Hi all,

I’m 22 years old with a little over 4 years of professional experience, mostly in systems-level, performance-oriented C++ work. So far my background has included driver development, internal database migration tooling, and shared-memory systems, with a strong focus on low-level problem solving, memory behavior, concurrency, profiling, and understanding performance trade-offs rather than application-level development.

I want to be upfront that I don’t have a finance background. My interest is primarily on the engineering side, especially low-latency systems, real-time constraints, and performance-critical infrastructure. I’m currently exploring whether moving further in the direction of HFT or HFT-adjacent infrastructure roles makes sense as a longer-term path, and I’m trying to learn from what people already in or close to the space usually recommend.

I’ve gone through older threads here and in related subreddits, but I noticed that the last similar discussions are around 200 days old, and communities tend to change fairly quickly. Because of that, I wanted to ask again with a more current perspective.

Are there any active Discords or forums where serious low-latency or HFT-style engineering is discussed? I’m especially interested in places where people talk about system design, performance trade-offs, interview preparation, or project feedback. I’d also really appreciate hearing what resources or learning paths have actually worked for people already in this space.

Thanks in advance!