IMC Trading Quantitative Trader Interview Guide

The short answer: IMC Trading does not publish a US-specific trader loop. Its US page lists an application, an assessment for some roles and interviews, and an IMC article featuring an APAC campus recruiter gives the fullest list: an online assessment, a behavioural interview with a recruiter, a technical interview with a trader and a final assessment day. IMC's Europe trading interview guide explains the market-making exercise and the probability topics, and says behaviour is assessed in every round, technical ones included. Candidate reports add a recorded video interview and disagree on what the online assessment looks like. IMC's Interview Code of Conduct bans AI tools in all interview assessments unless explicitly permitted. Last reviewed October 2026.

IMC Trading quantitative trader interview: quick answers

The IMC Trading quantitative trader role

What IMC Trading quantitative traders work on, the skills its job postings ask for, and what a week can look like. IMC Trading posts the role as Quantitative Trader Intern (Chicago) and Graduate Trader (open in Amsterdam and Aarhus, not the US); experienced Chicago titles include Index Options Volatility Trader, Senior Equity Options Volatility Trader, Systematic Index Options Trader and Quantitative Trading Strategist - Equity Options.

IMC Trading quantitative trader levels and pay

Your level sets the bar you are interviewed against and the pay band of the offer.

IMC does not publish a level ladder. US experienced trader postings ask for 2 or more years of options trading (3 or more for the strategist role), one carries a Senior prefix, and IMC says experienced candidates are assessed more on sector knowledge and skills.

Pay in IMC Trading's US job postings

IMC's Chicago trader postings state a base salary or base range and say each role is eligible for a discretionary bonus.

All four rows are experienced roles asking for 2 or more years (3 or more for the strategist). The Quantitative Trader Intern - Summer 2027 posting states "Base Salary: $250,000" for a 10-week internship. IMC does not label that figure as annualized, so it is not in the table. No US Graduate Trader posting was open. Ranges seen October 29, 2026.

IMC Trading quantitative trader interview process

IMC publishes no US-specific trader loop, so the stages combine its US and EU recruitment pages, an IMC careers article featuring an APAC campus recruiter, and IMC Europe's trading interview guide. The recorded video interview and what happens at each final-day station come only from candidate reports.

Based on IMC Trading's own pages and candidate reports.

IMC asks candidates to respond promptly and to share competing offer deadlines with their recruiter. Rejected campus applicants can reapply when the next recruitment season begins, with one application per role per year. Last reviewed October 2026.

What is different at IMC Trading

• In the US, the trader entry title is Quantitative Trader Intern in Chicago, and interns who meet the bar can secure a full-time Graduate Trader position. No US Graduate Trader posting was open when we checked, and IMC's US graduate page lists only researcher and engineering graduate roles. Experienced Chicago titles include Index Options Volatility Trader, Systematic Index Options Trader and Quantitative Trading Strategist - Equity Options, which sits between quant research, systematic trading and execution.
• IMC says most of its trading is automated, so its traders use Python for data analysis and strategy optimisation and work closely with software engineers. It quotes continuously on more than 120 venues with systems written in-house.
• IMC publishes its own trading interview guide, Inside the Trading Interview from IMC Europe, linked from Graduate Trader postings. It spells out the market-making exercise, the probability topics and a section on common myths.
• IMC has a written candidate Interview Code of Conduct. It says: "Candidates must complete all interview assessments, technical questions, and written exercises without the aid of AI tools, code generation platforms, online forums, or any other external sources unless explicitly permitted." It adds: "Representing others' work as your own, including content generated by AI, is a violation of this code." You must tell interviewers at once if you recognise a question, and breaking the code may lead to disqualification and affect future consideration.
• All graduate traders start with a six-week global Trading School alongside graduates from Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific, then a local traineeship (Chicago for US hires) with a dedicated mentor for the first 12 months.
• IMC recruits from competitive chess. Its job board carries a 2027 US Chess Academy interest form, and its internship page quotes a trading intern on the move from competitive chess.

IMC Trading quantitative trader interview questions

Questions from our bank, then practice prompts we wrote for this guide around IMC Trading's work.

1from typing import List, Optional, Tuple
2
3def markouts(fair: List[float], trades: List[Tuple[int, str, float, int]],
4             h: int) -> Tuple[float, float, Optional[int]]:
5    """Return (total_edge, total_markout, worst_trade_index)."""
6    pass

1from typing import List, Optional, Tuple
2
3def markouts(fair: List[float], trades: List[Tuple[int, str, float, int]],
4             h: int) -> Tuple[float, float, Optional[int]]:
5    last = len(fair) - 1
6    total_edge = total_mark = 0.0
7    worst, worst_val = None, None
8    for i, (t, side, price, qty) in enumerate(trades):
9        sign = 1 if side == 'B' else -1
10        total_edge += sign * (fair[t] - price) * qty
11        mark = sign * (fair[min(t + h, last)] - price) * qty
12        total_mark += mark
13        if worst_val is None or round(mark, 9) < round(worst_val, 9):
14            worst, worst_val = i, mark
15    return round(total_edge, 2), round(total_mark, 2), worst
16
17# Complexity: O(n) time for n trades, O(1) extra space.

How to prepare

A plan for the IMC Trading loop, most important first:

1. Read IMC Europe's Inside the Trading Interview guide and practice its market-making exercise: quote, get traded against, update over several rounds and explain each move.
2. Drill expected value, conditional probability, independence and Bayes until you can explain them out loud, since IMC's guide names all four.
3. Do daily mental math (2- and 3-digit products, percentages) and estimation problems, as IMC suggests.
4. Prepare for an online assessment in either reported format, cognitive games or a timed probability screen, and take it without any outside help.
5. Practice a short recorded answer to a probability question and to why trading, since candidate reports describe a one-way video stage.
6. Prepare STAR stories, including one where things went wrong, and an authentic answer to why IMC; behaviour is assessed in every round.

Practice path

Courses that cover the rounds above:

• Probability for Quant Interviews
• Estimation for Trading Interviews
• Financial Mathematics