Akuna Capital Math Test? (And Interview Process)
I've applied for a junior trader position with this firm, and so they've sent me an email with directions to take an online mental math test.
Does anybody know what the Akuna test is like, specifically? Can't seem to find too much information about it online. All I know is that there is a 22 minute time limit, and I've got 2 weeks to take it.
Thanks in advance.
To begin preparing for your interview, JobTestPrep has everything you need to know for Mathematical Reasoning Test interviews, including a myriad of questions with thoroughly explained answers.
'akuna matata bro ;)
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I'have taken it. First park is simple mental math with no fractions. The second part is sequences of letter and numbers. I breezed through the math test and decided I didn't need to prepare for sequences. God I was wrong.
Thanks a lot. This is what I've heard as well, so I'm doing a lot of sequence prep right now on TraderTest. So you didn't find the mental math too terrible? It sounds so far like it's easier than the Optiver test, which I've taken (and didn't pass).
Got the same email as well. Is it 80 in 8min?
Got the same email as well. Is it 80 in 8min?
It's unlimited number of questions under 5 or so minutes, if memory serves me right (exact time is mentioned in the email). Math part was easy. I have an Optiver test to do too. But I they did not mention the deadline for submission. I have an exam this week so I am wondering if they will wait one week. Their recruiters didn't reply to my email so far..
Hi Belonik. Did you had the Optiver test ? If yes please let me know about how difficult it is and some questions that you remember
Hi Belonik. Did you had the Optiver test ? If yes please let me know about how difficult it is and some questions that you remember
It is pretty difficult. Optiver is a great place so you have to be competitive. You can find the example questions in this thread above.
It is pretty difficult. Optiver is a great place so you have to be competitive. You can find the example questions in this thread above.
Akuna test is 7 minutes of math, 15 of sequence per the email I received.
@belon Make sure you know how to deal with non-simplified and mixed fractions for the Optiver test.
The email which I received mentioned that the test was 22 minutes long. Anyone know what this test consists of?
Read the other replies to this thread
7 Minutes of arithmetic, 15 of sequences ( mostly numerical but some alphabetical - no geometric pattern recognition like Tibra though)
How did you do pete?
I'm planning on taking it tommarrow
How did you do pete?
I'm planning on taking it tomorrow
Just took it, finally. Had to have the place empty and make sure I had enough prep.
Honestly, if you can do the "easy" level test fairly well on TraderTest and the Medium or Hard sequence test, you're set. It's literally almost exactly like that. There's occasionally harder problems, but you could ignore them and still do very well.
Math is almost all decimal, there's weird stuff like (48/75)/(12/75) but of course in that case you can just treat them as 48/12, which is 4 in this case. I got two of those. The rest were not bad...just make sure you can handle decimals.
The sequences were mostly the same as the TraderTest Hard level, as I said...but there were a couple that I had never seen before and were a struggle. I'd say, just do some searching on the internet and look for as many different kinds of sequences as you can.
Overall, not too bad...not sure how well I did, I answered 41 math questions I think, but probably missed one or two. Answered (I think) 20 sequences questions, probably missed a couple. Not sure if that's enough to pass, but we'll see.
So, quick update, my scores were sufficient to move to the next level, and so next up is a personality assessment, also online. Should be interesting to see what that is. I'm guessing it's similar to most that you might take.
Way to go! I did as well!
Way to go! I did as well!
Hey Pete or Ice, any updates on how the next steps went and what they entailed?
olk
That was probably the hardest sequences test I've ever taken. The pattern usually isn't obvious and many of them require a bit of math to get the answer.
I had done 49, got 49 on Optiver...didnt make the cutoff !!
Just to keep everyone updated on this thread, did not end up making the cut. Took the personality test, which I felt I did very well on, and there are actually some logic and sequencing questions at the end, which I nailed. I have a feeling I didn't get picked for the next round because of my school, major, or GPA..or some combo of those three.
