10 IMC Trading Software Engineer (New Grad) Interview Questions (2026)

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STAR. Pick a real disagreement — design choice, technology selection, etc. Show: how you presented your view, listened to theirs, reached a resolution, what you learned. IMC values collaborative culture — show you can hold a position without being combative.

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Specific reasons: profit-sharing comp structure across the firm, collaborative culture (less individualistic than US competitors), global presence with rotation opportunities, strong derivatives focus. Reference IMC's Amsterdam HQ if you have international interest. Avoid 'high pay' as the lead.

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Two approaches: (1) Hash map of original to clone, two passes — first create clones, second wire up next and random pointers. O(n) time, O(n) space. (2) Interleave approach — insert clone after each original; copy random pointers via originals; then unweave. O(n) time, O(1) extra space. Walk through one approach.

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Track max_ending_here AND min_ending_here at each position (because a large negative times another negative can flip to a large positive). For each element: new_max = max(num, num·prev_max, num·prev_min); new_min = min similarly. Update global max. O(n) time, O(1) space. Walk through example with negatives.

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Each node has children map and is_end flag. Insert: walk path creating nodes as needed; mark is_end at last. Search: walk path; return is_end of last node. Prefix search: walk path; return true if reached without failing. O(L) per operation where L is word length. Walk through with code.

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Recursive helper that returns height if balanced or -1 if not. For each node: compute left and right heights; if either is -1 or difference > 1, return -1; else return max + 1. O(n) time, O(h) space. Walk through. Naive approach of recomputing heights is O(n^2) — mention this.

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Include: brings full definition. Forward declaration: just declares a name without full definition. Use forward declaration when you only need the type as a pointer or reference — reduces compilation dependencies (faster builds, fewer recompile cascades). Cannot use forward declared type's members or size without full definition. Discuss in context of headers — header files should minimize includes.

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Several uses: (1) const variable — value can't change after init. (2) const pointer (T* const) vs pointer to const (const T*). (3) const member function — promises not to modify state. (4) const reference parameter — caller's data won't be modified, can bind to rvalues. Walk through each with examples. Discuss why const-correctness matters in trading code (prevent accidental state mutations).

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Shallow: copies pointer values, both objects share underlying memory. Deep: copies the underlying memory too, fully independent. In C++, default copy constructor is shallow for raw pointers — leads to double-free bugs. Rule of three: if you need a destructor, you usually need a copy constructor and copy assignment. Rule of five with move. Smart pointers (unique_ptr, shared_ptr) handle this automatically.

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Components: (1) Strategy logic decides what to trade. (2) Risk pre-check (in-line, microseconds). (3) Order router selects venue and protocol. (4) Network: kernel-bypass NIC, dedicated socket per venue. (5) Post-trade: confirmation handling, fill processing. Discuss critical path: keep it short, avoid allocations, cache-friendly data layout. Trade-off: speed vs flexibility.