Interviewing at Optiver for a trader role is intense and intellectually rigorous. The process emphasizes mental math, probability, and game theory, testing your speed and logic under pressure. Expect multiple rounds, including behavioral and technical assessments. It’s demanding but rewarding for those who thrive in high-stakes, fast-paced environments.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
One question they asked me was: “How many gas stations are there in the U.S.?”
I approached it as a market sizing problem: estimated the U.S. population, assumed an average number of people per gas station, factored in urban vs. rural distribution, and arrived at a reasoned estimate around 150,000.
spent about 1.5 months pretty much purely dedicated to preparing for interviews for all the pre-penultimate programs (Optiver, IMC, JS, SIG, Citadel, etc). I used these resources:
Green book (Really good starter but I got bored of it after a few weeks)
EverythingQuant (Went through literally every single interview prep question, went through the interview guides, and completed the probability course just to make sure I covered all bases)
Briefly read through this guide
Watched coding Jesus in my spare time (not sure if this helped directly lmao but he’s a great creator and very informative)
Mental math test, beat the odds, online puzzle like games etc online, brain teasers during physical interview and a behavioral interview where they want to assess how competitive and assertive you are.
OA was weird and hard. there was only three sections (i think) this year compared to 5 last year. questions are weird and I don't know how they can judge your ability base on that.
