Trafigura Interview Questions

31 total interview insight submissions
Interview Experience (95%)

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.

3.9
  • Very Negative
  • Negative
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Very Positive
Interview Difficulty (98%)

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.

3.2
  • Very Easy
  • Easy
  • Average
  • Difficult
  • Very Difficult
% Interns - FT Offers (46%)

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.

33%
  • 0%
  • 10%
  • 20%
  • 30%
  • 40%
  • 50%
  • 60%
  • 70%
  • 80%
  • 90%
  • 100%

Interviews at Trafigura

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Filter by:
Year
Job Title
Group/Division
Location
Experience
Difficulty
1st Year Analyst
Year 2023
Job Title 1st Year Analyst
Group/Division Oil & Gas
Location Calgary
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Other
Year 2022
Job Title Other
Group/Division Oil & Gas
Location Houston
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Difficult
Other
Year 2022
Job Title Other
Group/Division Oil & Gas
Location Geneva
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Difficult
2nd Year Analyst
Year 2019
Job Title 2nd Year Analyst
Group/Division Oil & Gas
Location calgary
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
2nd Year Analyst
Year 2016
Job Title 2nd Year Analyst
Group/Division Energy
Location Mumbai
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Difficult
Junior Trader
Year 2018
Job Title Junior Trader
Group/Division Commodities
Location Shanghai
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Trader
Year 2017
Job Title Trader
Group/Division Energy
Location Singapore
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Difficult
1st Year Analyst
Year 2017
Job Title 1st Year Analyst
Group/Division Risk Management
Location Houston
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy
N/A
Year 2018
Job Title N/A
Group/Division Oil and Gas
Location Houston
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Average
1st Year Analyst
Year 2017
Job Title 1st Year Analyst
Group/Division Generalist
Location Houston
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Very Difficult

Interview Questions & Answers - Trafigura Examples

Oil Market Analyst Interview - Oil & Gas

Anonymous interview candidate in Calgary
Interviewed: January 2023
Date Submitted: Mar 18, 2023
Outcome
Declined Offer
Interview Source
Recruiter
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
IQ / Intelligence Test
Interview
Recruiter reached out to me via linkedin. Set up an interview in person at one of their satellite offices in my city. Very few behavioral questions. More so questions focused on hedging strategies and global market outlooks. Also a short mental math question where they asked rapid fire questions involving square roots and squares. Overall pretty fun and challenging interview for an analyst. After meeting in person a call was arranged with 2 of the heads of regional crude desks where more behavioral questions were asked, such as why did I want to work at Trafi vs my old firm. Why Oil? What type of work culture do I work best in? They seemed intense at first but towards the end of the interview loosened up a bit. After that recieved an offer from the recruiter via email and discussed details over the phone
Interview Questions
If Trafigura buys oil 700,000 dollars of oil at a 8% interest rate, what is their monthly interest payment if they store it for 1 month
Sample Answer

Commodity Trading Graduate Interview - Oil & Gas

Anonymous employee in Geneva
Interviewed: March 2022
Date Submitted: Sep 24, 2022
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
Group Interview
Presentation
Background Check
Interview
1) Online Application, by sending your CV and Motivation Letter along with answering a question on their application website

2) Phone Screening, asking some questions for Trafi and about you (around 5-10 Minutes)

3) 2x 45 Minute Interviews with 2 people each time (Most of them Junior and Mid-Level Executives, asking about your experience and a couple of technical questions)

4) Final Stage with 2x 45 Minute interviews with 2 people each time with some Managers or Senior Level employees where you are given 10 minutes to present a project given a couple of days ago and after that answering to questions and some other technicals.
Interview Questions
Technical questions which may be difficult for a graduate to answer (F.E Hedging a cargo from Africa and shipping risks)
Sample Answer

Analyst Interview - Oil & Gas

Anonymous interview candidate in calgary
Interviewed: February 2019
Date Submitted: Mar 04, 2021
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Group Interview
Interview
The interview process was good. Called by HR for an initial screen and then progressed to in person. Met with the Geneva office first then Houston over video.
Interview Questions
How do you hedge freight risk?
Sample Answer

Oil Operations Interview Interview - Energy

Anonymous interview candidate in Mumbai
Interviewed: February 2016
Date Submitted: Aug 29, 2020
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Gave the Interview at Trafigura Mumbai after 3 rounds of Telephonic and Skype interviews. All expenses were bourne by me but overall experience was good. Questions included quesions on the oil indutry, their businesses and their competitors and about commodity trading.
Some main questions were-
Inco Terms, Contracts, Futures and options for hedging, bill of loading
Interview Questions
What are some hedging stratergies Trafigura should follow, Risks involved in trasporting oil from Africa to the USA
Sample Answer

