CS
Credit Suisse Group
stock NYSE

Hi everyone,
I have a phone interview later this week for the LEAP Software Engineer position and was wondering if anyone here has been through the program and could share what the interview process is like.
For some background, I’m a recent CS graduate with one software engineering internship and a few ML/AI projects. I noticed they’re hiring a cohort of new grads, so I’m hoping that works in my favor. The 10-week training program is also a big reason I’m interested in the role.
Is there more to the interview process after the initial phone screen? Also, I haven’t done much LeetCode or DSA practice in over a year, so I’m a little nervous about how technical the interviews are. Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated!

I use ToS and have since b4 Sosnoff sold it to TD Ameritrade, ie, since 2008 or so. Now I have just an unfunded account with Schwab, which I use for analytics & charting. Kudos to Schwab for allowing full use of ToS (including support) for non-funded accounts.
I have settled into using ETrade. I have been there since around 2000. They have improved a lot since being acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2020. In the year or so b4 the sale, they were sucking pretty bad. Really weird and haphazard approach to margin. Awful customer service. In the last 5 years, though, they have tightened up.
In my 15+ yr history with various options brokers, (IBKR, tasty, TDA, finally Etrade) one thing that has been somewhat irksome is how different brokers calculate margin requirements. You'd think this would be somewhat standardized, but it's not. And they can require whatever they want. All I ask for is transparency and consistency. Once you get that and understand what they are doing & what to expect, you need not suffer thru any margin problems.
ETrade has some "dedicated teams" in their customer service group. They have a dedicated team for options, futures, etc. These are people who are generally up to speed on trading and their platforms, etc. I don't need CS very often - usually just a few times a year - I might need help closing out trades, have questions about things, etc. Their CS is now pretty good.
Etrade has an API that I am trying to learn to use, but I can't vouch for it. But it looks workable.
Things I don't like about Etrade: no extended hours trading (actually, for me, this might be a blessing in disguise); I expect this will change if/when the industry goes that way en masse. Also, they have futures and futures options trading, but they make it very hard to trade futures options spreads. That's a bummer. I have tried getting them to improve that. Maybe if I had a few more zero's at the end of my acct balance, I might get somewhere.
Anyway, I know you didn't ask about Etrade, but I thought I'd testify. I'm not working for them or anything. Re: fills, I get what I expect. I mostly trade SPX, and I am always shooting either 1) a bid 5c or 10c above the mid or 2) something lower than that if I am just fishing. "Do you want the penny or the position" the old saying goes. I am not sweating 5c either way on trades that will be worth 100x that or more.

Applied Math vs. CS+Math vs. CS for Quant (QR / QT) — how do recruiters view depth vs. coding breadth (and the Master's requirement)?

So you are momentum trading? That is. Good way to lose money. If I were you, I’d sell all of it and put into index funds mostly and maybe some lower percentage in stocks I have high long term conviction and don’t plan to sell for decades and invest based on their actual financials rather than price movements.
But I’m not a financial advisor. I’m a 23 year old CS student going into his 6th year in a BA and has a part time tutoring job. So don’t take my word as gospel

I’ve been in the same situation many times. Especially with the current volatility QQQ CS, I’ve gone from 800% drawdown to expiring worthless. Also have times when diamond handing credit spreads lead to max lass and blew up my account. I’ve found that setting an alert at key levels and having a mental stop works best.

Pretty doable, dev is the most permeable door into these shops. Most junior quant dev loops are basically a hard CS interview, C++ or occasionally Python, data structures, concurrency, some systems design, and maybe one light probability question at the end. Nobody's expecting you to price an option. The bigger filter at 1 YOE is that a lot of those reqs quietly want new grads from the campus pipeline or people with 3+ years, so you're applying into a bit of a gap.

Decided I wanted to move the majority of my e-fund out of a HYSA into VUSXX for state-tax purposes. Opened an account last week and added about 2/3 of my e-fund.
When I linked my bank, it immediately logged me out. I went to sign in and it said "username or password is incorrect" - I knew it was 100% correct but I tried the recovery and it said I had to call. - They were closed the next two days. I called this morning and the lady I couldn't understand finally said something about escalating to a special department and it could take up to 72 hours for a call back.
Fast forward to now, and I get a call that says "Potential Spam" but thought I'll answer anyways. - Started with a pause (like a spam call), "ya hi this is ..." So I ended the call.
Decided to call Vanguard and come to find out it was actually them.
BLUF: They unfroze my account but what the heck kind of crap is this? How does anyone feel comfortable working with them? Apart from their CS, their website hardly functions and the app is useless.
Who's the next best option for a mutual fund for my e-fund? I really don't want to work with Vanguard anymore after all this. I already told my HYSA bank to stop the transaction.

