IMC Trader mock interview

NeurOlympics brain games + Saville aptitude + timed math/sequences gate the loop (~20-25% reported OA pass rate). Then a 45-min trader round of probability, EV and market-making games, and a 1-4 hr Superday. Y1 Chicago trader $180-250K reported.

  • ~20-25%
    Reported OA pass rate
  • 45 min
    NeurOlympics brain games
  • $180-250K
    Y1 Chicago Trader TC (reported)
  • Free
    First mock

Why IMC Trader is different — cognitive games, not an arithmetic sprint

Per Tradermath's IMC guide, Quantt, techinterview.org, and 1point3acres candidate threads, IMC screens traders with a battery Optiver and SIG do not use: BrainsFirst NeurOlympics — 45 minutes of cognitive games measuring working memory, reaction, and strategy when rules change — plus Saville-style aptitude tests and a timed math/pattern section. Quantt reports OA pass rates around 20-25%, and Tradermath reports that failing may block future applications. There is no 80-in-8 here; the gate is cognitive breadth under time, not arithmetic throughput alone.

Past the OA, the loop converges on what decides trader offers everywhere: a 45-minute trader round of probability, EV, and a market-making game, then a 1-4 hour Superday with a trading station (options market-making, event-prediction markets), a quant station with two senior traders, and an HR/personality station feeding a Desk Lead lunch. Per a Blind thread, IMC deliberately asks questions that do not circulate — narrated reasoning beats memorized answers.

Compensation per Quantt and 6figr: graduate trader roughly €120-180K Amsterdam / $180-250K Chicago, with US new-grad packages reported up to ~$309K — the Optiver/Jane Street/SIG neighborhood per techinterview.org. No finance background required: IMC's 3-6 week global Trading School (Amsterdam, Chicago, Sydney, Mumbai) teaches options theory and pricing from zero.

What the loop looks like

Round-by-round

  1. 01

    Online Assessment — Saville aptitude + math/sequences

    Pre-onsite
    60-90 min total

    Saville-style numerical + diagrammatic reasoning plus a timed math/pattern section. Formats vary by cycle: new-grad quant trader cycles report ~15 statistics/probability/pattern questions in 60 min; other cycles report short split math + sequences sections. Reported pass rate ~20-25% — this is the first hard gate.

  2. 02

    BrainsFirst NeurOlympics

    Pre-onsite
    45 min

    Four cognitive games measuring working memory, reaction time, accuracy, and strategy when rules change mid-game. IMC-distinctive — no Optiver-style 80-in-8 here. You cannot cram content, but you can rehearse the game formats so the clock is not spent learning controls.

  3. 03

    One-way video + HR screen

    Pre-onsite
    self-paced + call

    Recorded video interview (motivation, thinking process) followed by a recruiter call: why IMC, why trading, basic market-making and quant vocabulary, background. Non-native English speakers: rehearse spoken answers — the recorded format gives no interviewer feedback loop.

  4. 04

    Trader technical interview

    Pre-onsite
    45 min

    Call with an IMC trader: probability puzzles, expected-value problems, brainteasers, a market-making game, and light derivatives basics. Mental math is sampled continuously — answers are expected at speed, reasoning narrated out loud.

  5. 05

    Superday — Trading station

    Onsite
    ~30-60 min station

    Market-making games on equity derivatives/options plus event-prediction exercises (e.g., pricing a tennis match outcome as it unfolds). Quote justification and risk assessment graded; some cycles run a group trading simulation scoring communication under speed.

  6. 06

    Superday — Quant station

    Onsite
    ~30-60 min station

    Probability challenges and brainteasers with two senior traders. Explicit emphasis on communicating reasoning — a narrated wrong turn recovers; a silent right answer does not demonstrate the skill they are buying.

