Quant interview prep guides

Exchange Connectivity Interview Guide

Exchange connectivity interview guide for sessions, reconnects, heartbeats, recovery, order state, market data, and operational caveats.

Candidates discussing venue connectivity and exchange-facing trading components.

Connectivity is stateful

Exchange connectivity involves sessions, authentication, heartbeats, sequence numbers, reconnect behavior, and recovery. The system must know whether it is safe to trade.

Disconnects create uncertainty

When a connection drops, orders may still be live at the venue. A careful design reconciles order and position state before resuming normal behavior.

Concrete example

After reconnecting, the system may need missed execution reports or an order status snapshot before deciding whether to replace orders.

Market data and order paths differ

A venue may have separate paths for market data and orders. Losing one path can require different risk responses than losing both.

Common mistakes

Candidates often describe a stable connection only. Interviewers may ask about reconnects, stale state, duplicate messages, and how trading is disabled during uncertainty.

Practice the pattern

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