PRACTICE GUIDE AKUNA CAPITAL
Akuna Capital Math Test: what the test is, and how to train for it
The Akuna Capital math test screen is 80 questions in 8 minutes - about 6 seconds each - answered by typing the number, with no calculator. It marks negatively, so a wrong answer costs you a mark and a skip costs you nothing.
Where it sits: First online round. The practice sitting on this page runs the same item count, the same clock and the same marking rule, with questions generated by Outcry rather than taken from Akuna Capital.
Outcry is not affiliated with Akuna Capital and has no access to their assessment content. This guide describes an assessment format that candidates report publicly; the questions here are generated by Outcry and are not Akuna Capital’s own.
What it screens
A Chicago options market maker with a strong C++ and derivatives-pricing focus.
- ✓Two-digit multiplication and division without writing anything down
- ✓Fraction and decimal conversion at a glance
- ✓Percentage moves in both directions (a 20% drop needs +25% to recover)
- ✓Knowing when to skip: negative marking punishes guessing
Where it sits at Akuna Capital
This section does not arrive on its own. It opens the paper, and the sitting around it runs 20 minutes and 104 items in total, with Sequences test on the same continuous clock. Candidates who prepare only for this round tend to be caught by the pacing of the rest.
There is no going back. You answer or skip, and the next item loads, which means the decision to leave an item is final at the moment you make it.
The format
These are the numbers the Akuna Capital sitting on this site runs on, matching the format candidates report.
| Questions | 80 |
|---|---|
| Time | 8 minutes |
| Per question | 6 seconds |
| Negative marking | Yes - a wrong answer costs a mark |
| Answer style | Typed numeric answer, no calculator |
| Where it sits | First online round |
What it tests, with a worked example
Every example below is generated by Outcry, drawn from the same question generators the timed drills run. None of them is Akuna Capital’s.
Two-digit multiplication
Products you are expected to reach by splitting rather than by long multiplication.
Example 1
45 × 55
Answer 2475
(50−5)(50+5) = 50² − 5² = 2500 − 25 = 2475.
Example 2
6/7 × 14
Answer 12
14 ÷ 7 = 2, then × 6 = 12.
Example 3
25²
Answer 625
25² = 625.
Fast division
Exact quotients where the divisor is chosen to make a shortcut available.
Example 1
44²
Answer 1936
Anchor on 40: 44² = 40² + 2 × 40 × 4 + 16 = 1600 + 320 + 16 = 1936.
Example 2
1/3 of 18
Answer 6
18 ÷ 3 = 6, then × 1 = 6. Divide before you multiply and the numbers stay small.
Example 3
22.5 ÷ 0.5
Answer 45
Scale both by 10: 225 ÷ 5 = 45. A decimal divisor is only ever a whole one in disguise.
Percentages both ways
A percentage of a number, and the move needed to undo one - a 20% fall needs a 25% rise.
Example
Which word fits the blank? The price will hold ___ the supplier raises the freight rate.
- therefore
- unless
- so
- because
Answer unless
The second half is the one thing that would break the first, which is what "unless" marks. The other three would make the rate rise the cause of the price holding, which reverses the sense.
Knowing when to skip
On a negatively marked paper an item you cannot see a route through is worth leaving.
Squares and near-squares
Products a step either side of a square, where the difference-of-squares identity is faster than multiplying.
Example
B6 B6 A3 A19 B15 B7
A means add 7 to the number. B means multiply it by 2. What do the six results add to?
Answer 104
B6→12, B6→12, A3→10, A19→26, B15→30, B7→14, which adds to 104.
Order of operations under pressure
Items written to punish reading left to right instead of resolving the structure first.
Example 1
181 × 21 = ?
Answer 3801
181 × 20 = 3,620, plus 181 × 1 = 181, giving 3,801.
Example 2
26 × 34 = ?
Answer 884
26 × 30 = 780, plus 26 × 4 = 104, giving 884.
Example 3
Two fair dice are rolled. What is the chance the total is 9, as a percentage?
Answer 11.1
4 of the 36 ordered outcomes total 9, so 4/36 = 11.1%.
What a good score looks like
On a paper of 80 questions marked +1 and -1, the arithmetic of the threshold matters as much as the threshold: every wrong answer costs you two places against someone who skipped it. Candidates most often report a pass mark around 70 per cent of the questions attempted correctly, with the strongest scores well above that. Nothing here is a published figure: firms move these by role, region and year, and most never state them at all.
How to train for it
- 01Sit a full timed screen end to end, so the pacing decisions happen under the same pressure as the real thing.
- 02Work the operation you avoid. Almost everyone has one - long division, or fractions, or subtraction with a borrow - and it is where the dropped marks cluster.
- 03Learn a handful of identities rather than more speed: difference of squares, multiplying by 11, halving and doubling. They convert a hard item into an easy one.
TRAIN IT HERE
The drills that match each section
Arithmetic Drill
2.5 timed minutes of exactly this question mix, with a ghost of your best past run to race.
Duck Duck Dash
Endless mental-math runner - one mistake ends the run, and the questions climb through ten difficulty tiers.
Sequence Sprint
Pattern recognition under the same per-question time pressure.
SIT THE FULL BATTERY
All the sections back to back on one clock, marked the way the real screen marks them, with a by-skill breakdown at the end. Included with any pass.
Also reported at Akuna Capital
Common questions
- Is the Akuna Capital math test test multiple choice?
- Typed numeric answer, no calculator. You type the number, so there is nothing to eliminate your way to.
- How long is the Akuna Capital math test test?
- 80 questions in 8 minutes, which is about 6 seconds each.
- Is there negative marking on the Akuna Capital math test test?
- Yes. A wrong answer costs you a mark, so an item you cannot see a route through is worth skipping outright - a blind guess on this paper is negative expected value.
- How do I practise for it free?
- Every drill linked on this page is free to play, with no account, inside a daily run cap. Questions are generated fresh each run, so there is nothing to memorise between attempts. The full Akuna Math and Sequences sitting puts the sections back to back on one clock.
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