April 29, 2025
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This guide explains our recruiting and interview process for early career engineers.
When you join Citadel Engineering, you become part of a global group with offices in New York, London and other major financial centers. Our most successful colleagues have a few traits in common:
Our approach is practical and oriented towards problem-solving. If you face a setback, say so! Our culture is built on collaboration and we want to iterate with you.
Don’t be afraid to spend time assessing a problem before jumping to a solution or writing code. Defining the problem is as important as solving it, we invite you to share your thought process. Discuss trade-offs among different possible approaches. Be clear about what you know and what you don’t know.
We want you to succeed! If you get stuck, ask questions and take hints.
Our recruiting process is designed to give you an opportunity to meet engineers from some of the teams you might work with. We want you to get a sense of the work we do, and we also want to hear about your professional experiences and ambitions. There are six steps in the process—typically, it takes about eight weeks from start to finish.
Note that you will not be interviewing for a position on a specific team until the end of the process. This is so we can learn more about your strengths and interests before matching you with a possible role. Know that we are interested in learning about YOU, not your employer. We expect that you will fully comply with all obligations you owe to your current and prior employers, and not disclose any confidential information during the recruiting process.
The process may begin with a 30-minute call during which a recruiter will share information about Citadel and our engineering roles. You can use this opportunity to discuss your background and career motivations, and to ask questions about the firm, our teams, and the NXT network for early career engineers.
Within a few days, you may be asked to complete a HackerRank assessment. This includes multiple-choice and true/false technical questions and one free coding question in a language of your choice. You’ll have to complete the assessment in one sitting, so be sure to set aside the time outlined on the assessment invite.
Next, we’ll schedule a technical interview. The interview will run for about an hour via Zoom, so be sure you’re camera ready!
Prior to the interview, we will send you a CoderPad link. If it’s been a while since you programmed in CoderPad over Zoom, we recommend practicing with a friend before the interview. Our core programming languages are Python, C++, and Java.
During the technical interview, we’ll focus on coding, data structures, algorithms and problem solving.
While you’re programming, your interviewer may ask you to explain your approach. These aren’t trick questions or gotchas! We just want to learn more about your strategy and process. If anything about a question is unclear, you can always ask your interviewer to explain.
Your interviewer will also want to learn more about your technical interests, topics you’ve found stimulating in your current work, and your reasons for exploring opportunities at Citadel.
This stage of the process consists of two one-hour technical interviews. When possible, we encourage you to come to our offices and complete these as in-person meetings. We can also arrange virtual sessions.
During the onsite technical interviews, we’ll explore your knowledge of coding, data structures, algorithms and system design topics, using CoderPad to solve problems collaboratively.
At this point, your recruiter will realign with you on your interests. This is a chance to express what matters most to you in your work and team, so please let us know about your preferences, including location.
You will then meet with a hiring manager on one of our teams. During this interview, you will have the opportunity to elaborate on your professional achievements, learnings, and career motivations. You may also explore a technical problem that dives deeper into role-specific skills not yet assessed. Your recruiter will provide the specific focus of this interview before the call.
Following the hiring manager call, you will meet with a senior engineering leader. This is an opportunity for you to ask questions and learn more about their part of the organization, as well as for them to learn more about you so you can determine if there’s a mutual match.
Congratulations—you have reached the final step of the process! At this point, you will meet with your recruiter to discuss proposed terms, benefits, and to request additional required information—including references. Once completed, your offer will be routed for approval. If you have any questions about the details of your offer, your recruiter can answer them. We look forward to you becoming our next extraordinary colleague!