The personality test is similar to one you might take for a Meyers-Briggs personality indicator...not really anything you can do to prep. It's not timed either. 185 questions in total if I remember. Doesn't really take you too long if you're not screwing around.
I did not make the cut either. :X Looking at the email list they had their choice of 50 candidates from top tier schools.
I recommend taking a meyers briggs online and seeing what personality you are, then tweak your answers to get INTJ or a similar set-up. Once you've gotten in the mindset of that personality, go take the akuna test. Most of the questions are really similar to 16personalities.com's test
Yeah I saw that email too, definitely was a long list of ivy league students there. I'm sure that weighed into the decision heavily.
I wonder if Optiver does the same thing. That kind of sucks though. I would of think that they would pick you for initial round based on your school and so forth and if you tie with someone their school or GPA is the tie-breaker.
I would have thought so as well, I mean I don't know what else it could've been, and I honestly figured I did pretty well in all the tests up to that point. I've tried speaking with someone in HR there, strangely they sent me an email just the other day (many weeks after initially rejecting me) letting me know they had hired who they were going to hire for the position and decided not to choose me...no kidding, I knew that already.
She said the typical things about self-study and how they "look for the trader mindset, which is something you can't put on a resume, they just have to see it in you"...not much help if you do self study but still didn't get an interview. I don't know. It's hard to say, I'm fairly certain it came down to the school/major/GPA thing. Can't be too mad about it, that's how the world works. It sucks, but there's not much you can do about it at this point in time.
Trust me they do not, I recently got in and they only asked for my GPA after they offered me the job ;). Just have to be quick on your feet, that's all.
Akuna Capital Trading Interview (Originally Posted: 01/29/2016)
Has anyone done a video interview or phone interview with a trader for positions at Akuna capital? Would appreciate it if someone can shed some light on the process that comes after the math and personality tests
I am on the same part as you. I will be doing the webcam interview today, hopefully I pass that part, as I want to see what kind of technical, and behavioral questions are asked on the phone interview and the final interviews, if I even manage to make it there. Probably won't since I am not from a target school.
Any info on the structure of the WebCam interview?
How did you go? Could you please let me the struture or anything I should start prepping for? Would be much appreciated
How long do they take to respond after the math and personality test?
To bring this topic up to date, I think there is a fair possibility that the math test has changed a bit. I had to do a lot of dividing four digit numbers with two digits, e.g. 3264/48. Sequence test was pretty much the same as elite trader hard test as mentioned by others.
Does anyone have a clue what will be asked in the webcam/phone interviews? Mostly fit or heavy on brain teasers and technicals?
from my vague memory...probably something like the following:
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Webcam: Mental math - 2 digit multiplication, etc. Behavioral - I think it was talk about some extracurricular or something. One easy expected value coin problem.
Next round phone interview: Mental math Combinatorics question Expected value question Square root of a large number Options basics
For webcam, is there time limit for each question?
I know Akuna is mostly in the options market-making business, but given that this is for an entry-level position/internship, how much do they expect you to know about option-pricing theory?
y'all are lucky you have the skills/smarts to pass these tests
my scores for 1st interview for those who wants a benchmark. got 80 math questions. didnt' skip any. (7 mins) sequence: i thought it was to see who gets the most, skipped a lot, basically only did the ones where i can find a pattern in the difference between x and x+1. apparently there is a 30 question limit, i reached that with 5 mins to spare. probably got sub 10 correct. won't be surprised if it's closer to 5.
Didn't think i made it past that , but doing video interview today!
Does anyone know what personality types they're looking for in the personality test? I want to be honest, but these tests can be so subjective and you don't really know what they're looking for.
be honest. I think most trading firms are looking for analytical people, smart, competitive, decisive in decisions, and not afraid to take advantage of others misinformation/mispricing of securities.
For personality, I would typically say that traders need to be 'TJ's, and most typically INTJ.
This is actually my first post, but check out a site called '16personalities' (google it) - it's a useful and very accurate test that'll give you some pretty precise recommendations about your strengths and weaknesses.
