Corporate Actions Quant Interview Guide
Corporate actions quant interview guide for splits, dividends, spinoffs, rights, adjusted prices, point-in-time data, and backtests.
Candidates handling equity data, returns, and event adjustments in quant interviews.
Corporate actions change the data
Splits, dividends, rights offerings, spinoffs, mergers, and ticker changes can affect price, shares, returns, and universe membership.
Adjusted and raw prices answer different questions
Adjusted prices help compute continuous returns, while raw prices may be needed for execution or historical market-state questions. State which one you use.
Concrete example
A two-for-one split halves the raw price and doubles shares. Without adjustment, a return calculation can mistake the split for a large loss.
Timing prevents leakage
Corporate action data should be applied as it was known at the time. Using final cleaned data can hide real-world uncertainty or create survivorship bias.
Common mistakes
Candidates often skip corporate actions in backtests. Strong answers mention adjustment factors, event dates, point-in-time data, and vendor differences.
Practice the pattern
Use the LeetQuidity curriculum and calibration to turn this topic into a focused practice plan.