Is Optiver harder to get into than IMC?

They filter at different points. Optiver's first gate is 80-in-8, eighty mental-arithmetic questions in eight minutes with no calculator; Quantt's April 2026 guide says the test removes roughly 80% of applicants before they speak to anyone, and puts the effective bar around 60 correct. IMC's first gate is softer and more varied: Quantt puts its online assessment pass rate at 20-25%, and QuantVault reports that 2026 trader candidates get either a 15-question probability screen or a shape-pattern and personality assessment. The harder part at IMC comes later, in a super day of four to five back-to-back interviews plus a trading game.

Which is bigger, IMC or Optiver?

Optiver, by revenue and by profit. Optiver's 2025 results, published 31 March 2026, report net trading income of EUR4.556 billion, up 30%, and net profit of EUR1.769 billion from 2,233 full-time employees. IMC's own 2025 reporting shows $3.12 billion of net trading revenue, up 40%, and $968 million of net profit, with over 1,900 people across 10 offices. IMC grew faster in percentage terms; Optiver is the larger firm.

Do IMC and Optiver sponsor visas for international students?

Both do, but the US numbers are small. MyVisaJobs records Optiver Services filing 14 H-1B labour condition applications in fiscal 2026 with nine I-129 petitions approved and none denied, and IMC Americas filing 43 across fiscal 2022-2024. Amsterdam is usually the easier door for a non-EU graduate because the Dutch highly skilled migrant route does not run on a lottery, though the expat tax break drops from 30% to 27% on 1 January 2027 and the salary threshold rises to EUR50,436.

What is Optiver's 80-in-8 test and what score do you need?

Eighty mental-arithmetic questions in eight minutes, about six seconds each, no calculator, with difficulty escalating through fractions and multi-digit operations. Quantt's April 2026 guide puts a passing score around 60 out of 80 and says competitive candidates score above 70. A sequences test follows for quantitative trading applicants. Three to four weeks of daily timed practice is the minimum most successful candidates report.

Which has better work-life balance, IMC or Optiver?

Community reports favour IMC. In an August 2023 Blind thread, a candidate holding both new-grad software offers described IMC hours as roughly 9-6 or shorter against Optiver's more consistent 8-6, and praised IMC's culture, while commenters credited Optiver with better technology and more transparent internal levelling. Treat both as one person's read of two offers, not a firm-wide rule.

IMC vs Optiver (2026): Interviews, Pay, Culture

Q: Which pays more, IMC or Optiver?

First-year pay is close; the gap opens later. Quantt's August 2026 salary page puts an Optiver graduate trader in Chicago at $250K-$400K total and a senior at $450K-$800K+, with Amsterdam at EUR120K-180K for graduates. 6figr's July 2026 aggregate of self-reported IMC new-grad profiles centres around $257K with most between $244K and $308K. A 2023 Blind thread from someone holding both new-grad software offers put first-year totals at roughly $330K either way, with Optiver's upside higher for top performers.

IMC and Optiver were founded four years and a few canal-side streets apart in Amsterdam, and a lot of people apply to both without noticing how differently they screen. Optiver is the bigger firm by a wide margin — EUR4.556 billion of net trading income in 2025 against IMC's $3.12 billion — and it filters almost entirely at the front door, on an eight-minute arithmetic test. IMC lets more people through that first gate and does its cutting in a super day built around a trading game. If your mental arithmetic is fast and trained, Optiver is worth the shot. If your edge is judgement under pressure rather than raw speed, IMC gives you more room to show it.

Both grew in 2025 and both are still hiring. The real decision is which filter you can pass, and which office you can legally work in.