Prop-Trading recruitment can be a disappointing to a lot of high achieving students as a lot of the time the decision between a hire or not is personality - and personality isn't something you can really fake out. If you're disappointed that you don't fit a certain personality type and don't make it into any good firms I would be of the view that further down the track when you're in some other career you might actually be greatful for not getting into certain gigs.
I would say mental sharpness is something that you can definitely prepare for, but prep will be much easier if you've done things before that are conducive to it, i.e. speed chess, poker, complex video games, competitive sport etc. Though tradertest is good, if you have a lot of time try and play 'Zetamac' a few times every day. I would say an appropriate score is somewhere between the 40-50 range, anything above that is a bonus and likely won't yield you much marginal benefit in day to day trading.
Thanks for the zetamac link. I did a test at Optiver once and it was slightly more difficult than this one though. Scored a 22 on my first try, so still a lot to practice :-)
Yeah I did Optiver and did very well on it, but I think zetamac builds on the same higher level fundamentals - which are ultimately what are required on the job.
Sorry to bring this back - but for the 40-50 range for Zetamac are you talking about the default settings?
just took a math/sequence test from Akuna today. it was 7 mins for math and 15 mins for sequence tests allotted. was reading the above comments. was surprised to see some people solve 40 to 80 math questions in 7 minutes. super awesome!! that is like solving 5 to 11 in a minute. Terrific. as per my potential my plan was to solve 3 questions in a minute if easy and 2 questions if they are hard. i managed between 20 to 30 questions in 7 minutes, dedicating 2-3 questions to solve in a minute. My bad. i got to improve. Regarding sequence I managed 10 problems in 15 minutes. I won't make it through probably. Too Slow :-(
I only got through about 30 of the arithmetic questions (and 30 of the sequences) so assumed I did not pass, yet I was still moved on to the personality questionnaire, and then the hirevue interview, which will be available next week. Not sure how they calculate the math scores in terms of moving people onwards - there might be a higher weight on sequences since trading is a lot of pattern recognition.
Did you take the hirevue interview? I heard it is only 5-10 minutes. What questions were asked? just Behavioral?
Did you end up passing?
I interviewed there a year or so back for a trading job. I got dinged after phone interview. I did not finish a few of the questions on Hireview and still moved on. If you pass the phone interview they will fly you out to Chicago on the weekend and give you an answer while you are still there.
Do you remember if the phone interview had mental math (ie addition, mult, etc.) or just more technical questions?
Has anyone made it to the final round yet and could share their experience?
Did you ever find out anything about the final round?
I did, message me for details
,
I haven't made it to the final round yet, but I do have a phone interview scheduled. If anyone else has already taken the phone interview and wants to talk about that a little, it would be super helpful to me. Currently I am focusing on studying probability games, option theory and Fermi problems, though I'm not at all sure that these are the best things to focus on.
lol you're not expected to know anything about option theory for any stage of their process. so don't waste your time on that.
source: went through entire interview process
Hey StockIQ I PMed you with a question in case you see this Thanks in advance for helping me out!
Hello, does anyone know if the math test (First round ) is on webcam or not ? or its just a online test without control ? thanks inadvance
First round does not require webcam. Practice sequences.
Thanks ! i dt understand what is the goal of the mental calculation if they cant check if you are using pen and papers ? thats weird ...
Just putting in my 2c for the akuna math section. I'm fairly good at mental math, sequences not so much. I used zetamac on the default settings for the 5min and 10 min intervals, taking each 3 times. On the 5 minute I got 38, 48, and 44. On the 10 min I got 89, 108, and 97.
I don't think that in any way prepped me for the Akuna math test. First, the intervals for the akuna math test are more triple x double digit calculations. Secondly, the test comprises of fractions and decimals which definitely hamper your time. I've never used TraderTest, but it's long-gone and the site is disabled so we need something better than zetamac to help with prepping for these trading tests.
