Should you learn the "obtuse" niche coding language paying $700k+ in finance?

13 June 2024

3 minute read

Should you learn the "obtuse" niche coding language paying $700k+ in finance?

We recently revealed that SQL is the most frequently requested language in financial services in 2024. If you're not a fan, there's another, more niche language for databases with the potential to pay very well... but it's a double-edged sword.

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Q, the programming language for KDB databases, is a niche skill with niche demand. There are just 32 openings mentioning KDB on eFinancialCareers, but roles have the potential to pay up to $770.6k. It's used by many major institutions like Deutsche Bank and hedge fund Millennium.

So is it worth learning this niche language? Perhaps not. On HackerNews, a disgruntled KDB user in financial services recently aired some grievances with the language.

The developer, who uses Rust to price options calls Q "a language with origins so obtuse that its progenitor, APL, needed a custom keyboard laden with mathematical symbols." They say KDB and Q are very inefficient for complex data, and that they find themselves needing to do "engineering work for trivial things."

The hedge fund engineer also says that it is precisely KDB's obtuse nature that makes people in finance love it. They say, "adding complexity is one way to build a fortress around their job." Because KDB engineers are so hard to hire, they're also hard to fire. It's not perfect for incumbent KDB engineers, either. If they're hard to hire... their jobs are also hard to leave.

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AUTHORAlex McMurray Reporter

Bi
Bismarck
4 September 2024
It's not that obtuse - q follows a logical structure that (quite deliberately) prioritise speed over user-fuckupabilitiness, which is why most junior coders just want to doodle in a workflow diagram and then get a load of python to do the obvious.
Z80A - now that's a language for MEN
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ja
janon
17 June 2024
"engineering work for trivial things."
That's funny coming from a RUST developer.

Add 10 to a list in q?
10 + 2 4 5 6 7

Add 10 to a list in Rust?
let bar = vec![2, 4, 5, 6, 7]; bar.into_iter().map(|x| x + 10).collect();
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Do
DoubtingThomas
13 June 2024
KDB is indeed very fast, or can be, once the code (or more accurately, scripts) is running. However, getting to that point often requires a huge amount of effort. The experts now all seem to do consulting, rather than be full time employees - maybe as a consequence of the very niche skills they provide.
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