The 30-second verdict

IMC	Optiver
Founded / HQ	1989, Amsterdam	1986, Amsterdam
2025 net trading revenue	$3,120M, +40% (IMC 2025 reporting, Mar 2026)	EUR4,556M, +30% (Optiver, 31 Mar 2026)
2025 net profit	$968M	EUR1,769M
People	1,900+ across 10 offices, 4 continents (IMC, 2025)	2,233 FTE across 11 locations (Optiver, 2025)
First screen (trader)	15-question probability/EV test, or shape-pattern + personality assessment (QuantVault, 2026)	80-in-8 mental arithmetic, then a sequences test
Screen pass rate	20-25% (Quantt, May 2026)	~20% survive the maths test (Quantt, Apr 2026)
Final stage	Super day: 4-5 x 45 min + trading game, Chicago or Amsterdam	Assessment day, then a senior final round
Process length	4-6 weeks (Quantt)	4-8 weeks (Quantt)
Graduate trader pay	~$257K typical, $244K-$308K range (6figr, Jul 2026, self-reported US new grads)	Chicago $250K-$400K; Amsterdam EUR120K-180K; London GBP100K-180K (Quantt, Aug 2026)
Latest move	New York office to house Americas Systematic Equities (11 Aug 2026)	Majority stake in Northpool, Dutch energy trading (18 Aug 2026)

Optiver does not publish compensation, so every trader figure above is an aggregate of Glassdoor, levels.fyi and candidate self-reports, and Quantt says so explicitly on its own page. Treat the ranges as shape, not as quotes.

Interviews: speed versus adjustment

Optiver tests whether you are fast. The gate is 80-in-8: eighty mental-arithmetic questions in eight minutes, roughly six seconds each, no calculator, escalating from addition into fractions and multi-digit multiplication. Quantt's April 2026 guide puts the passing score near 60 out of 80, says competitive candidates clear 70, and estimates the test alone removes about 80% of applicants before a human is involved. Quantitative trading applicants then get a sequences test. Candidate write-ups on Canary Wharfian describe a second screening round with a set of gamified mini-games, a personality questionnaire and an SHL general ability test on top of that.

Only after all of it do you meet a trader. One Canary Wharfian account describes the trader round running with no pen, paper or calculator: you are asked to price something unknowable — their example is how much money was spent in UK pubs on the first day after lockdown — then quote a bid and an ask, and keep quoting while the interviewer trades against you. The trap that candidate walked into was not the estimate. It was failing to widen aggressively enough when the interviewer kept buying, and being expected to track their own net position and average traded price without being told in advance that they would need to.

IMC tests whether you update. Its online assessment is 60-75 minutes with, per Quantt's May 2026 guide, a 20-25% pass rate — a much wider first door than Optiver's. QuantVault's breakdown shows IMC branching the screen by track: quant traders get a 15-question test on probability, expected value and combinatorics; quant researchers get an 11-question statistics test covering Bayes, conditional expectation and limiting distributions; software candidates get a 120-minute HackerRank with two hard algorithmic problems. Some 2026 trader candidates instead receive an "IMC Trader Assessment" of shape-pattern recognition plus a long personality questionnaire. Every track also records a one-way video interview that is scored.

The super day is where IMC decides. Four to five consecutive 45-minute interviews in Chicago or Amsterdam, plus a live market-making game with a trader. Quantt's guide is blunt about what the game is for: not winning, but whether you move your prices sensibly when new information arrives. It lists calibration — knowing the edge of what you know — and adjustability as IMC's two named criteria, which is why an honest "I'd want to check that" scores better there than a confident guess.

The practical difference for your prep: Optiver rewards three or four weeks of daily timed arithmetic drills before you apply, because you cannot talk your way past the test. IMC rewards practising the market-making game out loud with someone who will trade against you.

Money, and where it separates

The first-year numbers are closer than the reputations suggest. 6figr's July 2026 aggregate of self-reported IMC new-grad profiles in the US centres around $257K, with most between $244K and $308K. Quantt's August 2026 salary page puts an Optiver graduate trader in Chicago at $250K-$400K total. In an August 2023 Blind thread, a candidate holding both new-grad software offers said first-year totals were about $330K either way.

