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Coding & systems
Concurrency
Lock-free queues, atomics, memory ordering
Overview
About concurrency questions in quant interviews
Threads, atomics, memory ordering, and the lock-free data structures trading-system interviews keep returning to — the canonical quant-dev differentiator.
How to study this topic
A path that works
- 1
Start with the easy set
Warm up with the 8 easy concurrency questions. Quick wins build pattern recognition before complexity ramps.
- 2
Drill the medium tier next
16 medium questions sit in the sweet spot where most interview questions cluster. Time yourself, then redo any you missed two days later.
- 3
Stress-test on hard problems
15 hard questions simulate the on-site round. Skip looking at solutions for at least 20 minutes, then write up your approach.
The library
All 39 concurrency questions
easyCooperative Thread Cancellation with jthreadeasyCooperative Queue CancellationeasyScoped Lock Portfolio UpdateeasyThread Local Volume AccumulatoreasyAtomic Flag Spin-WaiteasyAtomic Price PublishereasyCondition Variable Event QueueeasyLow-Latency Order SignalmediumFixed Thread Pool ExecutormediumTry-Lock Spinlock with TimeoutmediumAtomic Shared Pointer ConfigmediumDeadlock-Free Account TransfermediumFuture/Promise Async PricingmediumThread Affinity and Core IsolationmediumFalse Sharing BenchmarkmediumAdaptive Spinlock Backoff StrategymediumBounded Producer-Consumer QueuemediumShared Mutex for Read-Heavy DatamediumTest-and-Test-and-Set SpinlockmediumAtomic Fetch-Add StatisticsmediumOnce-Flag Singleton InitmediumLatch-Based Service StartupmediumBarrier Phase SynchronizationmediumCounting Semaphore ThrottlehardDisruptor Pattern: SPSC Ring BufferhardEpoch-Based Memory ReclamationhardHazard Pointer ReclamationhardDouble-Buffer Atomic SwaphardABA Problem: Lock-Free StackhardLock-Free MPSC QueuehardRCU Configuration ManagerhardRelaxed Atomic Stats CounterhardSPSC Lock-Free Ring BufferhardWork-Stealing DequehardLock-Free Stack ImplementationhardSeqlock: Optimistic Concurrency Controlvery hardLeft-Right Concurrency Patternvery hardFlat Combining Order Bookvery hardWait-Free SPSC Queue
View all 39 concurrency questionsRelated topics