// QUANT PREP
Quant prep you play.
Trading screens test four things under a clock: fast arithmetic, probability you can set up without notes, a market you can quote both sides of, and enough statistics to spot a bad result. Everything on this page is timed and scored, since the interview will be. 4 runs a day are free on any game, with no account.
- LABS
- 13
- GAMES
- 60
- MOCK SCREENS
- 34
- FREE RUNS / DAY
- 4
// THE ORDER TO DO IT IN
An eight-week quant prep plan
Most people prepare by reading a question bank cover to cover. The screens test speed and setup under time pressure more than recall, so this order puts the rep-heavy skills first and leaves full sittings until a few weeks in.
- Arithmetic drill
01 Weeks 1-2
Mental arithmetic, to reflex
Most trading screens open with speed arithmetic, and it is the one part that improves with repetition alone. Optiver's battery gives you about six seconds a question with negative marking, so a slow answer costs more than a skip. Keep going until two-digit multiplication and percentage moves come out without thinking.
- Probability lab
02 Weeks 2-4
Probability and expected value
The biggest single topic in any quant screen: conditional probability, combinatorics and expected value. What gets graded is whether you can set the problem up cleanly from a cold start.
- Market maker
03 Weeks 4-6
Market making and risk
Quote a two-sided market, get filled, and work off the position. Candidates skip this more than anything else, and it is where trading interviews diverge from research ones.
- Mock screens
04 Weeks 6-8
Statistics, and full sittings
Regression, selection bias and multiple testing. Then stop drilling one topic at a time and sit the full-length papers on the clock with the real marking rules.
// EVERY SUBJECT
The 13 labs
Probability
Blackjack, dice, scratch cards and a lottery. Call the odds before the outcome shows, then watch what the bankroll does.
Market Making
Quote both sides of a market and get filled. Then work out whether the person who traded with you knew something.
Brain Teasers
Twelve classic puzzles - pirates, hats, bridges, doors - played one decision at a time.
Statistics
Pick the distribution from how it behaves, and run twenty backtests to see how often noise passes for signal.
Stochastic Processes
Random walks and gambler's ruin. Set a stake, choose a stopping rule, and see how often the walk hits zero first.
Gradient Lab
Six short games on Taylor error, Newton steps, Lagrange multipliers, eigenvectors and PSD matrices.
Algorithm Arena
Fill a DP table, estimate with Monte Carlo, and write code that gets run and timed, at four difficulty tiers.
Quant Dev Lab
Find the data race in real C++, and work an order book through crosses, cancels and partial fills.
Risk Lab
Stress a portfolio through a fat-tailed crash and see how far VaR undershoots the loss.
Economic Consulting
Two case-style games: find what drove the effect in a diff-in-diff setup, and define the market in an antitrust case.
Actuarial Lab
Develop a loss triangle to ultimate and run a survival model, the two calculations actuarial screens lean on most.
Drill Lab
Timed arithmetic, sequences, Fermi estimates and likelihood ranking. Seven drills, all on the clock.
Outcry Jeopardy!
What a trader does, who's in Chicago versus Amsterdam, what 80-in-8 is, and the jargon that gives you away as new.
// THE REAL FORMATS
Prep for the assessment you will sit
Format matters as much as content: how long each section runs, whether a wrong answer is marked down, and which sections carry the weight. Each sitting below copies one firm’s publicly reported format. Outcry is not affiliated with any firm listed.
// BY FIRM