Jane Street and Optiver both make markets, both hire people with no finance background, and both run a trading game in the final round. They are still very different employers. Jane Street is the bigger and richer firm: $39.6 billion of net trading revenue in 2025 against Optiver's EUR4.556 billion, and a US graduate trader range that tops out $300K higher (Quantt: $700K in New York vs $400K in Chicago). Optiver is the European one: headquartered in Amsterdam, weighted toward options, and screened by an eight-minute arithmetic test that ends most applications before a human sees them.
Choose based on which filter you can pass and which city you can legally work in. The rest of this post covers both.
The 30-second verdict
| Jane Street | Optiver | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded / HQ | 2000, New York (Revelio Labs) | 1986, Amsterdam (Optiver) |
| 2025 results | $39.6B net trading revenue (Reuters, May 2026) | EUR4,556M net trading income, +30%; EUR1,769M net profit (Optiver, 31 Mar 2026) |
| Latest reported quarter | Q1 2026: $16.1B trading revenue, $10.3B net income (Reuters) | Optiver publishes annually |
| Headcount (Revelio, Mar 2026) | 3,357, +15.7% since 2023 | 2,803, +21.3% since 2023 |
| Where staff sit (Revelio) | North America 54.9%, Northern Europe 20.9%, East Asia 11.2% | North America 26.7%, Western Europe 26.2%, Pacific 18.3%, East Asia 11.5% |
| Offices | Amsterdam, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, New York, Singapore | Amsterdam, London, Chicago, Austin, New York, Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Mumbai |
| First gate | 60-90 min online assessment (Quantt) | 80-in-8 mental arithmetic; ~80% cut (Quantt) |
| Process length (Quantt) | 4-6 weeks | 4-8 weeks |
| Grad trader total comp (Quantt, Aug 2026) | New York $400K-$700K; London £270K-£500K | Chicago $250K-$400K; Amsterdam EUR120K-180K; London £100K-£180K |
| Engineering stack | OCaml, taught after joining (techinterview) | C++ (Blind, 2022) |
| Last 90 days | Summer 2027 roles open since 12 Jul 2026 (Young and Calculated) | Majority stake in Dutch power trader Northpool, 18 Aug 2026 |
No trader pay figure above comes from the firms themselves. Quantt calls its own numbers estimates. Use them to judge the gap between firms, not as offer figures.
Interviews: a front-door test vs a long loop
Optiver's test comes first. The 80-in-8 is eighty mental-arithmetic questions in eight minutes, roughly six seconds each, starting at sums like 7 + 13 and rising to products like 67 × 43. Quantt's April 2026 guide treats 60 out of 80 as a pass, says competitive candidates score above 70, and estimates the test removes about 80% of applicants before a phone call. After that come a 30-45 minute phone screen, a half-day assessment with card-based trading games, probability and options-pricing questions, and a senior final round.
techinterview's July 2026 guide describes the trading round in more detail. You quote two-sided prices on quantities nobody knows while the interviewer trades against you, and the interviewer is watching whether you think clearly once the trades go against you. Optiver's graduate "Class" programme then teaches options theory through several months of simulated trading before new traders quote live markets.
Jane Street spreads its cutting across the whole loop. Quantt describes an online assessment of 60-90 minutes, a 45-60 minute phone interview, a second phone or video round, then a final day of four to six sessions, with a mock trading game for trader candidates that tests how you update beliefs and manage risk. The guides disagree on the first test. techinterview describes an eight-minute mental-maths screen with roughly 60 questions, while Quantt describes a longer assessment. Prepare for both formats.
The phone rounds are where Jane Street is known to be hard. techinterview describes three to five probability and brainteaser problems in an hour, such as the expected number of coin flips before two heads in a row. Interviewers change the problem partway through to check whether you understand it or have memorised an answer. Quantt says researchers are graded on building models from scratch and stating their assumptions, and it puts total hiring at only 100-200 people a year worldwide.
For engineers, the language is the difference. Jane Street accepts Python, C++ or Java in the interview and teaches OCaml to everyone after they join (techinterview). In a 2022 Blind thread from a new grad holding both software offers, commenters named OCaml versus C++ as one of the real differences between the two firms.
In short, Optiver prep is four weeks of timed arithmetic before you apply. Jane Street prep is eight to twelve weeks of probability you can explain out loud, which is the preparation window Quantt recommends.
