PRACTICE GUIDE CITADEL SECURITIES
Citadel Securities Mental Math Practice Test
Citadel Securities does not publish the shape of its mental math screen, and candidates describe it as 60 to 80 questions in 8 to 10 minutes, roughly about 6 to 10 seconds per question, answered by typing the number, with no calculator.
Those are ranges across firms running this format rather than Citadel Securities's own figures, so treat them as the shape to train against and check the instruction screen on the day for the marking rule.
Outcry is not affiliated with Citadel Securities 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 Citadel Securities’s own.
What it screens
A market maker quoting across equities, options, fixed income and ETFs globally.
- ✓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 Citadel Securities
A market maker quoting across equities, options, fixed income and ETFs globally. 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 5 other screens at Citadel Securities, 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
Citadel Securities does not publish this screen's shape, and it varies between firms, so these are the ranges candidates report rather than exact figures.
| Questions | 60 to 80 |
|---|---|
| Time | 8 to 10 minutes |
| Per question | about 6 to 10 seconds |
| Negative marking | Varies by firm and year |
| Answer style | Typed numeric answer, no calculator |
| Where it sits | First round, before any interview |
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 Citadel Securities’s.
Two-digit multiplication
Products you are expected to reach by splitting rather than by long multiplication.
Example 1
62% of 400
Answer 248
Swap it: 62% of 400 = 400% of 62 = 248.
Example 2
12 × 4 − 15
Answer 33
12 × 4 = 48; 48 − 15 = 33.
Example 3
5/12 × 156
Answer 65
156 ÷ 12 = 13, then × 5 = 65.
Fractions and decimals
Converting between the two on sight, and reducing without pencil work.
Example 1
67 + 80 + 33 + 81
Answer 261
Pair them: 67 + 80 = 147, 33 + 81 = 114, total 261.
Example 2
25% of 25% of 400
Answer 25
Multiply the fractions first: 25% × 25% = 6.25%, and 6.25% of 400 = 25.
Example 3
352 ÷ 11
Answer 32
11 × 32 = 352, so the quotient is 32.
Mixed operations under a clock
Several steps in one item, where the order you take them decides whether it fits in the time.
Example 1
450 ÷ 3 = ?
Answer 150
Chunk it: 3 × 150 = 450, leaving 0, which is 3 × 0. The quotient is 150.
Example 2
73.46 + 7.08 = ?
Answer 80.54
73.46 + 7.08 = 80.54.
Example 3
After a 50% rise a price is 90. What was it before?
Answer 60
Divide, do not subtract: 90/1.5 = 60.
Additive chains
Long sums and differences where grouping to round numbers beats working left to right.
Example 1
35% of 240 = ?
Answer 84
1% of 240 is 2.4, so 35% is 84.
Example 2
7% of 220 = ?
Answer 15.4
1% of 220 is 2.2, so 7% is 15.4.
Example 3
515 - 131 = ?
Answer 384
Round 131 up to 200, subtract, then add back 69: 384.
Squares and near-squares
Products a step either side of a square, where the difference-of-squares identity is faster than multiplying.
Example
46 58 16 30 19
Halve every even number. Triple every odd number and add 1. What do the results add to?
Answer 133
46→23, 58→29, 16→8, 30→15, 19→58, which adds to 133.
Order of operations under pressure
Items written to punish reading left to right instead of resolving the structure first.
Example
11 traders each shake hands once with every other. How many handshakes?
Answer 55
C(11,2) = 11 × 10/2 = 55.
What a good score looks like
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
- 01Drill the arithmetic cold, untimed, until you stop making careless errors. Speed on top of shaky accuracy is worth negative marks on a paper that subtracts.
- 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 Citadel Securities
Common questions
- Is the Citadel Securities mental math test multiple choice?
- Reported as typed numeric answer, no calculator. Formats move, so treat this as the shape rather than a guarantee.
- How long is the Citadel Securities mental math test?
- Candidates report 60 to 80 questions in 8 to 10 minutes, roughly about 6 to 10 seconds per question.
- Is there negative marking on the Citadel Securities mental math test?
- It varies by firm and by year. Where a paper does mark negatively, skipping beats guessing; where it does not, answer everything. Check the instruction screen before you start - it is always stated there.
- 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.