PRACTICE GUIDE FLOW TRADERS
Flow Traders Sequences Practice Test
The Flow Traders sequences screen is 26 questions in 26 minutes - about 60 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: Same sitting as the maths test. 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 Flow Traders.
Outcry is not affiliated with Flow Traders 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 Flow Traders’s own.
What it screens
A liquidity provider specialising in ETFs, with offices in Amsterdam, New York, Cluj, Hong Kong and Singapore.
- ✓First and second differences, ratios, and alternating patterns
- ✓Interleaved sequences (two rules taking turns)
- ✓Squares, cubes, primes and factorials recognised on sight
- ✓Committing to an answer with seconds left
Where it sits at Flow Traders
This section does not arrive on its own. It closes the paper, and the sitting around it runs 32 minutes and 86 items in total, with Maths 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 Flow Traders sitting on this site runs on, matching the format candidates report.
| Questions | 26 |
|---|---|
| Time | 26 minutes |
| Per question | 60 seconds |
| Negative marking | Yes - a wrong answer costs a mark |
| Answer style | Typed numeric answer, no calculator |
| Where it sits | Same sitting as the maths test |
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 Flow Traders’s.
Arithmetic and geometric runs
A constant difference or a constant ratio, sometimes with the first term chosen to hide it.
Example 1
-11, -4, 4, 13, 23, ?
Answer 34
First differences increase by 1 each time, forcing the sequence to cross zero.
Example 2
-4, 99, -1, 79, 2, ?
Answer 59
Interleaved sequences: odd positions rise slowly from near zero, evens drop rapidly.
Example 3
-1, 6, -5, -1, 6, ?
Answer -5
Each term is -1× previous minus the one before it.
Second-order differences
The differences themselves form a pattern - the give-away for a quadratic rule.
Example 1
What comes next: 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, ?
Answer 55
Triangular numbers - the gaps go up by one each time. Next is 45 + 10 = 55.
Example 2
All traders are risk-takers. No risk-takers are cautious people. What follows?
- No traders are cautious people
- Some traders are cautious people
- No cautious people are risk-takers only if some traders are
- All risk-takers are traders
Answer No traders are cautious people
Every trader sits inside risk-takers, and that set is disjoint from cautious people, so none can overlap.
Example 3
Which one does not belong: 83, 16, 81, 49?
- 81
- 83
- 49
- 16
Answer 83
81, 49, 16 are all perfect squares. 83 is not.
Interleaved sequences
Two rules taking alternate turns, which reads as noise until you split the list.
Example 1
9, 24, 54, 114, 234, ? What comes next?
Answer 474
Double and add 6: 234 × 2 + 6 = 474.
Example 2
10, 25, 55, 115, 235, ? What comes next?
Answer 475
Double and add 5: 235 × 2 + 5 = 475.
Example 3
8, 16, 32, 64, 128, ? What comes next?
Answer 256
Each term multiplies by 2, so 128 × 2 = 256.
Operation chains
Each term built from the last by a repeating operation cycle rather than one rule.
Example 1
4, 8, 12, 16, 20, ? What comes next?
Answer 24
Twice the last minus the one before: 2 × 20 - 16 = 24.
Example 2
24, 67, 29, 75, 34, ? What comes next?
Answer 83
Two sequences alternate. Odd positions 24, 29, 34 add 5. Even positions 67, 75 add 8, so the next is 83.
Example 3
9, 22, 48, 100, 204, ? What comes next?
Answer 412
Double and add 4: 204 × 2 + 4 = 412.
Committing under time
A sequence you cannot crack is a skip, not a guess, wherever the paper marks negatively.
Position-dependent rules
The rule uses the index rather than the previous term, so differences never settle.
Example 1
What comes next: 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, ?
Answer 63
One less than a power of two: 2^6 − 1 = 63. Equivalently double and add 1.
Example 2
What comes next: 5, 10, 30, 120, 600, ?
Answer 3600
The multiplier grows: ×2, ×3, ×4, ×5, so next is ×6: 600 × 6 = 3600.
Example 3
How many numbers from 1 to 150 are divisible by 3 or by 5?
Answer 70
50 multiples of 3, 30 of 5, and 10 counted twice as multiples of 15: 50 + 30 − 10 = 70.
What a good score looks like
On a paper of 26 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. These are usually scored alongside the arithmetic section rather than reported separately, so a standalone cutoff is rarely visible. Candidates describe the sequences round as the one that responds fastest to practice, because the rule families are few.
How to train for it
- 01Learn to take first and second differences automatically, before trying anything cleverer. It resolves most items on its own.
- 02Practise splitting a list into odd and even positions the moment the differences look random. That one move solves every interleaved item.
- 03Give yourself a fixed budget per item and abandon at it. One sequence you refuse to let go of costs more than the three you never reach.
TRAIN IT HERE
The drills that match each section
Sequence Sprint
Timed next-term sequences, exactly the assessment format.
Arithmetic Drill
The raw calculation speed that sequence tests assume you already have.
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 Flow Traders
Common questions
- Is the Flow Traders sequences 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 Flow Traders sequences test?
- 26 questions in 26 minutes, which is about 60 seconds each.
- Is there negative marking on the Flow Traders sequences 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 Flow Traders Trading Assessment sitting puts the sections back to back on one clock.
Hiring now: current Flow Traders quant openings, refreshed daily.