PRACTICE GUIDE MAVEN SECURITIES
Maven Securities Sequences Practice Test
The Maven Securities sequences screen is 30 questions in 6 minutes - about 12 seconds each - answered by typing the number, with no calculator. There is no negative marking, so leaving an item blank gains you nothing over guessing.
Where it sits: Same sitting as the mental 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 Maven Securities.
Outcry is not affiliated with Maven 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 Maven Securities’s own.
What it screens
A London-based proprietary trading group active in derivatives market making and systematic strategies.
- ✓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 Maven Securities
This section does not arrive on its own. It is section B of 3, and the sitting around it runs 41 minutes and 98 items in total, with Mental maths and Probability and problem solving 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 Maven Securities sitting on this site runs on, matching the format candidates report.
| Questions | 30 |
|---|---|
| Time | 6 minutes |
| Per question | 12 seconds |
| Negative marking | No |
| Answer style | Typed numeric answer, no calculator |
| Where it sits | Same sitting as the mental 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 Maven Securities’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.
Interleaved sequences
Two rules taking alternate turns, which reads as noise until you split the list.
Example 1
19, 27, 37, 49, 63, ? What comes next?
Answer 79
The gaps are 8, 10, 12, 14 and grow by 2. Next gap 16, so 63 + 16 = 79.
Example 2
11, 30, 68, 144, 296, ? What comes next?
Answer 600
Double and add 8: 296 × 2 + 8 = 600.
Example 3
34, 37, 40, 43, 46, ? What comes next?
Answer 49
Each term adds 3, so 46 + 3 = 49.
Committing under time
A sequence you cannot crack is a skip, not a guess, wherever the paper marks negatively.
Ratio runs that are not geometric
Terms whose ratios themselves move, which reads as geometric until the third term breaks it.
Example 1
43, 49, 55, 61, 67, ? What comes next?
Answer 73
Each term adds 6, so 67 + 6 = 73.
Example 2
9, 25, 57, 121, 249, ? What comes next?
Answer 505
Double and add 7: 249 × 2 + 7 = 505.
Example 3
19, 27, 37, 49, 63, ? What comes next?
Answer 79
The gaps are 8, 10, 12, 14 and grow by 2. Next gap 16, so 63 + 16 = 79.
Position-dependent rules
The rule uses the index rather than the previous term, so differences never settle.
Example
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.
Sequences with a planted decoy
An opening that fits two rules, where the fourth term is what decides between them.
Example 1
10, 18, 34, 66, 130, 258, ?
Answer 514
Take 2 off every term and you get 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 - powers of 2. The next power is 512, so the answer is 514.
Example 2
3, -6, 12, -24, 48, -96, ?
Answer 192
Each term is -2 times the one before it. -96 × -2 = 192.
Example 3
3, 7, 15, 31, 63, 127, ?
Answer 255
Each term is 2 times the last, plus 1. 2 × 127 + 1 = 255.
What a good score looks like
On a paper of 30 questions with no penalty for a wrong answer, the only thing an unanswered question can do is cost you. 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
- 01Practise splitting a list into odd and even positions the moment the differences look random. That one move solves every interleaved item.
- 02Memorise the small squares, cubes, primes and factorials to sight-recognition. Deriving them is what costs the time.
- 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 Maven Securities
Common questions
- Is the Maven Securities 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 Maven Securities sequences test?
- 30 questions in 6 minutes, which is about 12 seconds each.
- Is there negative marking on the Maven Securities sequences 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. The full Maven Securities Online Assessment sitting puts the sections back to back on one clock.