Jump Trading and DRW are both Chicago firms founded by former CME traders, both around 2,000 people, and both hiring for Summer 2027 right now. On the public numbers Jump is the harder door and the bigger cheque: an estimated 10-15% online-assessment pass rate against 25-30% at DRW (Quantt, May 2026), and a $500K levels.fyi software engineer median against $310K (retrieved 22 September 2026). DRW is the broader, longer-tenure trading house, where the desk you join (rates, energy, crypto through Cumberland) matters more than the logo, and 2026 showed that cuts both ways.
The 30-second verdict
| Jump Trading | DRW | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1999, Paul Gurinas and Bill DiSomma, ex-CME pit traders (Wikipedia) | 1992, Don Wilson, ex-CME options trader (Wikipedia) |
| Headcount | ~2,137, March 2026 (Revelio Labs) | ~2,000, 2025 (Wikipedia) |
| Where the people are | 50.5% North America, 17.9% Northern Europe (Revelio Labs) | Chicago HQ; Quantt lists Chicago, New York, London, Amsterdam, Singapore, Tokyo |
| Business shape | Algorithmic and high-frequency trading; Jump Crypto since 2021 | Multi-asset trading plus Cumberland (crypto, 2014) and Convexity Properties (real estate) |
| Grad hires per year | ~100, from tens of thousands of applications (Quantt estimate) | ~100-150 (Quantt estimate) |
| OA pass rate | ~10-15% (Quantt estimate) | ~25-30% (Quantt estimate) |
| Grad year-one pay | $250K-$500K (Quantt, illustrative) | Traders $200K-$300K (Quantt, illustrative) |
| levels.fyi SWE median, 22 Sep 2026 | $500,000 ($250K base, $250K bonus; 118 submissions) | $310,000 (L2 entry $203K; 121 submissions) |
| Summer 2027 interns | 11 US requisitions across 8 tracks on 15 Aug 2026 (Extern) | 5 tracks, open since July 2026, rolling (Extern) |
| Last 90 days | +11,000 sq ft at One IFC, Hong Kong (Hedgeweek/Bloomberg, 7 Sep 2026) | Head of US gas and power left after a ~$176M loss (Crypto Briefing, 16 Jun 2026) |
Quantt labels its pass rates and pay bands as estimates built from candidate reports, and levels.fyi is self-reported. Use the table for direction, not for negotiating.
Interviews: Jump grades depth, DRW grades trading instinct
Jump's loop is longer and more engineering-heavy. Quantt's May 2026 guide describes a 90 to 120 minute online assessment of two or three hard problems, then two or three 45 to 60 minute phone screens, then a Super Day of five to seven back-to-back interviews, followed by team matching after the offer. Tradermath's June 2026 guide describes a shorter Superday of four interviews, usually in Chicago: two pen-and-paper maths rounds, one coding round and one fit round, over three to four weeks end to end. The two guides disagree on length, which usually means the loop varies by track; ask your recruiter how many rounds to expect.
The content is consistent across sources. Tradermath lists Python with pandas and NumPy for trader and quant tracks, with coding prompts such as a maximum-likelihood estimate from arrival times and ordinary least squares from scratch, and C++ for core developers, including a work-stealing deque. techinterview's 2026 guide adds a trader round on CME futures microstructure, with prompts like how the ES future trades differently from an S&P 500 ETF, and says modern C++ is essential for production roles, with Rust appearing in newer systems.
DRW's loop is shorter and closer to the trading desk. Tradermath's June 2026 DRW guide describes a take-home quantitative challenge, a roughly 45-minute Zoom interview on probability and statistics, and an in-person Superday with a Python coding challenge (pandas, NumPy, SciPy), a trading simulation where you price and manage risk in real time, card and dice strategy games, and Fermi estimation. Quantt's DRW guide puts the assessment at 60 to 75 minutes for traders and 90 minutes for engineers, then one or two phone screens and four to six 45-minute Superday interviews, with offers within one to two weeks.
The practical read: if your strength is hard algorithms and C++, Jump's loop rewards it. If you think quickly about prices and risk out loud, DRW's simulation round is where you can separate yourself. The two market-making mocks closest to DRW's format are Applr's SIG quantitative trader mock and the Optiver trader mock, both of which make you quote and adjust a market under time pressure.
