Search for "quant" in India and many results are about the CAT exam. This page is about the other quant: quantitative finance, where people use probability, statistics and code to price things and manage risk in markets. The route has three parts that anyone can check: the maths, the code, and practice on real data. Indian institutes publish free material for the first two, and NSE publishes market data for the third.
In India, "quant" has two meanings. One is the aptitude section of the CAT and GMAT, which are entrance tests for business school. The other is quantitative finance: work where people use maths, statistics and code to price things and manage risk in markets. A person who does that work is called a quant. This page is about the second meaning only.
This page lists what to learn, which Indian programmes teach the maths, which free courses to use, and where to find Indian market data to practise on. Every outside page below was read on 8 November 2026. Official pages change, so open the link before you rely on a line.
Nothing here promises a job or a salary. For what some trading firms say about degrees, read getting into quant from any college.
What to learn, in order
The subjects do not change with the country.
- Probability. Probability is the maths of chance: how likely each outcome is, and what happens on average.
- Statistics. How to learn from data, and how sure you can be of what it shows.
- Linear algebra and calculus. Linear algebra is the maths of tables of numbers. Calculus is the maths of change.
- Code. Python first. It is a programming language: a way to write instructions a computer follows. Some roles add C++, a faster and stricter language.
After that, the subjects split by role. A trader, a researcher, a developer and an analyst each go a different way. The quant roadmap by role sets out each branch.
Indian programmes that teach the maths
None of the programmes below is a requirement. The first three entries (ISI, the JAM entrance test and CMI) do not name their programmes after quantitative finance. They are examples of where the maths in the list above is taught in depth.
Indian Statistical Institute (ISI). Its undergraduate programmes page lists, among others, the Bachelor of Statistics (Honours), offered only at Kolkata, and the Bachelor of Mathematics (Honours), offered only at Bengaluru. Its postgraduate programmes page lists, among others, the Master of Statistics (M Stat), the Master of Mathematics (M Math), the Master of Science in Quantitative Economics (MS (QE)) and the Master of Technology in Computer Science (M Tech (CS)). We found no ISI programme with "finance" in its name. Admissions are on the ISI admission portal.
JAM. JAM is the Joint Admission Test for Masters. Its official site calls it a gateway for admission to postgraduate programmes in science, and names IIT Kharagpur (an Indian Institute of Technology) as the institute running the current edition. Three of its seven test papers are close to this field: Mathematics, Mathematical Statistics and Economics (syllabus page).
Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI). Its admissions page lists an M.Sc. in Mathematics, an M.Sc. in Computer Science and an M.Sc. in Data Science.
Programmes with finance in the name. For example, two IITs list one each. IIT Kanpur's Department of Management Sciences runs an online master's programme, the eMasters in Quantitative Finance and Risk Management on its online learning site. IIT Madras's Department of Management Studies lists an interdisciplinary dual degree Master's in Quantitative Finance. A dual degree gives two degrees from one programme of study. Read each page for who can apply.
Many engineering degrees include calculus and linear algebra, so check the syllabus of yours. What matters past the degree is whether you can use the maths, which the next two sections are about.
Free courses from Indian institutes
NPTEL's home page calls it an initiative of the IITs and IISc (the Indian Institute of Science), funded by the Ministry of Education, and says you can learn for free. A certificate needs an exam, and the exam is optional. Two courses match the list above:
- Probability and Statistics, taught by Prof. Somesh Kumar, IIT Kharagpur.
- Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms Using Python, taught by Prof. Madhavan Mukund, Chennai Mathematical Institute.
For more free material from outside India, in order, the free quant learning path lists four steps: two university courses and two free books.
Practising on Indian market data
An Exchange is a market where buyers and sellers meet under one set of rules. NSE, the National Stock Exchange of India, is one. It publishes past market reports on its all reports page.
Past prices are what a Backtest uses. A backtest runs a fixed rule on past prices to see how it would have done. Read what a backtest is, in plain words first. Past results do not tell you the future, and a test that looks good can still be luck. This page is education only and is not advice to buy or sell anything.
In our view, a small project on real data, with the method written down, says more than a line that reads "interested in quant".
Interview practice
To practise for interviews, Thuztra Learn keeps a bank of interview questions and quant puzzles. For books, see the best books for quant interviews.
Where Thuztra Learn fits, and where it does not
Thuztra Learn is our product. It teaches the maths of quantitative finance from zero, in short lessons, starting from school maths, then probability, data and code, and then one path per role. It does not prepare you for JAM, the ISI entrance tests or the CAT. It is not a degree, and it does not place anyone in a job. Membership is a paid subscription: see what Thuztra Learn is and what it costs.
A first step from India
Open the ISI, JAM or CMI page above that is closest to where you are now. Write down one programme, or one test paper, whose syllabus covers probability. Then open the NPTEL probability course and watch its first lecture.
You know it worked if you can name the next topic on that syllabus that you do not know yet. Two things go wrong most often. The syllabus is full of words you do not know: start with what quantitative finance actually is and the beginner lessons on Thuztra Learn (called Level 0) instead. Or a page has moved: go to the institute's home page and search there.
Fine print: ISI, the IITs, CMI, NPTEL and NSE are named here only as makers of programmes, free courses and public data. They have no link to Thuztra. Education only, not advice.
In short
There is no single required route. A few programmes name quantitative finance, and none is required. The maths comes from statistics, mathematics, economics or engineering programmes, the code comes from practice, and the proof comes from work you can show. Read each official page and each job description yourself, because they change.
Terms used here
Related
The quant roadmap by role, in quantitative finance
What to learn, in order, for a quant trader, researcher, developer or analyst. One shared start, four branches, and a plain list of which steps Thuztra Learn teaches and which it does not.
Getting into quant from any college
Not from a top college? What Jane Street, Citadel Securities, Optiver and WorldQuant say on their own pages about degrees, GPA, tests and who can apply, plus what is free to practise on today.
The four quant jobs
Researcher, trader, developer and risk, described by what each actually does all day. One rule followed through all four desks, and the places where the four of them disagree.
What a backtest is, in plain words
Ten numbers, one written rule, and the whole test done by hand. Then the harder half: why a past that was kind to a rule proves very little.
More on these topics
- Quantitative finance courses compared, and how to choose one
- How to become a quant in the UK and Europe, in quantitative finance
- Quant vs data scientist, in quantitative finance
- Quant vs software engineer, and the quant developer in between
- Quantitative finance projects you can build, check and explain
Topics
- careers
- getting started
- india
- quant roles
- roadmap