  7. 07

    Superday — HR station + desk-lead lunch

    Onsite
    ~30-60 min + lunch

    Personality questionnaire (16-personality framework) with discussion of where your answers deviate from your scorecard, then informal lunch/coffee with a Desk Lead probing adaptability, motivation, and which market segments actually interest you.

Question bank

Real interview questions reported by candidates

  • EV + risk

    "Coin game: heads you win $20, tails you lose $5 — do you like this game? Second game: heads pays $20 million, tails still loses $5 — prefer it? Final: the original game, played once or 100 times — which and why?"

    Source · Reported on Glassdoor, IMC trader interviews
  • Market-making

    "Make a two-sided market on the sum of two dice rolled behind a screen. A standard open is bid 6 at 8 around fair value 7 — then the interviewer trades against you and you must update sensibly on the order flow."

    Source · techinterview.org IMC trader breakdown; Glassdoor reports
  • Market-making

    "An urn holds 100 marbles, red/blue split unknown. The payout is the number of red marbles in pounds. Make me a market — and re-quote as information about the split is revealed."

    Source · Quantt IMC interview guide
  • EV / optimal stopping

    "Roll a die: accept the value or re-roll once, but you must keep the re-roll. What is the fair value of the game? (Keep 4+, re-roll 1-3: EV 4.25 — narrate the threshold logic.)"

    Source · Quantt IMC interview guide
  • Probability

    "Expected number of coin flips to get two heads in a row. (Answer 6 — set up the recursion out loud; the setup is what is graded.)"

    Source · techinterview.org IMC final-round report
  • Probability

    "You roll two dice — what is the probability the sum is greater than 8? Rapid-fire probability checks like this pepper the trader phone round between bigger problems."

    Source · The Wall Street Quants IMC question list
  • Mental math

    "Mental math at speed: 17 × 23 in under 5 seconds; 15% of 240; convert 3/8 to a decimal; percentage gain from $80 to $100. Both the OA and the trader round sample this continuously."

    Source · Quantt + The Wall Street Quants IMC compilations
  • Market-making

    "Superday trading station: run an event-prediction market — e.g., price a tennis match outcome mid-match — and justify your quotes and risk position as new information arrives."

    Source · Tradermath IMC interview guide
  • Behavioral

    "Why choose IMC over other trading firms? Why do you want to work in trading at all? The HR rounds ask these verbatim — generic prop-shop answers get flagged."

    Source · Tradermath IMC guide (verbatim HR questions)
  • OA format

    "OA format sample: ~15 statistics/probability/pattern-finding questions in 60 minutes (new-grad quant trader cycle), separate from the NeurOlympics games. Several posters note recurring question pools."

    Source · 1point3acres IMC Quant Trader NG OA thread
Common signals to fix

What gets you rejected at this level

  • Treating the OA as retakeable

    Per Tradermath's IMC guide, passing the Saville + NeurOlympics assessments is a hard prerequisite, and failing may prevent future IMC applications. Candidates who click start cold — no timed arithmetic practice, no diagrammatic-reasoning reps, never having seen the NeurOlympics game formats — spend the clock learning the interface. Treat it as one-shot and prep before you open the link.

  • Quoting a market and then freezing

    Per Quantt and techinterview.org write-ups: IMC grades whether you adjust your prices sensibly as order flow arrives, not whether you win the game. Candidates who hold their original quote out of stubbornness — or jump it around randomly under pressure — both fail the same check. State a prior, give a width you can defend, and update in the direction the flow implies.

  • EV-only answers on risk questions

    The $20M coin-game variant reported on Glassdoor exists to see whether you separate expected value from risk and sizing. Answering 'EV is positive so I play' without touching variance, bankroll, or why 100 repetitions differ from one shot is the designed trap. Traders size positions; show the sizing logic.

  • Solving silently

    Per an OpenQuant IMC intern write-up: 'If you can communicate your thoughts well, that alone should be enough to get you to the final round.' The quant station pairs you with two senior traders precisely to watch reasoning in motion. A correct answer delivered silently scores below a structured attempt narrated clearly.