Pay: the gap is real, and DRW's is set by the desk
levels.fyi on 22 September 2026 shows a Jump software engineer median of $500,000 from 118 US submissions, split evenly into $250,000 base and $250,000 bonus with no equity. DRW's software engineer median is $310,000 from 121 US submissions, and the entry level, L2, sits at $202,722, of which about $168K is base and $29.9K bonus. Quantt's first-year estimates point the same way: $250K to $500K at Jump including signing and bonus, $200K to $300K for DRW graduate traders.
Community reports narrow the gap for some DRW teams. In a September 2025 Blind thread comparing Optiver, DRW and IMC offers, one candidate posted a DRW core infrastructure offer of $375K, made up of $175K base, $125K bonus and $75K signing. Internship pay is close: Extern reports Jump paying software engineering interns $120 an hour in Chicago plus a $20K sign-on bonus and housing, and DRW paying Summer 2026 software interns $96.13 an hour plus a $25,000 signing bonus and a $15,000 completion bonus. DRW's current Quantitative Trading Analyst intern listing states an annual base salary of $250,000, pro-rated for the summer, with furnished apartments.
The number to understand is how DRW pays. It runs many desks across rates, energy, crypto and more, and a desk's P&L drives its bonus pool. That became visible in 2026. DRW's North American power desk lost about $176 million during the swings of the late-January winter storm; two Houston-based traders left in February, and the desk's head, Teoman Guler, who joined in 2022, left in June (Crypto Briefing, 16 June 2026, following Bloomberg). A graduate joining a strong DRW desk can do well. A graduate joining a desk that just had a bad year is starting behind, whatever the firm's average looks like.
Culture, tenure and the old Blind verdict
The most-cited head-to-head is a November 2022 Blind thread from a London candidate holding both software internships, each worth about £30K for ten weeks plus accommodation. A Jump employee replied that Jump was a phenomenal place to work and the most engineer-friendly firm around, another commenter said the two were not in the same league, and the poster chose Jump. No DRW employee argued back. That tells you more about Jump's engineering reputation than about DRW as a place for traders.
DRW's case is breadth and longevity. Quantt's DRW guide notes that many of its senior people have been there 15 years or more, which is unusual in prop trading. The firm trades futures, options, fixed income, energy and digital assets, runs Cumberland for crypto and Convexity Properties for real estate, and has grown by acquisition, including Chopper Trading in 2015 and RGM Advisors in 2017 (Wikipedia). Hours vary by team: a DRW intern on Blind in July 2024 described an auto-trading team as a real grind, with 10 to 11 hour days.
Jump's direction in 2026 is outward. It signed a 99,305 sq ft New York lease in May 2026 and has been building a Hong Kong statistical-arbitrage team led by Zoey Zhao, formerly of Citadel Securities (Crypto Briefing, 5 September 2026). In September it took another 11,000 sq ft at One International Finance Centre and plans to hire for quantitative trading and AI roles there (Hedgeweek, 7 September 2026, citing Bloomberg).
Both firms have public regulatory history you should know before a "why us" answer. Jump's crypto subsidiary Tai Mo Shan agreed in December 2024 to pay $123 million to settle SEC claims over TerraUSD (DL News). DRW won its long CFTC swap-futures case when a federal judge ruled the CFTC had not proved its allegations, and the SEC dismissed its 2024 case against Cumberland DRW in March 2025 with prejudice (Wikipedia).
Which should you choose?
- You are a strong C++ or competitive-programming engineer: Jump. Its loop, its pay data and its engineering reputation all point the same way.
- You want to trade and you think in prices, not proofs: DRW. The trading simulation and the multi-asset desk structure give traders more surface to work with, and the OA gate is wider.
- You need a seat outside the US: Jump has proportionally more people in Europe and Asia and is expanding in Hong Kong. DRW's 2027 trading intern listing names Chicago, Greenwich and New York; Extern lists London and Montreal for some tracks.
- You are choosing between DRW desks: ask which desk, how its bonus pool is set, and how the last two years went. The 2026 energy loss is the reason to ask.
- You want the highest expected first-year package: Jump, by roughly $190K at the levels.fyi software engineer median.
Prepare for both
Both firms review Summer 2027 applications on a rolling basis, so the order matters more than polish: apply this month, then practise.
