PRACTICE GUIDE   JANE STREET

Jane Street Market Making Practice Test

Jane Street does not publish the shape of its market making screen, and candidates describe it as 6 to 20 questions in 10 to 30 minutes, roughly one to three minutes per question, answered by typing the number, with no calculator.

Those are ranges across firms running this format rather than Jane Street's own figures, so treat them as the shape to train against and check the instruction screen on the day for the marking rule.

Betting and market-on-your-own-uncertainty games are a widely reported staple of the onsite rounds.

Outcry is not affiliated with Jane Street 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 Jane Street’s own.

What it screens

A quantitative trading firm active across equities, ETFs, bonds, options and currencies, known for OCaml and a strong internship pipeline.

• ✓Setting a bid-ask spread that reflects your uncertainty
• ✓Updating quotes after a fill (adverse selection - the person who traded knows something)
• ✓Inventory management: skewing quotes to flatten a position
• ✓Hedging exposure instead of letting it build

Where it sits at Jane Street

A quantitative trading firm active across equities, ETFs, bonds, options and currencies, known for OCaml and a strong internship pipeline. 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 3 other screens at Jane Street, 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

Jane Street does not publish this screen's shape, and it varies between firms, so these are the ranges candidates report rather than exact figures.

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 Jane Street’s.

HOW IT SCORES
One of the 13 rows is drawn at random as the winning row. Every
row is equally likely. A letter scores its own row number minus
the winning row number, and a wager pays that score in dollars
per unit.

ROW      LEFT   RIGHT
---------------------
  1      I      U
  2      O      A
  3      F      M
  4      Y      R
  5      B      H
  6      S      K
  7      Q      V
  8      T      J
  9      X      P
 10      E      D
 11      Z      C
 12      W      N
 13      G      L

HOW IT SCORES
One of the 13 rows is drawn at random as the winning row. Every
row is equally likely. A letter scores its own row number minus
the winning row number, and a wager pays that score in dollars
per unit.

ROW      LEFT   RIGHT
---------------------
  1      P      F
  2      B      D
  3      X      U
  4      I      Z
  5      Q      M
  6      A      E
  7      Y      G
  8      T      V
  9      C      H
 10      N      J
 11      ?      ?
 12      ?      ?
 13      ?      ?

Rows 11 to 13 are face down. Between them they hold
K, L, O, R, S, W, but not in any stated order.

HOW IT SCORES
One of the 13 rows is drawn at random as the winning row. Every
row is equally likely. A letter scores its own row number minus
the winning row number, and a wager pays that score in dollars
per unit.

ROW      LEFT   RIGHT
---------------------
  1      H      G
  2      L      P
  3      I      O
  4      C      Y
  5      Z      U
  6      E      W
  7      Q      N
  8      S      D
  9      X      B
 10      J      A
 11      F      R
 12      T      K
 13      V      M

What a good score looks like

There is no score to report on most of these. Market-making rounds are judged on the reasoning you narrate as much as the number you land on, which is why candidates describe them as the hardest round to prepare for and the easiest to improve at.

How to train for it

1. 01Practise saying the spread out loud with a reason attached. Width without a reason reads as guessing.
2. 02Play a round where you get filled and have to re-quote. The update is what the round is actually testing.
3. 03Quote wider than feels comfortable to begin with, then tighten. A trader can talk you down from a wide market; a blown-out fill does not come back.

TRAIN IT HERE

The drills that match each section

Also reported at Jane Street

• Probability & estimationGuide
• Stochastic processesGuide
• Quant developer codingGuide

Common questions

Is the Jane Street market making test multiple choice?

Reported as typed price, spread or size. Formats move, so treat this as the shape rather than a guarantee.

How long is the Jane Street market making test?

Candidates report 6 to 20 questions in 10 to 30 minutes, roughly one to three minutes per question.

Is there negative marking on the Jane Street market making 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.