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TL;DR

Power of a Test and Sample Size Determination: A canonical quantitative trading interview question at intermediate difficulty. Commonly asked at Two Sigma, Citadel, DE Shaw, AQR.

By Valenke Exam Prep Team·Last updated 2026-06-01
intermediateStatistical Inference & Estimation

Power of a Test and Sample Size Determination

Asked at: Two Sigma, Citadel, DE Shaw, AQR

Problem
A trading strategy has unknown mean daily return μ\mu with known standard deviation σ=0.01\sigma = 0.01 (1%). You observe nn days. Test H0:μ=0H_0: \mu = 0 vs H1:μ=0.001H_1: \mu = 0.001 (10 bps/day) at significance α=0.05\alpha = 0.05. How many days nn do you need for 80% power?

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