Optiver Interview Questions

225 total interview insight submissions
Interview Experience (91%)

The Interview Experience is a score from 1 star (very negative) to 5 stars (very positive) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the donut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire dataset.

3.6
  • Very Negative
  • Negative
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Very Positive
Interview Difficulty (100%)

The Interview Difficulty is a score ranging from very difficult (red) to very easy (green) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. The higher the number, the more difficult the interviews on average. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more insights, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire data set.

3.7
  • Very Easy
  • Easy
  • Average
  • Difficult
  • Very Difficult
% Interns - FT Offers (68%)

The % of Interns Getting a Full Time Offer chart is meant to provide a realistic estimate of the hiring practices of the company based on the reviews at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few reviews). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to the simple company average and away from the average of the entire data set.

45%
  • 0%
  • 10%
  • 20%
  • 30%
  • 40%
  • 50%
  • 60%
  • 70%
  • 80%
  • 90%
  • 100%

Interviews at Optiver

Filter by:
Year
Job Title
Group/Division
Location
Experience
Difficulty
Junior Trader
Year 2022
Job Title Junior Trader
Group/Division Trading
Location Amsterdam
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Difficult
Student / Prospective Monkey
Year 2023
Job Title Student / Prospective Monkey
Group/Division Trading
Location Amsterdam
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Difficult
Intern
Year 2023
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Quantitative Research
Location Amsterdam
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Very Difficult
Student / Prospective Monkey
Year 2023
Job Title Student / Prospective Monkey
Group/Division N/A
Location Chicago
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Very Difficult
Student / Prospective Monkey
Year 2023
Job Title Student / Prospective Monkey
Group/Division Prop Trading
Location London
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Difficult
1st Year Analyst
Year 2023
Job Title 1st Year Analyst
Group/Division Risk Management
Location Pudong Xinqu
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2023
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Quantitative Research
Location Chicago
Experience
Negative
Difficulty
Difficult
Quant
Year 2023
Job Title Quant
Group/Division Quantitative Research
Location Amsterdam
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Difficult
Operations Analyst
Year 2023
Job Title Operations Analyst
Group/Division Risk Management
Location Chicago
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Trader
Year 2019
Job Title Trader
Group/Division N/A
Location Sydney
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Difficult

Interview Questions & Answers - Optiver Examples

Graduate Trader Interview - Trading

Anonymous interview candidate in Amsterdam
Interviewed: January 2022
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Skills Test
Personality Test
Interview
The first round is a skills test involving mathematics, probability, and quick reaction time. After this there is an HR round followed by 2 technical rounds. At the end, there is a final round consisting of both an HR and technical interview
Interview Questions
Given a bracket of 32 people, price an option on the outcome.

Quant trading Intern Interview - Trading

Anonymous interview candidate in Amsterdam
Interviewed: September 2023
Outcome
Declined Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Skills Test
Personality Test
Interview
First one was behavioural, followed by two rounds of cognitive interviews which were trading games. then the final round was 3 interviews, a chat with a trader followed by two panel interviews. One was technical and the other was behavioural.
Interview Questions
In the behavioural questions there was a lot on failures and how you developed
A lot of problem solving questions

Data Science Interview - Quantitative Research

Anonymous interview candidate in Amsterdam
Interviewed: September 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
IQ / Intelligence Test
Interview
First was 4 hour online assessment= coding, ZAP-Q which is pymetrics all over again, sequences and probability questions
next was HR interview - biggest achieviement,strongest stregnth, biggest failure, why optiver, why trading, tell me a time you worked in a diverse team
next was technical interview= 1 proability questions hard (see tricky bob on quantguide), 1 fermi estimation: how many pizzas to cover the whole of netherlands+confidence interval of ur answer
rejected after technical interview
but next stage was AC
Interview Questions
Probability(tricky bob on quantguide) and brainteaser( number of pizzas to cover Netherlands)

Quant trader Interview

Anonymous interview candidate in Chicago
Interviewed: September 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Skills Test
IQ / Intelligence Test
Personality Test
Interview
Receive an OA about coding and after three days I got a rejected about that. The coding problems last 3 hours and are extremely difficult. You need be careful about the details and try to pass all hidden cases. After three days I got an email said my score does not reach their benchmark, so nothing. But I have a friend who also took the OA and got the phone interview for behavior question, and there is another tech interview afterwards.
Interview Questions
Coding problem about poker cards, calculate the expected value of the result.

Quantitative Trader Interview - Prop Trading

Anonymous interview candidate in London
Interviewed: September 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Skills Test
IQ / Intelligence Test
Personality Test
Other
Interview
I applied online and got the online assessment.
There are several stages
1. famous 80 in 8, I did 69 correctly and moved on to next stage
2. Games, ballooon pumping game & sausage flipping are the hardest, others are just reaction and memory
3. Sequence reasoning, find out the next number in a sequence (quite hard, make sure you knnow the common ones and the mixture/variations of them)
4. Rapid fire probability questions (+1 for correct and -1 for wrong answer, I think 7 or 8 out of 10 is a pass)
5. Personality questions, there are wrong answers be careful

I got rejected after the personality questionnaire (OMG, or maybe just my overall score is not high enough)
Interview Questions
Rapid fire probability questions, there are traps, be very clear and quick, you have only 90 sec each

Market risk analyst Interview - Risk Management

Anonymous interview candidate in Pudong Xinqu
Interviewed: July 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
IQ / Intelligence Test
Personality Test
Interview
The first round is an online assessment for numerical and logical reasoning, tricky games, personality and behaviours. The second is talk with HR to discuss the duties and your motivation for this company and role.
Interview Questions
What's your motivation for transfer from trading role to risk role?

Quantitative Research Intern Interview - Quantitative Research

Anonymous interview candidate in Chicago
Interviewed: October 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Skills Test
Interview
First I got an online assessment. There were 3 coding problems in probability, data analysis and algo + some gamelike stuffs. After a week, I got a phone call interview offer, it was a behavioral interview.
Interview Questions
What would you do if there's any conflict in your team/group?

Quant Research Interview - Quantitative Research

Anonymous interview candidate in Amsterdam
Interviewed: August 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
Skills Test
IQ / Intelligence Test
Interview
First an online assessment that takes 3-4 hours. In it are math questions, coding challenges and little 'games' like clicking a balloon and trying not to pop it. Next is behavioral interview and then a technical one. They told me for the technical to expect puzzles/brain teaser, as well as probability questions.
Interview Questions
Mental math questions with confidence (Think difficult equations but you only have under a minute. You can select form multiple choice and say how confident you are in your answer)
Fermi problems with confidence (How far is the sun away, How many piano tuners are there in Chicago, etc.)
Mini games for OA (Balloon game, house stacking, pattern guessing on cards)

Project Manager Interview - Risk Management

Anonymous interview candidate in Chicago
Interviewed: April 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Recruiter
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Skills Test
Interview
1 screening call to understand cultural fit, 1 call with hiring manager to describe role and do some light evaluation, 4 hour onsite consisting of 4 interviews that were a mix of behavioral, a case question, and applicable skills question
Interview Questions
How do you improve incident remediation management processes and separate signal from noise as company scales

Quantitative Trader Interview

Anonymous employee in Sydney
Interviewed: July 2019
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Skills Test
IQ / Intelligence Test
Personality Test
Background Check
Interview
Online Application -> 5 online assessment test -> Behavioral interview -> 2 technical round - > HR interview -> Offer
Interview Questions
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