Prop Trading or Investment Banking, Which is harder to break into?

mountainvalleyNot sure where you saw that getting into prop trading was a cake-walk (?) ... I've had interviews for IBD and prop trading and will say without doubt that the prop questions were far more advanced and difficult (think linear algebra, probability, matrices, etc...).

Though I agree that most prop trading interviews are tougher and more technical, I think I see the source of OP's confusion. It ultimately comes down to numbers. When people talk about IBD on this site, they generally refer to bulge brackets, and talk about how competitive it is just to get a phone interview without OCR. On the other hand, it seems like every other week there's a post on here from a nontarget kid with a title "Got an offer/interview at [no-name or rip-off propshop], anyone heard of them?". There are obviously a lot fewer BBs than there are T3-style propshops, and because OP can't distinguish between Getco and a rip-off shop (as Working9-5 refers to above), it seems like prop trading is easier to break into.

To offer my 2 cents of OP's question, no valuable career move is easy to get. If it's a good career starter, it will be hard to get, regardless of the industry (banking, prop trading, etc)