I like how the CS is full of successful traders fighting that other people come and be successful traders by exercising risk management and using the SL

Spend all Sept applying to every quant firm in NYC. Go to every career fair, do as many on campus interviews as possible. talk to as many upper classmen and classmates that had quant internships and ask them to hook you up. talk to as many professors as possible and ask them to hook you up. Do everything possible to get a quant internship summer 2027.

In terms of classes:
* MATH-UA 333 Theory of Probability (or 338 Honors)
* MATH-UA 334 Mathematical Statistics
* MATH-UA 353 Linear and Nonlinear Optimization
* MATH-UA 352 / 358 Numerical Analysis (or leverage CS 421)
* MATH-UA 250 Mathematics of Finance
* CSCI-UA 473 Fundamentals of Machine Learning

Projects:

Build a GitHub portfolio—backtests of systematic strategies, statistical arbitrage prototypes, ML on alternative/financial data, Monte Carlo engines, optimization of portfolios under constraints. Use real data (Yahoo, Polygon, etc.), document rigorously (Sharpe, drawdowns, IC, turnover, transaction costs). Python (NumPy/Pandas/SciPy/scikit-learn/statsmodels/PyTorch) is table stakes; C++ is a plus for some firms.

good luck

How good is NYU CAS Mathematics and CS joint major

All Ivy+ and flagships of the state schools excellent in CS are in the pipeline. Good luck.

Doing a generic masters isn't going to magically solve your problems 
You should try for a ms in top notch CS or AI programme that has a better entry point or get into a FAANG
The high pay of this field is entirely due to its highly selective nature so I d only do a prestigious masters if I'm spending so much money

I’m looking at bachelor’s programmes in Continental Europe and I’d ideally like to go into quant trading later. My backup option would probably be AI/machine learning engineering.
The degree needs to be taught in English or German. Some of the programmes I’m currently considering are:
\- ETH Zurich – BSc Computer Science
\- École Polytechnique – BSc Mathematics and Computer Science
\- University of Bonn – BSc Mathematics
Is this a good shortlist to optimise for good access to internships and recruiting at firms like Jane Street, Optiver, IMC, Citadel, etc? Which universities or bachelor’s programmes would you recommend for this career path? Would Maths, Computer Science, or a combined Maths and CS degree be the best choice?
Many thanks for your help in advance!

It’s becoming much more like other traditional high income careers like finance and lawyers where pedigree matters. I think going into tech is still worth it if you are able to get into a top CS program.

CS helps but network's the real play.

Studying CS @ UPenn

The world are running out of jobs and here OP is suggesting any random guy can do 600k pa role in JS or CS.
Like why not, whats stopping u bro ?

Two different standards here :  
- Legally called a bank = has a licence  
- Consider consider it a bank = safe to put money there and provides good customre support when a problem happens.  
Neither revolut nor my main bank provides good CS. 

What do target master's programs look like for QD? Would it be better to pursue finance/financial engineering master's programs, or to go for straight CS?

I've been interested in becoming a quant dev since high school, and was wondering if I'm too stupid to break in, for lack of a better term. I'm currently a sophomore majoring in Comp E at a T20, but it's not exactly known for STEM, and we only send 1 or 2 kids to Jane Street or Citadel every year. Theoretically, if I worked really hard from now on, there's a slim chance that I may be working at an HFT firm after school, but more realistically, I would just end up speccing into skills like stochastic modelling or probability theory that I never actually get to use. I've heard that in order to break into quant, you need to be some child prodigy with multiple USACO or USAMO top placements, double major in CS and Math at a school like Stanford, Chicago, MIT, Columbia, Berkeley, or CMU, and graduate top of your class. Obviously, I'm sure they're being hyperbolic, but it makes me wonder if dudes like me, who are smart but not geniuses, have a place in quant finance?