The separation is in year three to five. Quantt puts a senior Optiver trader in Chicago at $450K-$800K+ and Amsterdam at EUR250K-500K+. Commenters on that 2023 Blind thread credited Optiver with clearer internal levelling — level, performance rating and a unit value they could actually see — and higher upside for strong performers, while saying IMC's growth path was less transparent. A much older Blind thread, from September 2020, had a new grad weighing trader offers between $225K and $300K across IMC, Akuna and Optiver; the consensus there also ran Optiver ahead of IMC on long-run compensation. Both threads are individual reads rather than data, and both predate the current pay ranges, but they point the same way.

What the Blind threads gave IMC instead was hours and culture: roughly 9-6 or shorter against Optiver's more consistent 8-6, per the 2023 poster who held both offers. If you are choosing between two similar first-year numbers, that difference compounds over a decade more reliably than a bonus multiplier you cannot forecast.

Visas and offices: the part that decides it for many students

Both firms sponsor, but the US pipeline is thin at both. MyVisaJobs records Optiver Services filing 14 H-1B labour condition applications in fiscal 2026, with nine I-129 petitions approved and none denied, and IMC Americas filing 43 across fiscal 2022-2024. Those are not hostile numbers, but they are small, and a Chicago offer still puts you in the H-1B lottery after OPT.

Amsterdam changes that calculation. Both firms are headquartered there, the Dutch highly skilled migrant route has no lottery, and for many non-EU graduates it is a faster path to working legally than a US seat. Two things to price in: the Dutch expat tax facility drops from a 30% to a 27% reimbursement on 1 January 2027, and the salary norm rises from EUR46,107 to EUR50,436, per PwC Netherlands. Graduate trader pay at either firm clears that threshold comfortably, but the take-home on an Amsterdam offer starting in 2027 is a little lower than the same offer would have been in 2026.

Geography also tells you where each firm is investing. IMC's 11 August 2026 announcement makes New York the hub for its Americas Systematic Equities business. Optiver's 18 August 2026 agreement to take a majority stake in Northpool, a Dutch energy trading firm in Leiden, points the other way — deeper into European commodities and power. If you want systematic equities in the US, IMC is currently building it. If you want European energy, Optiver just bought into it.

Which should you choose?

Your arithmetic is genuinely fast, or you will train it for a month: apply to Optiver first. Nothing else in the process matters until 80-in-8 is behind you.
You are strong at probability and reasoning but not at six-second arithmetic: IMC's wider first door gives you a real chance to reach a human.
You want maximum upside and accept a more performance-centralised culture: the community read consistently favours Optiver on long-run pay.
You want predictable hours and a culture people volunteer praise for: the same community read favours IMC.
You are a non-EU international student: treat Amsterdam as your primary application at both firms, not your backup, and apply to the US seat as the second shot.
You are a second-year undergraduate: IMC's Launchpad is a two-day discovery programme in Chicago, and its own page says participants may be eligible for an accelerated interview for the Summer 2027 quant trading internship. That is a cheaper entry than a cold application.

Prepare for both

The two loops need different rehearsal, so do not run one prep plan across both.

Practise the IMC super day format — back-to-back rounds plus a live trading game — with Applr's IMC trader mock interview, which runs the market-making game with an interviewer who trades against your quotes.
For Optiver, work the Optiver trader mock after your arithmetic is already at speed; for the technology track, the Optiver software engineer mock covers the low-latency angle.
If you are also looking at the larger US shops, the Citadel vs Optiver comparison covers how a hedge fund loop differs from a market maker's.
Before you submit anything, run the one-page version through the free resume checker — both firms screen on a single page, and both bin unparsable formatting.

IMC vs Optiver (2026): Interviews, Pay, Culture

The 30-second verdict

Interviews: speed versus adjustment

Money, and where it separates

Visas and offices: the part that decides it for many students

Which should you choose?

Prepare for both

Sources

Frequently asked questions

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