PRACTICE GUIDE OPTIVER
Optiver 80 in 8 Practice Test
The Optiver 80 in 8 screen is 80 questions in 8 minutes - about 6 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: Section A of the online battery, before any interview. 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 Optiver.
Candidates widely report an 80-questions-in-8-minutes arithmetic screen early in the process - it is the assessment this format is named after.
Outcry is not affiliated with Optiver 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 Optiver’s own.
What it screens
A global market maker headquartered in Amsterdam, trading options, ETFs and futures on major exchanges.
- ✓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 Optiver
This section does not arrive on its own. It opens the paper, and the sitting around it runs 95 minutes and 175 items in total, with NumberLogic, Likelihood List, Beat the Odds, Zap-N: number memory and Zap-N: patterns 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 Optiver sitting on this site runs on, matching the format candidates report.
| Questions | 80 |
|---|---|
| Time | 8 minutes |
| Per question | 6 seconds |
| Negative marking | Yes - a wrong answer costs a mark |
| Answer style | Typed numeric answer, no calculator |
| Where it sits | Section A of the online battery, 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 Optiver’s.
Two-digit multiplication
Products you are expected to reach by splitting rather than by long multiplication.
Example 1
5/12 × 156
Answer 65
156 ÷ 12 = 13, then × 5 = 65.
Example 2
16 × 24
Answer 384
(20−4)(20+4) = 20² − 4² = 400 − 16 = 384.
Example 3
45 × 55
Answer 2475
(50−5)(50+5) = 50² − 5² = 2500 − 25 = 2475.
Fast division
Exact quotients where the divisor is chosen to make a shortcut available.
Example 1
20% of 140
Answer 28
Swap it: 20% of 140 = 140% of 20 = 28.
Example 2
125% of 32
Answer 40
Swap it: 125% of 32 = 32% of 125 = 40.
Example 3
44²
Answer 1936
Anchor on 40: 44² = 40² + 2 × 40 × 4 + 16 = 1600 + 320 + 16 = 1936.
Percentages both ways
A percentage of a number, and the move needed to undo one - a 20% fall needs a 25% rise.
Example 1
What is 50% of 320?
Answer 160
10% of 320 is 32. 50% is 5 times that, which is 160.
Example 2
Four runners finished with no ties. Ben finished ahead of Ana. Ana finished ahead of Eli. Eli finished ahead of Femi. Who finished second?
- Ana
- Eli
- Ben
- Femi
Answer Ana
Chaining the three statements gives Ben then Ana then Eli then Femi, so second place is Ana.
Example 3
Which word fits the blank? The price will hold ___ the supplier raises the freight rate.
- therefore
- unless
- so
- because
Answer unless
The second half is the one thing that would break the first, which is what "unless" marks. The other three would make the rate rise the cause of the price holding, which reverses the sense.
Additive chains
Long sums and differences where grouping to round numbers beats working left to right.
Example 1
515 - 131 = ?
Answer 384
Round 131 up to 200, subtract, then add back 69: 384.
Example 2
10/12 as a decimal, three decimal places?
Answer 0.833
1/12 = 0.083, so 10/12 = 0.833.
Example 3
783 + 557 = ?
Answer 1340
Round 557 to 560, add, then correct by -3: 1,340.
Squares and near-squares
Products a step either side of a square, where the difference-of-squares identity is faster than multiplying.
Example 1
44 12 60 45 14 15 46 54 31 77 89 23 65 94 42 82 84 40 36 49 58 86 29 64 64 24 15 70 11 13
How many of the numbers above are greater than 43?
Answer 17
The entries above 43 are 44, 60, 45, 46, 54, 77, 89, 65, 94, 82, 84, 49, 58, 86, 64, 64, 70 - 17 of them.
Example 2
Continue the sequence: 71, 74, 77, 80, 83, ?
Answer 86
Every step adds 3, so the next term is 83 + 3 = 86.
Example 3
B6 B6 A3 A19 B15 B7
A means add 7 to the number. B means multiply it by 2. What do the six results add to?
Answer 104
B6→12, B6→12, A3→10, A19→26, B15→30, B7→14, which adds to 104.
Order of operations under pressure
Items written to punish reading left to right instead of resolving the structure first.
Example 1
420 is split in the ratio 5:2. What is the larger part?
Answer 300
7 parts of 60 each. The larger part is 5 × 60 = 300.
Example 2
5x + 4y = 71 and 2x + 9y = 95. What is x?
Answer 7
Eliminate y: multiply the first by 9 and the second by 4, subtract, and x = 7. Then y = 9.
Example 3
181 × 21 = ?
Answer 3801
181 × 20 = 3,620, plus 181 × 1 = 181, giving 3,801.
What a good score looks like
On a paper of 80 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. 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.
- 02Add the clock and hold the accuracy. This is the step most people skip, and it is the one the screen measures.
- 03Work 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.
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 Optiver
Common questions
- Is the Optiver 80 in 8 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 Optiver 80 in 8 test?
- 80 questions in 8 minutes, which is about 6 seconds each.
- Is there negative marking on the Optiver 80 in 8 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 Optiver Trading Assessment sitting puts the sections back to back on one clock.