Gonna have to break it to you, but I highly doubt you are good at mental math if you are only scoring ~45 for 5 minutes and ~100 on the 10 minute test. Next time try to aim for 50-60+ in the 2 minute section.
it takes 2 seconds to type and read the next question.. no way they're looking for 175-210 (25-30/min). that's a savant.
Just did my first Zeta test and got 40 in the 2 minute section on default. I totally agree with u now.
Where can I find good sequence questions?
Does anyone have a good idea what results Akuna is looking for with the math test? For those that passed, what was your score? For those that didn't pass, what was your score?
Bump - I'd like to know what a good score for something like this is also.
and how will they know if a calculator is used
@Jabo123 They won't but will figure it out after technical interviews, so you might as well not waste your and their time.
I took the test, thought I failed, because I did not prepare for 3x3 digits, but still passed. I still think zetamac was fairly helpful - not all firms have as difficult a mental math as Akuna.
How many sequences did you complete? Or do you know what the general requirement is to pass the first round for sequences?
I finished 55+ mental maths and 15 sequences. thought was correct on 50+ and 10+. will update if new information comes in or make it to further rounds.
Does anyone know if you automatically move on to the personality test after the math test or if they cut people after the math test? Cause online it says the first round is assessments (as in both math and personality) and then the Hirevue interview.
I moved on to the personality test, but I'm just wondering if my math score is something I'd still have to worry about or whether I passed and that's why I moved on?
I'd use a simple random number generator, and just practice multiplication, division, etc. as quickly as possible. This is the best way to prepare.
You may want to check out Quant Trading Quiz. There are a bunch of math questions and brainteasers to get you prepared for interviews, such as the interviews at Jane Street, Akuna, etc. Best of luck!
What school does everyone go to who got the internship?
Got 31 in mental math and 16 in sequences. Didn't make the cut.
http://arithmetic.lemo.education/ this site will do the trick in mental math. If you are good there, the actual interview is trivial. I wouldn't take hard to seriously tho, it is actually mental.
Took the test recently; probably around 50-60 on mental math and about 19-22 on the sequences test. The sequences test is not easy, will update you guys
Zetamac helps, aim for 50+, although the higher it is, 60, 70, 90... the better
Any more to report on the interview or process?
Does the phone interview round for akuna have mental math on it or is it just probability. i.e. will I be asked to do "65 x 47" but in words instead of reading it on the screen?
Does everyone who takes the math test get the personality test?
Never got a personality test. I ended up going through the mental math test, coding test, and phone technical interview.
Did you have the final round yet? I have the final round coming up soon and would appreciate some advice, thanks!
Will anyone who has taken the webcam interview kindly share what it's like?
Mental math questions like in the initial tests you take, couple probability questions, and a logic/brainteaser question
How long after the personality test were you notified about the webcam interview?
I got an interview like 2 days later, took personality saturday got webcam invite monday. Prepping for it now, worried about mental math mostly.. I found the sequences to be pretty easy in the opening one, but the mental math was tough, especially when there are negative numbers, decimals, and division. anyone know any tricks for division, like 684 / 9 or something? how to do this fast?
I'll be taking the online assessment next week. Can anyone list the types of questions on this year's version of the online assessment?
Thanks!
Any sophomores on this thread? I got an "offer" from them after completing the entire interview process but they said that this year they're not taking sophomores for the full 10 week internship and instead it's just an one week program at the end of summer.
Hi three_factor, congratulations on the achievement. I'm also a sophomore but applied recently. Did you go onsite for the final round? Thanks a lot.
Nope, for the final round it was actually a video interview. The interview was two rounds and a mix of technical/behavioral stuff (the above posts about the final round were pretty accurate)
do you know how to code?
Wharton kid haha
I'm also a sophomore and I have a final round web interview scheduled as well. So you went through all 5 rounds of the interview process and they told you they are not hiring any sophomores as junior traders interns this year?
Thanks a lot.
Have you tried https://graduatetrader.co.uk/?
They have maths and sequencing tests which are very similar to Akuna and Optiver.
wish i had seen this before i took the test
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