Quantitative Trader Interview Prep

The short answer: Quantitative Traders price and trade financial products with models, manage risk and work alongside researchers and engineers. Across the nine firms here, interviews test probability, expected value, mental math, market making and how you decide under pressure, and several firms say no finance or trading background is needed. Jane Street, Optiver, SIG (Susquehanna International Group), DRW and IMC publish their stages, though IMC's fullest list is on its Europe and APAC pages. Citadel Securities, Jump Trading, Akuna Capital and Five Rings publish no trader process, so their loops rest on candidate reports. Even where stages are published, what happens inside each round, such as the market-making and betting games, comes mostly from candidate reports, so ask your recruiter for the exact format. Jane Street and IMC publish their own trading interview guides, and IMC is the only firm here with a written rule on AI in interviews. Last reviewed October 2026.

Quantitative Trader interview: quick answers

What quantitative traders do

The job is pricing and risk. Optiver says its traders build models and automated trading systems, extract signals from market data, set prices, execute trades, and decide how much risk to carry and how to hedge it. SIG traders make markets by posting buy and sell prices on options, stocks and ETFs, and Akuna frames every trader posting around quoting two-sided options markets with its own technology. Jane Street traders trade on the firm's proprietary models, look for pricing inefficiencies and push into new products, and Citadel Securities says its quantitative traders make trading decisions and manage risk in real time.

Trading sits close to research and code. Jane Street says trading, research and machine learning work as one collaborative group and that most staff write code. Optiver says traders, researchers and engineers work in one loop from design to production, and IMC says most of its trading is automated, so its traders use Python for data analysis and strategy optimisation. At DRW the campus trader is a Quantitative Trading Analyst, who tests a trader's idea with data analysis, models and back tests. Five Rings traders tune model parameters and feed market reactions back into the models. SIG also posts a Quantitative Systematic Trader track, a hybrid of trader and researcher that builds fully automated strategies.

Training is long and starts with the basics. New Jane Street traders start as assistants. Optiver runs four weeks at its Global Optiver Academy in Amsterdam, then simulated trading on live data, and IMC graduate traders start with a six-week global Trading School followed by a mentor for their first 12 months. Games are part of the teaching at several firms: SIG graduates get weekly poker classes and strategy games, Jump's trading interns get poker training and mock trading, and Five Rings interns play mock trading games and a strategy game about adverse selection.

How 9 companies run the quantitative trader interview

The short version of each process. Each company guide has the full detail, with links to the company's own pages, and says which parts come from candidate reports.

The interview types in depth

Online tests and recorded video rounds

A timed test often comes first. Optiver says its modules test problem solving, logic and reasoning, must be taken within 7 days of applying, and can be attempted once every 8 months across all offices. SIG says its assessment tests quantitative and problem-solving skills, and DRW says its timed technical challenge for quant trading candidates covers probability and logic. IMC lists an assessment for some US roles without describing it. Reports disagree on whether Jane Street and Jump use one; neither firm's pages mention one.

The formats themselves come from candidate reports. They name Optiver modules such as Beat the Odds, NumberLogic, Likelihood, Intervals and Orderbooks, describe SIG's test as a 60-minute Problem Solving Assessment that takes answers as integers or fractions, and put DRW's challenge at about 6 questions in 45 minutes. At Akuna they describe speed arithmetic, number sequences and probability, and at Five Rings a mental math and estimation screen that some candidates get as a call instead. Calculator rules differ by firm, so read each invite. Practice under a timer, and keep exact fractions where a test asks for them.

Candidate reports also describe one-way recorded video rounds at IMC and Akuna: you answer prompts on camera with a timer and no interviewer. Reports say IMC's mixes motivation questions with a probability question and Akuna's includes a betting game. Practice answering aloud to a clock, state your reasoning before the number, and keep each answer inside the time you are given.

Probability and expected value

Every firm here tests probability out loud. Expect conditional probability, counting, expected value, dice and card games, recursion and, in some reports, Markov chains, random walks and continuous distributions. Jane Street's own guide lists counting, expected value, conditional probability, recursion and edge cases as core concepts, and IMC's Europe guide names expected value, conditional probability, independence and Bayes.

A structure that works: restate the question and ask about anything ambiguous, set up the cases or the recursion, solve, then check the answer a second way or by order of magnitude. Interviewers care how you reach the answer, and a wrong answer you catch and fix is better than a long silence.

Mental math and estimation

Fast arithmetic helps, though firms differ on how much weight it carries. Jane Street's guide calls the idea that you must be great at mental math a myth. Optiver says mental math is necessary but not sufficient, and candidate reports say its old 80-question, 8-minute arithmetic test is gone from current invites. Akuna's Junior Trader posting asks for strong mental math and lists quick, accurate math as an essential function of the job, and IMC suggests daily drills.

Estimation questions ask you to size something with stated assumptions while the interviewer challenges each step. Say each assumption, round to easy numbers, and cross-check with a second method.

Market-making games

You quote a bid and an offer on an uncertain quantity, such as the sum of some dice, and the interviewer trades against you or gives you new information. Jane Street teaches this format in its own guide, including adverse selection, and IMC's Europe guide describes quoting over several rounds while you read what each trade says about the counterparty. Candidate reports describe market-making games at Optiver, SIG, Citadel Securities and Akuna, including a live simulation in the Citadel Securities superday and a group auction or bidding game at SIG. DRW names a trading simulation in its QTA final but does not publish its format.

A structure that works: state your fair value and how uncertain you are, quote around it with a size, and after each trade ask what it tells you. Move both sides of your market when a trade carries information, lean against your position when inventory builds, and keep track of your worst case.

