Skip to content
Work Free practice Coding course Blog Method Results Why me About Enquire Book a call

Free · No sign-up · Worked solutions

Quant interview prep

398 questions of the kind asked in trading and research interviews, each with a worked answer. Browse them by topic, or run 30 against the clock and review every answer at the end.

Start a timed quiz Browse all 398

398
questions
6
topics
30
per timed round
Stochastic calculus · Question 4 of 30 4 in a row
Which of these is a martingale?

Try it: pick an answer.

Pick a topic

Mixed 30 questions drawn from every topic, 60 seconds each Start →

Timed tests, firm guides and the coding round

The banks teach the ideas. These put them under the conditions you will actually meet. Firm guides: Jane Street · Optiver · Citadel · IMC · Five Rings.

Mental maths tests 80 in 8 and 60 in 6 with negative marking, a Zetamac-style sprint, a rapid screen and number sequences. Every question is generated fresh, and every answer comes with the shortcut that gets it in seconds. Take a test → Interview papers Probability screens, a brainteaser round, a trading first round, a written test and a hard paper. Fixed length and time, easy to hard, the way a technical interview escalates. Sit a paper → Firm guides Jane Street, Optiver, Citadel, IMC and Five Rings: each firm's process from its own careers pages, what candidates report, six worked problems in its style and a timed round. Read the Jane Street guide → Coding interview Research and developer roles usually include a coding round; Citadel's campus quant research process, for one, opens with a live coding interview on programming and data structures. Trader roles lean on it less. Patterns, lessons and problems in six languages, with a timed interview mode. Start the coding course →

How the timed practice works

  1. Pick a topicOr a mixed round. Mental arithmetic runs at 15 seconds a question; stochastic calculus gives you 75.
  2. Answer against the clockOne question at a time. Each must be answered, or time out, before the next appears. Fractions and decimals both accepted.
  3. Review everythingYour score, average time and longest streak, then every question with your answer, the correct one and the worked solution.

How to use them

Say your working out loud before you open the answer. In an interview the answer is the smallest part of what is assessed: the interviewer is watching whether you find structure, check yourself, and recover when you are told you are wrong.

The firm names beside each topic are firms widely reported to ask that type of question. The specific questions change every season; the types do not. For five of them solved in full, the way an interviewer wants to hear it, read quant interview questions, with worked solutions.

Common questions

What questions are asked in quant interviews?

Trading firms such as Jane Street, Optiver and SIG lean on probability, expected value, brainteasers, market-making games and fast mental arithmetic. Research roles at firms such as Citadel and Two Sigma add statistics, machine learning and, for derivatives roles, stochastic calculus. The specific questions rotate every season; the types stay the same.

How should I practise quant interview questions?

Out loud, and before looking at the answer. Say how you are setting the problem up, give a rough estimate, then solve it. Once the types feel familiar, practise against the clock: the timed quiz gives 30 questions per round with a full review at the end.

Is mental arithmetic really tested in trading interviews?

Yes. Optiver, Flow Traders, IMC and Akuna are known for timed arithmetic tests, typically around 80 questions in 8 minutes. It is also the most trainable part of the process: a few minutes a day for several weeks makes a clear difference.

Do I need stochastic calculus for a quant interview?

For trading roles, rarely. For quant research and derivatives roles, expect Brownian motion, Itô's lemma, martingales, change of measure and Black–Scholes. The stochastic calculus bank covers exactly that level.

Have a live process?

Questions on a page only go so far. The rest is doing them out loud with someone who interrupts, pushes back and asks the follow-up. I work as a high-frequency trading quant and run these sessions one to one.

Quant interview preparation Book a 20-minute call