Order Types Quant Interview Guide
Order types quant interview guide covering market orders, limit orders, stops, IOC/FOK instructions, hidden orders, examples, and tradeoffs.
Candidates discussing how trading instructions affect fills and costs.
Order type defines execution instructions
An order type tells the venue how price, quantity, timing, visibility, and cancellation conditions should be handled during execution.
Market orders buy certainty with price risk
A market order prioritizes immediate execution but accepts available prices, so it can pay spread, walk the book, and suffer slippage.
Concrete example
If a trader must exit before an event, a market order may be reasonable despite cost because unfilled exposure is the larger risk.
Limit orders trade price control for uncertainty
A limit order caps price but may not fill, may sit behind queue, and may be selected against when informed flow trades through it.
Common mistakes
Candidates often call limit orders cheaper without discussing missed fills, queue priority, adverse selection, and opportunity cost.
Practice the pattern
Use the LeetQuidity curriculum and calibration to turn this topic into a focused practice plan.