— GUIDE —
WHAT QUANT FIRMS TEST IN INTERVIEWS AND OAS
Market makers, prop shops, and hedge funds screen for overlapping but differently weighted skills. Here's how the pipeline typically looks by firm type, and how to prioritize your preparation.
UPDATED 2026-07-12 · 7 MIN READ · BY THE VARIANCE TEAM
A note on accuracy: firms change their assessment formats regularly and often use different tests for different roles and regions. What follows describes commonly and publicly reported patterns — treat it as a map of skill priorities, and always confirm the specific format with your recruiter or the assessment invitation itself.
The typical quant screening pipeline
| Stage | Format | Skills tested |
|---|---|---|
| Online assessment | Timed, automated, often 8–60 minutes | Mental math, sequences, pattern recognition, quick probability |
| First-round interview | Live, 30–60 minutes | Probability, expected value, market-making games, brainteasers |
| Later rounds / superday | Multiple live sessions | Deeper probability, game theory, betting games, behavioral fit |
The pattern to notice: speed skills gate the front of the pipeline; reasoning skills decide the back. If your mental math isn't fast enough, no amount of probability depth gets seen.
Market makers: raw arithmetic speed
Options market makers are the most speed-focused screeners in the industry. The best-known example is the arithmetic test popularized by Optiver, publicly described as 80 questions in 8 minutes with penalties for wrong answers — pure add/subtract/multiply/ divide with fractions and decimals, at six seconds per question. Similar firms use variations on the same theme, sometimes adding a sequences or "numerical logic" section.
Prep priority: arithmetic speed above everything — see our mental math training guide. Accuracy discipline matters as much as pace because of the penalty scoring.
Proprietary trading firms: math plus games
Prop trading firms typically blend a timed math or sequences OA with live rounds built around probability and games: dice bets, card drawing, over/under markets on quantities, and quick expected-value decisions. Firms in this bucket are also known for poker-style thinking — Susquehanna (SIG) famously teaches poker internally and publicly describes decision-making under uncertainty as core to its culture.
Prep priority: split time between timed math drills and probability/EV fluency. Practice stating a fair price for simple bets quickly, then adjusting as conditions change.
Hedge funds and quant research: depth over speed
Quant hedge fund pipelines for researcher roles tend to weight probability theory, statistics, and mathematical reasoning more heavily than raw arithmetic pace — brainteasers, combinatorics, expected value, and (for experienced roles) stochastic processes and linear algebra. Interviews are often described as "math colloquia": fewer questions, more depth, reasoning out loud.
Prep priority: worked probability problems and clear verbal reasoning. Speed still matters at the OA stage, but differentiation happens on depth.
Trading analyst and generalist programs
Bank trading programs and generalist analyst pipelines usually run broader psychometric-style OAs: numerical reasoning from charts and tables, logical reasoning, and situational judgment, at a gentler pace than market-maker math screens. If you've trained for the quant OAs above, these will feel comfortable.
How to prioritize your prep
- List your target firms and classify them — market maker, prop shop, hedge fund, or bank program.
- Train the common core daily: mental math and sequences show up at every firm type's front gate. Timed practice, every day, at the edge of your speed.
- Layer the specialization: probability games and EV fluency for prop firms and market makers; deeper probability and statistics for research roles.
- Simulate before the real thing: full-length timed runs with skip discipline, as covered in the OA preparation guide, and check your level against real practice questions.