The trade lifecycle questions that actually decide middle office interviews, from someone who asked them for ten years
I've sat on the interviewer side for trade support seats at several of the seven banks I've worked at. Securities lending, Delta One, prime brokerage, OTC equity swaps. The prep advice I see for these roles is mostly wrong, so here are the questions that actually separate offers from rejections.
Everyone preps "walk me through the lifecycle of a trade" and recites the same five steps: execution, capture, confirmation, settlement, reconciliation. That answer gets you nothing. It's the entry ticket. The real interview starts one level down.
- "Your book shows 40,000 shares more than the custodian at 7am. What do you check first?" Nobody is listening for the right answer, they're listening for a sequence. Trade date versus settlement date positions, late bookings, failed settlements, corporate action timing, then a partial fill booked flat. Candidates who name any sensible order pass. Candidates who freeze because nobody gave them a script fail.
2. "A confirm went out with the wrong rate on a swap reset. Who do you tell, in what order?" This is an escalation question wearing a technical costume. Desk first, because the economics are wrong and they may be hedging off bad numbers. Then the counterparty. Then your own chain. Candidates who say "my manager" first read as juniors who will need supervising forever.
3. "Why does this job exist?" The blunt version of the risk question. The answer is not "to support the traders". The answer is that every unmatched trade, unconfirmed swap and unexplained break is unmeasured risk the bank is carrying without knowing it. Say that and you sound senior on day one.
What we never cared about: option pricing, brainteasers, target schools. I hired people from call centres who could explain a settlement fail cleanly over finance grads who knew the Greeks but had no idea what happens after the fill.
If you're interviewing for one of these seats, ask below and I'll go through any of it.
