PRACTICE GUIDE AKUNA CAPITAL
Akuna Capital Quant Developer Practice Test
Akuna Capital does not publish the shape of its quant developer screen, and candidates describe it as 2 to 4 problems questions in 60 to 120 minutes, roughly 20 to 40 minutes per question, written in a code editor and run against tests you cannot see.
Those are ranges across firms running this format rather than Akuna Capital's own figures, so treat them as the shape to train against and check the instruction screen on the day for the marking rule.
Candidates report the C++ bar being the distinguishing feature of the developer track.
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.
- ✓Reading concurrent code and pointing at the defective line
- ✓Order-book data structures: what happens on a cross, a cancel, a partial fill
- ✓Algorithmic complexity chosen for the input sizes stated in the problem
- ✓Monte Carlo methods and when a simulation beats a closed form
Where it sits at Akuna Capital
A Chicago options market maker with a strong C++ and derivatives-pricing focus. What that means for the screen is that the questions tend to be drawn from the work rather than from a textbook, so the format below is the shape to train against rather than a syllabus.
Candidates also report 4 other screens at Akuna Capital, covered separately on this site. Where a firm runs several, they usually sit in one round rather than spread across the process, so the pacing of the whole set matters more than any single section.
The format
Akuna Capital does not publish this screen's shape, and it varies between firms, so these are the ranges candidates report rather than exact figures.
| Questions | 2 to 4 problems |
|---|---|
| Time | 60 to 120 minutes |
| Per question | 20 to 40 minutes |
| Negative marking | No |
| Answer style | Code editor, run against hidden tests |
| Where it sits | First technical round, usually on HackerRank or CoderPad |
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.
Data structure implementation
Build the thing rather than call it: an order book, a cache, a ring buffer. Graded by hidden tests, so there is no partial credit for an approach.
Complexity that is actually graded
Hidden tests sized so the naive solution times out. A correct answer that is too slow scores the same as a wrong one.
Reading someone else's code
A diff or a function with a bug in it, and the question is where.
Example
You need the running median of a live price stream. Which approach is best?
- Two heaps - a max-heap of the low half and a min-heap of the high half
- Sort the buffer on every tick
- A single min-heap
- A hash map of counts
Answer Two heaps - a max-heap of the low half and a min-heap of the high half
Balanced heaps give O(log n) insert and O(1) median. Re-sorting is O(n log n) per tick.
Language and systems detail
Memory, references, undefined behaviour and the things that bite in production.
Example
A table holds 229,000 rows of 256 bytes each. Blocks are 4,096 bytes and rows do not span blocks. How many blocks does a full scan read?
- 14,313
- 229,000
- 218,000
- 16
Answer 14,313
4,096 / 256 = 16 rows a block once the remainder is discarded, since a row cannot straddle a block. 229,000 / 16 rounds up to 14,313 blocks. Dividing total bytes by block size gives 14,313 and quietly assumes no wasted tail.
Edge cases
Empty input, one element, duplicates and overflow. The hidden tests always include them.
Reading a spec precisely
Return type, ordering and tie-breaking are graded, and are where most silent failures come from.
What a good score looks like
Coding screens are usually pass-fail on hidden tests rather than scored, and candidates commonly report that a solution passing every correctness test still fails on a timeout. Treat full marks as solving every problem inside the complexity bound, not merely solving it.
How to train for it
- 01Implement the core structures from scratch once each. The screens ask you to build them, not use them.
- 02Write the edge cases into your own tests first. That is where the hidden ones live.
- 03Practise without an autocomplete. The screens run in a bare editor, and the gap between writing code with help and without it is larger than most people expect.
TRAIN IT HERE
The drills that match each section
Concurrency Clash
Find the data race, name the fix - real C++ defect patterns, five levels.
Order Book
Matching-engine mechanics: crosses, cancels and partial fills.
Algorithm Lab
DP tables, Monte Carlo estimation and speed rounds at four difficulty tiers.
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 quant developer test multiple choice?
- Reported as code editor, run against hidden tests. Formats move, so treat this as the shape rather than a guarantee.
- How long is the Akuna Capital quant developer test?
- Candidates report 2 to 4 problems questions in 60 to 120 minutes, roughly 20 to 40 minutes per question.
- Is there negative marking on the Akuna Capital quant developer test?
- No. A wrong answer costs nothing beyond the mark you would have earned, so leaving an item blank is never better than guessing at it.
- 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.
Hiring now: current Akuna Capital quant openings, refreshed daily.