- Drill the market-making round DRW's Superday uses: SIG quantitative trader mock
- Track which 2027 programmes are open and closing: New Grad 2027 tracker
- Check your resume parses before a Greenhouse ATS reads it: free resume checker
- Compare Jump with its closest engineering rival: Jump Trading vs HRT (2026)
Sources
- Quantt, "Jump Trading Interview: Process, Questions and How to Pass", 2 May 2026
- Quantt, "DRW Interview: Process, Questions and How to Pass", 7 May 2026
- Tradermath, Jump Trading interview guide, 10 June 2026
- Tradermath, DRW interview guide, 16 June 2026
- techinterview, Jump Trading interview guide 2026
- levels.fyi, Jump Trading software engineer salaries, retrieved 22 September 2026
- levels.fyi, DRW software engineer salaries, retrieved 22 September 2026
- Revelio Labs, Jump Trading employee count, March 2026
- Extern, Jump Trading internship guide (2027 cycle), September 2026
- Extern, DRW internship guide (2027 cycle), July 2026, updated September 2026
- DRW, Quantitative Trading Analyst Intern listing, retrieved September 2026
- Crypto Briefing, "DRW loses head of North American gas and power trading after $176M loss", 16 June 2026
- Hedgeweek, "Jump Trading expands Hong Kong footprint", 7 September 2026
- Crypto Briefing, "Jane Street, IMC Trading among prop trading firms flooding Hong Kong", 5 September 2026
- DL News, "Jump Trading crypto subsidiary hit with $123m fine over TerraUSD scandal", December 2024
- Wikipedia, DRW Trading Group, retrieved September 2026
- Wikipedia, Jump Trading, retrieved September 2026
- Blind, "DRW or Jump Trading (SWE Internship)", 8 November 2022
- Blind, DRW culture discussions (2024-2025 posts), retrieved September 2026
Frequently asked questions
- Is Jump Trading harder to get into than DRW?
- At the first gate, yes. Quantt's May 2026 guides estimate that around 10 to 15% of Jump candidates pass the online assessment against around 25 to 30% at DRW. Quantt also estimates Jump hires roughly 100 graduates a year from tens of thousands of applications, while DRW hires roughly 100 to 150. Both figures are estimates, not firm disclosures.
- Which pays more for a new grad, Jump Trading or DRW?
- Jump, on every public figure. levels.fyi on 22 September 2026 shows a Jump software engineer median of $500,000 (118 US submissions, split $250K base and $250K bonus) against $310,000 at DRW (121 US submissions), where the entry level L2 sits at about $203K. Quantt's illustrative first-year estimates are $250K to $500K at Jump and $200K to $300K for DRW graduate traders.
- What does the DRW interview look like in 2026?
- Tradermath's June 2026 guide describes a take-home quantitative challenge, a roughly 45-minute Zoom interview on probability and statistics, and an in-person Superday with a Python coding challenge using pandas and NumPy, a trading simulation, card and dice games and Fermi estimates. Quantt's May 2026 guide puts the Superday at four to six 45-minute interviews, with offers inside one to two weeks.
- What happened to DRW's energy desk in 2026?
- DRW's power desk lost about $176 million during the price swings of the late-January 2026 North American winter storm, and the head of North American gas and power trading, Teoman Guler, left the firm in June 2026 (Crypto Briefing, 16 June 2026, following Bloomberg). Two Houston-based traders had already left in February. It is a desk-level event at a diversified firm, but worth knowing if you are applying to energy trading.
- Which is better for an international student, Jump or DRW?
- Jump has more seats outside the US. Revelio Labs put 50.5% of Jump's roughly 2,137 staff in North America in March 2026, with 17.9% in Northern Europe and about 16.6% across East and Southeast Asia, and Jump took another 11,000 sq ft in Hong Kong in September 2026 (Hedgeweek, citing Bloomberg). DRW is more Chicago-centred; its 2027 Quantitative Trading Analyst intern listing names Chicago, Greenwich and New York, and Extern lists London and Montreal for some tracks.
- Do DRW and Jump Trading have regulatory history I should know about?
- Both do, and both are public. Jump's crypto subsidiary Tai Mo Shan agreed on 20 December 2024 to pay $123 million to settle SEC claims over TerraUSD (DL News). At DRW, a CFTC manipulation case over interest-rate swap futures was dismissed after a federal judge ruled the CFTC had not proved its allegations, and the SEC dropped its 2024 case against Cumberland DRW in March 2025 with prejudice (Wikipedia, retrieved September 2026).