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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
easyAtomic Price PublishereasyScoped Lock Portfolio UpdateeasyCooperative Queue CancellationeasyCondition Variable Event QueueeasyThread Local Volume AccumulatoreasyLow-Latency Order SignaleasyAtomic Flag Spin-WaiteasyCooperative Thread Cancellation with jthreadmediumFuture/Promise Async PricingmediumCounting Semaphore ThrottlemediumFixed Thread Pool ExecutormediumAtomic Shared Pointer ConfigmediumBarrier Phase SynchronizationmediumShared Mutex for Read-Heavy DatamediumDeadlock-Free Account TransfermediumLatch-Based Service StartupmediumTry-Lock Spinlock with TimeoutmediumThread Affinity and Core IsolationmediumFalse Sharing BenchmarkmediumBounded Producer-Consumer QueuemediumTest-and-Test-and-Set SpinlockmediumOnce-Flag Singleton InitmediumAtomic Fetch-Add StatisticsmediumAdaptive Spinlock Backoff StrategyhardRCU Configuration ManagerhardABA Problem: Lock-Free StackhardSeqlock: Optimistic Concurrency ControlhardLock-Free Stack ImplementationhardWork-Stealing DequehardDouble-Buffer Atomic SwaphardHazard Pointer ReclamationhardLock-Free MPSC QueuehardEpoch-Based Memory ReclamationhardRelaxed Atomic Stats CounterhardSPSC Lock-Free Ring BufferhardDisruptor Pattern: SPSC Ring Buffervery hardLeft-Right Concurrency Patternvery hardWait-Free SPSC Queuevery hardFlat Combining Order Book
View all 39 concurrency questionsRelated topics