Pay, and how the bonus works
Year one favours Jane Street. Quantt's August 2026 pages put a New York Jane Street graduate quant trader at $400K-$700K and a London one at £270K-£500K. The same site puts an Optiver graduate trader in Chicago at $250K-$400K, in Amsterdam at EUR120K-180K, and in London at £100K-£180K. At the firm level, Jane Street paid out $9.38 billion in compensation in 2025, more than double 2024 (Bloomberg, via Yahoo Finance, May 2026).
The two bonus systems work differently. Quantt says Jane Street's bonus pool is funded by firm results and split by individual performance, and that two traders at the same level can see bonuses differ by five to ten times. Optiver's variable pay, per Quantt, is a blend of desk and firm results rather than a straight share of individual P&L. Blind commenters describe an internal unit system called "marbles".
What people who held both offers said. These are single threads, so treat them as individual views:
- In a May 2023 thread from someone choosing between trader offers, commenters agreed that Jane Street starts higher but said Optiver can catch up or overtake it a few years in through marbles. They also noted that Optiver concentrates on options while Jane Street trades a wider range of products.
- In an October 2022 thread, a new-grad engineer who valued work-life balance over pay got a near-unanimous "take Jane Street" for culture and first-year pay. One current Optiver engineer replied that they enjoyed working there and pointed to its clear progression.
- In a May 2024 thread, an experienced engineer weighed a $600K Jane Street back-office role against a $550K Optiver C++ role. Most commenters said Optiver, arguing that back-office work typecasts you. They also warned that Optiver pay can range from under $200K to over $1M, and some repeated claims of a "hire and fire" culture that another commenter disputed for graduate hires.
US vs European market making: what the geography means
Jane Street is a New York firm with a large European arm. Revelio's March 2026 data puts 54.9% of its staff in North America and 20.9% in Northern Europe, and Jane Street's internship page lists only New York, London and Hong Kong. Optiver is spread far more evenly: 26.7% in North America, 26.2% in Western Europe (Amsterdam), 18.3% in the Pacific region (Sydney) and 11.5% in East Asia.
Optiver is also still investing in Europe. In April 2025 it began converting to a systematic internaliser in European equities, which its head of European equity market structure told The TRADE would widen the range of stocks it can quote. On 18 August 2026 it agreed to buy a majority stake in Northpool, a Leiden power and gas trader founded in 2012, with completion expected in November 2026. If you want European power, gas or equities, Optiver is currently expanding there.
Jane Street's main open risk is also outside the US. In July 2025 India's regulator SEBI accused the firm of manipulating the Bank Nifty index between January 2023 and March 2025, and Jane Street deposited Rs 4,843.5 crore to lift a trading ban. Its appeal was adjourned in February 2026 without a decision (BusinessToday). The case does not affect a graduate's day-to-day work, but it is worth knowing about before an interview.
Visas. A US seat at either firm leads to the H-1B lottery after OPT. The non-US routes are more predictable:
| Route | Who it fits | 2026 salary floor |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands highly skilled migrant (IND) | Optiver Amsterdam, Jane Street Amsterdam | EUR3,122/month for recent graduates; EUR4,357 under 30; EUR5,942 at 30+ |
| UK Skilled Worker, new entrant (GOV.UK) | Jane Street London, Optiver London | £33,400/year if under 26 or switching from a Student or Graduate visa; capped at 4 years in total |
| UK Skilled Worker, standard (GOV.UK) | Everyone else | £41,700/year or the going rate, whichever is higher |
Quantt's graduate ranges at both firms are several times these floors. The salary floor is not the problem. Getting an offer is.
Which should you choose?
- You are fast at arithmetic, or will train for a month: apply to Optiver early. Nothing else in its process counts until you pass 80-in-8.
- You are strong at probability but slower at six-second sums: Jane Street's loop gives you more chances to show how you reason.
- You want the highest first-year pay and a broad product set: Jane Street, on every source above.
- You want options specifically, and accept wider variance in pay: Optiver, per the 2023 and 2024 Blind threads.
- You are a non-EU student who wants to avoid the lottery: apply to Optiver Amsterdam and Jane Street London as first choices, not backups.
- You are applying for Summer 2027: Jane Street's roles have been open since 12 July and last cycle's slots were gone by late October (Young and Calculated). Apply this month.
Prepare for both
- Rehearse the 80-in-8 and a live market-making round in Applr's Optiver trader mock interview. Engineers should use the Optiver software engineer mock.
- Practise explaining probability out loud for Jane Street's phone rounds with the Jane Street quantitative researcher mock.
- Comparing more market makers? See IMC vs Optiver and SIG vs Jane Street.
