PRACTICE GUIDE VIRTU
Virtu Market Making Practice Test
This guide offers market making preparation for readers interested in Virtu Financial. The general practice ranges below are not a verified assessment specification for that employer.
Those are ranges across firms running this format rather than Virtu Financial's own figures, so treat them as the shape to train against and check the instruction screen on the day for the marking rule.
These are Outcry preparation topics, not a verified current firm assessment specification. Check your role-specific invitation for the test, timing, tools and recruitment stage.
Outcry is not affiliated with Virtu Financial 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 Virtu Financial’s own.
What it screens
A financial technology firm with market-making and execution-services businesses.
- ✓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 Virtu Financial
A financial technology firm with market-making and execution-services businesses. The topics here are Outcry preparation suggestions, not a verified firm syllabus or recruiting stage.
Outcry also has 4 other topic guides for readers interested in Virtu Financial. Their presence does not mean applicants must sit that many tests or that they belong to one recruiting round.
The format
These are general practice ranges, not a verified current assessment specification for Virtu Financial. Check the employer’s invitation for the actual format.
| Questions | 6 to 20 |
|---|---|
| Time | 10 to 30 minutes |
| Per question | one to three minutes |
| Negative marking | No |
| Answer style | Typed price, spread or size |
| Where it sits | Preparation topics · employer round unconfirmed |
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 Virtu Financial’s.
Quoting a two-sided market
A bid and an ask around a fair value, wide enough to survive being wrong.
Example
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 Z A 2 K Y 3 T J 4 B S 5 L D 6 I Q 7 P U 8 G E 9 X N 10 F W 11 V O 12 M H 13 R C
A market maker shows minus 10.5 bid, minus 7.5 offered on K. What is the best edge available to you, in dollars a unit?
Answer 2.5
K is worth -5. The offer of minus 7.5 is below that, so you buy and collect -5 - -7.5 = 2.5.
Pricing under partial information
Half the board is hidden, and the quote has to price what you cannot see.
Example 1
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 N A 2 Y Q 3 V T 4 I W 5 R X 6 D Z 7 E U 8 H O 9 C M 10 J P 11 L G 12 K B 13 F S The board is written in a cipher. Every letter shown is the letter 3 places later in the alphabet than the real one, wrapping from Z to A.
What is one unit of a wager on D worth, in dollars?
Answer 4
D is written as G on the board, and G is in row 11. The wager is worth 11 - 7 = 4.
Example 2
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 D M 2 F Y 3 B E 4 T A 5 ? ? 6 ? ? 7 ? ? 8 ? ? 9 O Q 10 K S 11 I R 12 C W 13 G X Rows 5 to 8 are face down. Between them they hold H, J, L, N, P, U, V, Z, but not in any stated order.
You hold 20 units of Z. What is the worst the position can score, in dollars?
Answer -160
The worst case stacks both unknowns against you: Z in row 5, the highest of the face-down rows, and row 13 winning. That is 5 - 13 = -8 a unit, or -160 over 20.
Example 3
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.
What is the probability a wager on W scores above zero? Answer as a percentage.
Answer 84.6
From row r the chance is (r - 1) ÷ 13. Averaging r over rows 11 to 13 gives 12, so the answer is (12 - 1) ÷ 13 = 84.6%.
Option mechanics
Payoffs, parity and moneyness, at the speed a trading floor asks them.
Example
The stock is $50 and moves in two steps of 12 months each. Every step it multiplies by 1.15 or by 0.85. The rate is 2%. What is the $53 call worth today?
Answer 4.06
Per step, q = (e^(rT) - d)/(u - d) = 56.73%. The three terminal nodes are $66.12, $48.87 and $36.13, paying $13.12, $0.00 and $0.00. Weighted by q^2, 2q(1-q) and (1-q)^2 that is $4.22 at expiry, discounted over two steps: $4.22 / 1.0408 = $4.06. The middle node needs the factor of 2 - there are two paths through it.
Updating on a fill
Being lifted is information. The next quote should not be the same as the last.
Expected value of a wager
Pricing a payoff before quoting around it, because a quote is an expected value with a margin.
Example
A ticket costs 5. It pays 20 with probability 50%, else nothing. Expected profit?
- 4.5
- 15
- 10
- 5
Answer 5
50% × 20 = 10; minus the 5 cost gives 5.
Talking while you think
These rounds are scored on the reasoning you say out loud, not only the number you land on.
What a good score looks like
No current employer cutoff is verified for these general practice ranges. Use the worked examples to identify what to study and check your role-specific invitation for the actual assessment rules.
How to train for it
- 01Get fast on fair value first. You cannot quote around a number you are still computing.
- 02Practise saying the spread out loud with a reason attached. Width without a reason reads as guessing.
- 03Play a round where you get filled and have to re-quote. The update is what the round is actually testing.
TRAIN IT HERE
The drills that match each section
Market Maker
Quote spreads, take fills, and manage inventory against informed flow.
Poker Market Making
Make a market on the sum of card ranks and requote as each card is revealed.
Basket Arbitrage
Spot mispricings between a basket and its components before they close.
Delta Defender
Keep a book hedged as the underlying moves - free to play.
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 Virtu Financial
Common questions
- Is the Virtu market making test multiple choice?
- This guide uses typed price, spread or size for practice. The employer’s current answer format was not verified here.
- How long is the Virtu market making test?
- This guide uses general practice ranges of 6 to 20 questions in 10 to 30 minutes. They are not a verified current employer format.
- Is there negative marking on the Virtu 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?
- The warm-up drills are free with no account, and every pass opens the rest of the drills linked on this page. Questions are generated fresh each run, so there is nothing to memorise between attempts.