Quant interview prep guides

Analyst Estimates Data Interview Guide

Analyst estimates data interview guide covering consensus, revisions, timestamps, survivorship, surprises, examples, and caveats.

Candidates using revisions, consensus estimates, or surprise signals.

Estimate data is revision-heavy

Analyst estimates change over time, so consensus, dispersion, revision direction, and surprise must be measured point in time.

Publication timestamps matter

A backtest should know when each estimate was published, when consensus changed, and whether the revision was available before trading.

Concrete example

Using final consensus for a historical earnings date can leak later analyst revisions into the past and inflate surprise signals.

Coverage is not uniform

Large companies may have many analysts while smaller names have sparse coverage, creating selection and liquidity effects.

Common mistakes

Candidates often treat consensus as a static number. Estimate data is a time series with revisions, coverage changes, and lags.

Practice the pattern

Use the LeetQuidity curriculum and calibration to turn this topic into a focused practice plan.