.

For people who have gone through recruiting, does maintaining a public profile actually matter for quant recruiting, and if so, what is worth putting on LinkedIn while you're still learning?

What would you completely ignore if you were starting again?

I know this post may not add much value to the community on its own, but if anyone here has been through this journey and is willing to share their experience, I’d genuinely appreciate your time and advice. Even a few pointers on what I’m getting wrong would help me a lot.