  • Generic 'I want to be a quant' motivation

    The HR rounds ask 'Why IMC over other trading firms?' verbatim per Tradermath. If you cannot distinguish IMC — tech-driven options/ETF market maker, Amsterdam HQ, global Trading School traineeship across four offices — from Optiver, Jane Street, or SIG, the answer reads as mass-applied. Name what is specific and mean it.

How Applr's AI mock interview tracks IMC's trader rubric

Applr's IMC Trader mock drills the loop's three graded layers. Timed mental-math and probability sprints mirror the OA's math/pattern sections — speed tracked per session, weak categories resurfaced. Market-making rounds replay IMC's format: quote a two-sided market, absorb simulated order flow, and get scored on whether your updates are sensible rather than on whether you win.

The behavioral track rehearses the exact HR probes — why IMC, why trading — and the Superday habit that write-ups flag most: narrating reasoning out loud, including through wrong turns, instead of solving in silence.

Adjacent loops

Related practice

FAQ

What does IMC's trader online assessment actually consist of?

Reported formats vary by cycle and region, so do not over-index on one write-up. Consistent across sources: a Saville-style aptitude test (numerical + diagrammatic reasoning) plus a timed math/pattern section, and the separate BrainsFirst NeurOlympics games. A 1point3acres new-grad quant trader thread reports ~15 statistics/probability/pattern questions in 60 minutes; other write-ups describe shorter split math + sequences sections; the everythingquant forum pegs the whole battery at roughly 60-90 minutes. Prepare for all three components: timed arithmetic, pattern/diagrammatic reasoning, and the cognitive games.

What are the NeurOlympics and can you prepare for them?

A 45-minute BrainsFirst battery of four games measuring accuracy, working memory, reaction time, and strategic adaptation when rules change mid-game (per Tradermath and everythingquant guides). You cannot cram content, but you can rehearse the formats so zero clock is spent learning controls, and take it rested — it is a real gate, not a personality quiz. This is IMC's distinctive screen; there is no Optiver-style 80-in-8 arithmetic sprint.

Can I retake the assessment if I fail?

Treat it as one-shot. Tradermath's IMC guide states passing the aptitude assessments is a hard prerequisite for advancing and that failure may prevent future IMC applications. That asymmetry changes prep strategy: drill timed mental arithmetic and Saville-style diagrammatic practice sets before opening the link, not after a failed attempt.

What does an IMC graduate trader earn?

Reported ranges vary by source. Quantt's guide cites €120-180K in Amsterdam and $180-250K in Chicago for graduate traders; 6figr shows IMC Trading US new-grad packages around $244-309K; techinterview.org places IMC 'in the same neighborhood as Optiver, Jane Street, and SIG' — strong base, sizable sign-on, discretionary performance bonus. Cross-check levels.fyi and Blind for the current cycle rather than anchoring on one number.

Do I need a finance background?

No. Per IMC's own careers pages, every graduate hire joins the Graduate Traineeship — a 3-6 week intensive Trading School run across the Amsterdam, Chicago, Sydney and Mumbai offices covering financial markets, options theory, pricing, and IMC's systems, after which you are placed on a desk matching your strengths. What the loop actually filters for is probability fluency, mental-math speed, and updating under uncertainty — not prior market knowledge.

How is IMC's trader loop different from Optiver's?

The screens differ, the endgame converges. Optiver filters with its proprietary Sequences Test and the 80-in-8 mental math sprint; IMC filters with NeurOlympics cognitive games plus Saville aptitude and lower-question-count timed math. Both then run probability/EV interviews and market-making games into a Superday. One IMC-specific note from Blind: interviewers favor 'think on your feet' questions that do not circulate widely, so pattern-matching memorized answers helps less here than genuine narrated reasoning.

Ready to practice for IMC Trading?

Start free →