Betting games and sizing

Some rounds give you a bankroll and a series of bets with an edge. Candidate reports describe betting games at Optiver, Jane Street, IMC and Akuna, and escalating dice, betting and sealed-bid games at Five Rings. A candidate guide says Optiver scores its trading games on sizing, arbitrage and risk discipline more than raw P&L. Know the Kelly fraction and why betting everything on a good bet is a mistake, and stay steady after a loss.

Coding and data rounds

Some trader loops include code. Jane Street says its final round covers coding in any language and data analysis, and DRW says its QTA final includes a quantitative coding challenge in Python, with pandas, numpy and scipy named in its prep advice. DRW's final runs over two days at an office: a technical challenge on the first afternoon, then a full day of interviews. Candidate reports describe Python coding rounds in the Citadel Securities superday and in Jump's final round.

These rounds usually ask for working analysis more than clever algorithms. Practice loading a dataset, cleaning it, computing returns or summary statistics and explaining what the numbers mean for a trade, and say what you would check next if the result looked wrong.

Behavioral and fit

Each loop has a conversation about why you want to trade and how you make decisions. Optiver says quick decisions and staying cool under pressure are assessed throughout, and IMC's Europe guide says behaviour is assessed in every round, technical ones included. SIG lists behavioural phone interviews, DRW says its phone interview mixes technical, behavioral and resume questions, and Jane Street lists general interests as part of its final round. Candidate reports describe a culture-fit talk with a senior trader at Optiver.

Pay in US job postings

US salary ranges from each company's own postings for this role, seen October 29, 2026. They are base salary unless the company guide says the posting lists total salary. Each company guide has the postings and links.

Entry-level paths

• Jane Street: Quantitative Trader Internship in New York, May to August, plus short programs for first- and second-year students such as Bridge and FTTP.
• Optiver: Quantitative Trading Internship (10 weeks in Amsterdam), Career Kickstarter - Trading for final-year European students, and graduate roles that start at the Global Optiver Academy.
• SIG: Quantitative Trader Internship in the US (about ten weeks), the invitation-only Discovery Program in New York, and a full-time graduate trading programme.
• Citadel Securities: An 11-week Quantitative Trader internship in New York and Miami, University Graduate roles, and the Trading Invitational, a simulated trading competition for first- and second-year undergraduates.
• IMC Trading: Quantitative Trader Intern (10 weeks in Chicago), Launchpad, a two-day Chicago program for second-year students, and Graduate Traineeship intakes twice a year (no US Graduate Trader posting was open).
• Jump Trading: Campus Quantitative Trader (Intern), 10 weeks in Chicago and New York, and Campus Quantitative Trader (Full-Time), open only in London and Amsterdam when we checked.
• DRW: Quantitative Trading Analyst Intern (10 weeks in Chicago), full-time QTA roles (open in London when we checked) and the new-grad Floor Trader role in Chicago.
• Akuna Capital: One-week Trading Sneak Peek Weeks in Chicago for 2027, which replaced the summer trading internship, and Junior Trader as the full-time new-grad entry.
• Five Rings: Summer Intern 2027 - Quantitative Trader (9 weeks in New York), a January externship session, and Campus Full Time 2027 roles in New York, London and Amsterdam.

AI tools in quantitative trader interviews

Rules on AI differ by company, so ask your recruiter before every round.

IMC publishes a rule. IMC's US Interview Code of Conduct 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." The code also asks you to tell interviewers at once if you recognise a question, and breaking it may lead to disqualification.

Nothing published elsewhere. Jane Street does not publish a rule on AI use in interviews; ask your recruiter. Optiver, SIG, Citadel Securities, Jump Trading, DRW, Akuna Capital and Five Rings do not publish one either.

What the firms and candidate reports say about aids. Optiver's Sydney FAQ says calculators are not permitted in its online assessment, though one candidate guide says a calculator is allowed on one module. One candidate guide says Jane Street allows pen and paper but not computers or calculators. Candidate reports say SIG allows a calculator, pen and paper on its online test and that switching browser tabs can end it. Candidate guides describe camera-on online tests at Akuna and Five Rings, and one says the Five Rings screen allows no calculator.

AI on the job is a separate matter. Optiver says it uses AI workflows to turn unstructured information into signals and to automate testing and monitoring, and Citadel Securities' trader postings say experience with LLMs and agentic systems is highly desirable. Both describe the job and set no rule for interviews.

A 6-week prep plan

Courses for each round

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

Practice questions

Questions from our bank, then practice prompts from the company guides.

Company guides

Read the guide for each company you are interviewing with:

• Jane Street: Jane Street runs phone interviews with traders, then an in-person final round of problem solving, probability, coding and data analysis. It does not test finance.
• Optiver: Optiver hires traders through a one-attempt online assessment, a behavioural interview, technical interviews in the US and a final day with the hiring team.
• SIG: SIG (Susquehanna International Group) lists an online assessment, behavioural and technical phone interviews, and an office interview with a trader for Quantitative Traders.
• Citadel Securities: Citadel Securities publishes no trader interview loop. Candidate reports describe an online test, one or two first-round calls and a superday with a live market-making round.
• IMC Trading: IMC Trading hires traders through an application, an assessment for some roles, a recruiter interview, a technical interview with a trader and a final assessment day.
• Jump Trading: Jump Trading publishes no interview process. Candidate reports describe a recruiter call, two or three technical calls with traders and a final round, usually in Chicago.
• DRW: DRW hires Quantitative Trading Analysts through a timed probability challenge, a 45-minute phone interview and a two-day final with Python coding and a trading simulation.
• Akuna Capital: Akuna Capital publishes no trader interview steps. Candidate reports describe timed math tests, a recorded betting game, a trader interview and a Chicago Super Day.
• Five Rings: Five Rings publishes no interview steps. Candidate reports describe a timed math and estimation screen, probability rounds, live betting games and a full final day.