Sources
- Optiver, "Optiver reports robust financial results for 2025", 31 March 2026
- Optiver, "Optiver to take majority stake in power and gas trader Northpool", 18 August 2026
- Reuters via Investing.com, "Jane Street rakes in record first-quarter trading haul of $16.1 billion", 8 May 2026
- Yahoo Finance (GuruFocus), "Jane Street Pays $9.38 Billion As Trading Revenue Hits $39.6 Billion", 1 May 2026
- Revelio Labs, Jane Street Group employee count (March 2026 data), retrieved 17 Sep 2026
- Revelio Labs, Optiver Holding employee count (March 2026 data), retrieved 17 Sep 2026
- Quantt, "Optiver Interview", 9 April 2026
- Quantt, "Jane Street Interview", 9 April 2026
- Quantt, "Optiver Salary 2026", 13 August 2026
- Quantt, "Jane Street Salary", updated 6 August 2026
- techinterview, Jane Street interview guide, updated 21 July 2026
- techinterview, Optiver interview guide, updated 21 July 2026
- Young and Calculated, "The Full Guide to Quant Recruiting Timelines by Region and Firm", 11 September 2026
- The TRADE, "Optiver to convert to a systematic internaliser", 4 April 2025
- BusinessToday, "Jane Street vs Sebi: SAT adjourns hearing in market manipulation case", 25 February 2026
- Jane Street, Internships page, retrieved 17 Sep 2026
- Jane Street, Overview (offices), retrieved 17 Sep 2026
- IND, Required amounts income requirements (1 January 2026), retrieved 17 Sep 2026
- GOV.UK, Skilled Worker visa: when you can be paid less, retrieved 17 Sep 2026
- GOV.UK, Skilled Worker visa: your job, retrieved 17 Sep 2026
- Blind, "Jane Street vs Optiver? (for NG SWE)", 10 October 2022
- Blind, "Optiver vs Jane Street", 22 May 2023
- Blind, "optiver vs jane street", 22 May 2024
Frequently asked questions
- Is Jane Street harder to get into than Optiver?
- Both are highly selective, and they filter at different points. Quantt's April 2026 guide says Optiver's 80-in-8 mental arithmetic test removes roughly 80% of applicants before any human contact, with about 60 out of 80 treated as a pass. Jane Street's loop runs four to six weeks through an online assessment, two phone rounds and a four-to-six-session final day, and Quantt estimates it hires only 100-200 people a year worldwide. Optiver cuts hardest at the front door; Jane Street cuts later.
- Which pays more for a new-grad trader, Jane Street or Optiver?
- Jane Street, in year one. Quantt's August 2026 salary pages put a New York Jane Street graduate quant trader at $400K-$700K total and a Chicago Optiver graduate trader at $250K-$400K. Blind threads from 2023 and 2024 say Optiver's bonus system can narrow the gap after a few years for strong performers, but its pay also varies more. None of these figures are published by the firms.
- Is Jane Street a US firm and Optiver a European firm?
- Mostly, by where the people sit. Revelio Labs' March 2026 data puts 54.9% of Jane Street staff in North America and 20.9% in Northern Europe, which is largely London. Optiver, headquartered in Amsterdam since 1986, has 26.7% in North America, 26.2% in Western Europe and 18.3% in the Pacific region, which is mainly Sydney. Both firms trade globally.
- Which is better for an international student who needs a visa?
- It depends on which city you would accept. A US seat at either firm eventually means the H-1B lottery. Optiver's Amsterdam headquarters hires through the Dutch highly skilled migrant route, where the 2026 reduced salary floor for recent graduates is EUR3,122 a month (IND). Jane Street's large London office uses the UK Skilled Worker route, where new entrants under 26 or switching from a Student or Graduate visa need at least £33,400 a year (GOV.UK). Graduate pay at both firms clears these floors comfortably.
- Do I need to know OCaml for Jane Street or C++ for Optiver?
- Not for the interview. techinterview's July 2026 guide says Jane Street accepts Python, C++, Java and other languages and trains every new hire on OCaml. Optiver's software work is C++-heavy, and Blind commenters in 2022 named the OCaml versus C++ split as one of the real differences between the two engineering tracks. Trader candidates at both firms are tested on maths and markets, not language knowledge.
- When do Jane Street and Optiver open 2027 internships?
- Both are already open. Young and Calculated's September 2026 timeline guide says Jane Street's Summer 2027 roles went live on 12 July 2026 with no stated deadline, and that last cycle's interview slots were gone by late October. Optiver's Summer 2027 quantitative internship was live by August 2026. Both review on a rolling basis, so applying in September beats applying in November.