In this conversation with Raghav, we dive into his journey from JEE prep to becoming a software engineer in the fast-paced world of High-Frequency Trading (HFT). He shares how his early love for computers, influenced by his dad, led him to pursue software engineering. We explore his thoughts on HFT—what it is, and why HFT jobs are such a hard nut to crack. Raghav also opens up about his college experience, exploring machine learning projects, internships, and competitive coding.
WORK
Role at the company
Software Engineer
Working at
HRT
Location
London, UK
EDUCATION
Studied from
IIITD, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology
Graduated with
B.Tech Computer Science
Subjects in 12th
Physics
Maths
Chemistry
Let's kick things off with the basics—what exactly is High-Frequency Trading (HFT)? I know it's a huge deal, but how would you explain it to someone who doesn't know? (For anyone who hasn't heard of it, from the outside it sounds like a very high paying job, with a lot of pressure)
Sure! So, unlike people manually buying and selling stocks, in HFT, computers make those decisions. The stock market works the same way—people can make or lose money—but the difference is that computers are insanely fast. They can make trades in milliseconds. To give you an idea, an HFT system could potentially make a billion trades in just one second! My job is to build the platform that handles these trades, and speed is everything. The faster we make decisions and place orders, the more money we can earn. That’s why HFT is such a big deal—being quicker than everyone else can lead to huge profits.
And if this sounds jargon to you, it's okay. I did not know about HFTs until college.
What’s the work-life balance like in HFT? Do you still find time for yourself?
Initially, it was pretty hectic. I had to work late nights and even weekends just to get things done. But as I got more experienced, it got way better. Now, I usually finish my work during office hours and have my evenings and weekends free.
So, how was your journey to get here—starting with JEE prep? Was it tough?
Yeah, it was tough but manageable. I did a lot of practice tests with time limits to build stamina and get used to working under pressure. It was all about hard work, but I knew I could push myself to get through it. I got a decent rank and then when it came to choosing college, I knew IIIT-D had a good curriculum, so I joined it.
And what made you choose software engineering in the first place?
I’ve been into computers since I was a kid. My dad’s a software engineer, so we always had a computer at home. I remember using Word to write essays in 1st grade, messing around with settings for fun. By 6th grade, I found a C programming book at home—one of my dad’s—and started learning the basics during summer vacation. Then, a friend of mine who went to a summer camp at Stanford told me about an online Java course from there, and I took it. By 10th grade, I was pretty comfortable with coding and knew this was what I wanted to do.
So, you knew early on that coding was your thing. How was college after that?
College was a mixed bag. At first, I actually thought I’d become a professor because I loved algorithms more than building websites. But that dream faded when I asked a professor for an internship, and he said no. In my second year, machine learning (ML) was all the rage—everyone was getting into it, so I did too. I did a project with a professor on machine vision, but it wasn’t great.
Then, in my third year, I started applying for internships abroad—in Europe, Singapore, wherever I could. I didn’t get in, but that’s when I learned about HFT. Some of my friends were applying there, and I found out it was even harder to get into than Google or Microsoft. So, I started preparing, and in my final year, I landed a role at HRT, a top HFT firm.
That’s awesome! Do you think your college helped you prepare for all this?
Definitely. We had an amazing Competitive Programming (CP) club where everyone was really dedicated to improving their coding skills. Being part of that environment really pushed me to work harder and get better.
Thank you for sharing — we'll post your story on our website and if anybody has more questions, they will schedule a call with you.
