Software Engineer - C++
Posted Aug 18, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
About your past
Tell me about a time you disagreed with a trader or another non-engineer about how a feature should work. How did that get resolved?
What they are checking: ability to collaborate with domain experts who aren't engineers and hold their own technically
Give me an example of a project you owned end to end, from design through delivery. Where did it almost go off the rails and how did you keep it on track?
What they are checking: ownership and follow-through on projects without heavy oversight
Tell me about a code review where you pushed back on someone's design, or someone pushed back on yours. What happened?
What they are checking: how they handle technical disagreement and whether they can take or give critical feedback constructively
Trading systems fail in ways that cost real money fast. Tell me about a time you made a mistake in production or almost did. What did you learn from it?
What they are checking: honesty, awareness of stakes, and whether they build safeguards after mistakes instead of just moving on
What would you do
You have a Linux service that's suddenly showing higher tail latency in production. Walk me through how you'd track that down.
What they are checking: systematic debugging skill under production pressure and familiarity with Linux performance tooling
If a market is moving fast and your system needs to react within microseconds, but the correct answer also requires a somewhat expensive calculation, how do you think about that tradeoff?
What they are checking: understanding of speed versus correctness tradeoffs specific to trading systems
Describe a time you had to fix a bug in a system you didn't originally write, under time pressure. How did you approach understanding the code first?
What they are checking: ability to ramp up quickly on unfamiliar, mission-critical code without breaking things
About the work
Walk me through a low-latency C++ service you built or worked on. What made latency hard, and what did you do about it?
What they are checking: real depth of experience with performance-sensitive systems, not just familiarity with the term
What is the difference between move semantics and copy semantics in modern C++, and where have you used move semantics to fix a real performance problem?
What they are checking: whether the candidate actually understands C++20/23 features rather than listing them on a resume
Tell me about a time you used template metaprogramming to solve a problem. Why was that the right tool instead of a simpler approach?
What they are checking: depth versus overuse of advanced C++ features and judgment about when complexity is worth it
How would you design a multi-threaded order book that many threads need to read and occasionally update, with correctness and speed both mattering?
What they are checking: grasp of concurrency primitives, contention tradeoffs, and whether they default to locks without thinking about alternatives
Describe a project where you used Python alongside C++. What was each language doing and why did you split it that way?
What they are checking: practical judgment about tool selection, not just resume-listed skills
Explain how you'd design a distributed component that needs to stay consistent across multiple machines even if one goes down.
What they are checking: understanding of distributed systems fundamentals beyond a single-process mindset
What's a piece of object-oriented design you're proud of, and what would you change if you rebuilt it today?
What they are checking: maturity in design thinking and honest self-critique rather than defensiveness about past work
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As published by Akuna Capital.