Optiver interview questions
95 questions researched across 4 Optiver seats in Trading, Research, Technology. Below are 12 of them.
Seats we researched
- Quantitative Trading InternTrading · intern · 30 min
- Quantitative Research InternResearch · intern · 30 min
- Software Engineer InternTechnology · intern · 30 min
- Graduate Quantitative TraderTrading · graduate · 30 min
12 Optiver interview questions
Some mental maths. How long would it take you to work out 2 divided by 17, to three decimal places, in your head? Go.
Today is a Wednesday. What day of the week will this date be next year?
Two football teams play a match. Team A has a better pass-completion rate than Team B in the first half, and again in the second half. Can Team B still have the better rate over the whole match? Give me numbers.
What's the sign of delta for a call and for a put, and what's the sign of vega for each?
When you work in a team, which role do you usually end up taking, and why?
Suppose you're confident in your solution, but a more experienced colleague disagrees. What do you do?
Let's start with the firm. What does Optiver actually do, and how does it make money?
Here's a classic. There are two envelopes, and one holds twice as much money as the other. You pick one at random, open it and see $100. Should you switch?
A simple random walk starts at zero and moves up or down one step with equal probability each time. Does it come back to zero, and what's the average time until it first does?
I roll a fair die again and again, adding each roll to a running total, and stop once the total goes over 1000. What's the most likely value of that last roll?
Pick one decision in that design. Why did you make that design decision, and what would make you change it?
If I'm rolling a die and adding each roll to a running total, what number am I most likely to roll on the roll that takes the total to at least 1000?
What a strong answer does
The questions above fall into 3 kinds. What a strong answer does differs by kind, not by question.
- Technical9 of 12 above
- State the intuition first; walk through the mechanics; make assumptions explicit; test a risk or edge case; connect the answer to the role.
- Behavioral2 of 12 above
- Lead with the claim and context; isolate your personal action and decision; explain the trade-off; quantify the result; finish with what you learned and changed.
- Market1 of 12 above
- State a view; support it with evidence and a catalyst; explain valuation or transmission; give the strongest countercase; name the risk that would change your mind.
83 more Optiver questions
The rest of the bank — 95 in total — is asked by the interviewer during practice, so you meet them the way you would on the day rather than reading them first.
Practise Optiver questionsHow these questions were researched
Every question carries a provenance grade. Some were reported by candidates who sat the round, some come from the firm’s own published guidance or a source that trains for it, and the rest are written to match how this firm asks. Each seat is studied on its own — the round it actually runs, the order it runs it in, and what it is listening for. A Optiver round is not a generic behavioural screen, and practising one as the other is how people walk in unprepared.
Falas is not affiliated with or endorsed by any employer named. Simulations are independent practice based on publicly described recruiting formats.