Trader Interview - Commodities

Anonymous employee in Shanghai
Interviewed: November 2018
Date Submitted: Nov 29, 2018
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Two panels of interviewer, each consists of 2 senior traders. Ask things mostly about the resume and previous working experience.
Interview Questions
1. Why not being a credit analyst but trying to be a commodity trader (I was intern for a top security company, working as a research analyst on bonds in the fixed income team), because the bond market seems to have a much better future than the commodity industry.
2. Describe one of your recent research report.
3. How to persuade a client when they ask for a lower price and a longer payment period?(If a lower price and a longer payment period is given to them, then you will lose money for sure) .
Sample Answer

Trader Interview - Energy

Anonymous interview candidate in
Interviewed: May 2017
Date Submitted: Aug 19, 2018
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Recruiter
Length of Process
2-3 months
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Group Interview
Presentation
Skills Test
Personality Test
Interview
Very strucutured and upto the market. Questions revolved around experience, interest in working at Traf and knowledge on trading
Interview Questions
Why us? Why are looking to shift industries? what do you know about trading? if given the opportunity to go global would be willing to do so? what sort of margins do we make? what's your greatest strength? why do you think we should hire you? talk us through what you know about our markets? what is so special about us that differentiates us from our competitors? what are your salary expectations? what if you're made to do mundane tasks starting out? how do you feel about energy trading? what are your hobbies?
Sample Answer

Graduate Trainee Interview - Risk Management

Anonymous interview candidate in Houston
Interviewed: September 2017
Date Submitted: Jul 16, 2018
Outcome
Declined Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Invited to two onsites, one in Stamford, one in Houston. Stamford was general, behaviorial interview. Houston was more markets/technical focused.
Interview Questions
They asked questions about the application I submitted so I had to dig back into my memory to remember what I had written. They also asked me to tell a joke, so that was awkward. Other than that, it was a lot of questions about hard situations, risk-management, commodity specific risks.

How would you hedge a oil transport traveling from London to Houston?
What if there's a hurricane in Houston?
What if there's a hurriane in New York?
What if theres no liquid futures contract, etc.

A lot of it - they aren't looking for just one answer. Just need logic
Sample Answer

Operations Interview - Oil and Gas

Anonymous interview candidate in Houston
Interviewed: February 2018
Date Submitted: Mar 16, 2018
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Employee Referral
Length of Process
2-3 months
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Current employee and Traf got my resume to Manager and sent to HR.

Got an email to set up a call for phone screen with HR.

Interview date set for a week later, interviewed with two managers, asked specifically about resume and then proved about knowledge of operations and technical details of trading.

Have not heard anything for the past month, but they are setting up one more interview with the Trader to test fit.
Interview Questions
Currently, I work for a Trafigura competitor. They asked why I wanted to make the switch from here to there. Their biggest concern was whether I’d be able to adapt to the very big difference in work balance. Wanted to make sure the reason for the switch was not because of compensation.

Interviewers were both extremely nice, told me they might have a job that would be a good fit later in the year, but based on current staffing and my skills, might not need any other help in the immediate or shorter term.

Asked a lot of questions about resume and experiences.
Sample Answer

Graduate Development Program Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in Houston
Interviewed: October 2017
Date Submitted: Mar 13, 2018
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Group Interview
Skills Test
Interview
1st round: Phone interview. Questions:
How to hedge a shipment of crude oil from West Africa to Houston?
What are the risks associated with this trade?
Why commodities trading?
2nd Round: 2 v 1 competency-based interview. Questions:
Difference between options and futures
How many bbls of crude would fit in this room
Interview Questions
Shipment of naptha reaches destination port with 10% of volume missing. What do you do?
What is the difference between options and futures?
How do I hedge an incoming shipment of Oil into TX?
I come to you and tell you I have an outgoing shipment of crude from TX to Colombia. What do you do?
What are some risks associated with a shipment of crude from west africa to US?
Would I be net short or long on an incoming delivery of crude?
What is a recent challenge you faced and how did you overcome it?
Sample Answer

Trafigura Graduate Program Interview - Oil and Gas

Anonymous interview candidate in Houston
Interviewed: October 2016
Date Submitted: Feb 20, 2018
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Group Interview
Interview
First you will receive a phone call out of the blue, and then if successful will be invited down to Houston for an interview. Then be invited down again for a second interview if successful with the first.
Interview Questions
How many barrels of crude could fit in this room?
Tell me about yourself?
What comes out of a barrel of oil?
If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender how would you get out?
Tell me about a time you worked well in a group?
Give us an example of a time you exhibited strong leadership.
describe a time you did not work well with coworkers.
describe a team that you would like to work with
describe a work environment that you think you would work well in.
Those were the major questions.
Sample Answer