Chicago Trading Company (CTC) hires Quant Trader and Quant Researcher. Candidates report 5 to 6 interview stages depending on the track (6 distinct rounds across all tracks). Below: what each round tests and how to prepare, the path by track, the timeline, pay and a 4-week prep plan, drawn from candidate reports and CTC's own recruiting pages.
Chicago Trading Company interview: quick answer
- StagesBy track: Quant Trader: 5 · Quant Researcher: 6 (6 distinct rounds across all tracks)
- Online assessmentTimed · online · reasoning + numerical
- Final roundFinal: Onsite · multiple conversations
- Pay (candidate-reported)Quant Trader, New grad: $200k – $350k total comp
- RolesQuant Trader, Quant Researcher
Preparing for Chicago Trading Company? Work the rounds in order in the free Chicago Trading Company interview funnel, or start with the free online-assessment sample (no signup).
The CTC interview process at a glance
| # | Round | Format and length | Who takes it | Prep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Online Assessment Reasoning Battery | Timed · online · reasoning + numerical | All tracks | OA guidePractice |
| 2 | Initial Technical Screen Research Process | Video call · with a quant researcher · no OA | Quant Researcher | GuidePractice |
| 3 | Core-Values Behavioral Screen | ~30–45 min · recruiter / hiring team | All tracks | GuidePractice |
| 4 | Probability / Options Concept Interview | 45–60 min · with a trader / researcher | All tracks | GuidePractice |
| 5 | Trading / Market-Making Game | Interactive · with a trader | All tracks | GuidePractice |
| 6 | Final Onsite / Fit | Onsite · multiple conversations | All tracks | GuidePractice |
Stages are listed in the order candidates report them. Formats come from candidate reports and change between cycles, offices and teams; the "Who takes it" column shows which track each round belongs to.
How the CTC process differs by track
CTC runs separate loops for different roles. Here is the path each track reports, in order:
- Quant Trader (5 stages): Online Assessment → Core-Values Behavioral Screen → Probability / Options Concept Interview → Trading / Market-Making Game → Final
- Quant Researcher (6 stages): Online Assessment → Initial Technical Screen → Core-Values Behavioral Screen → Probability / Options Concept Interview → Trading / Market-Making Game → Final
Not sure which track fits you? See quant trader vs quant researcher.
Every CTC round: what it tests and how to prepare
1Online Assessment: Reasoning Battery
The first filter is a timed online reasoning assessment. Candidate captures show an SHL-style verbal-reasoning section (reading-comprehension MCQs plus true / false / cannot-say passage judgments) under a per-section countdown, typically alongside numerical reasoning. Domain knowledge won't save you here; careful reading and clock management will.
How to prepare
- Budget the clock per question. The sections are tightly timed; bank the easy comprehension questions first and don't sink the whole clock into one tricky passage.
- Practice numerical reasoning cold. Fast percentage / ratio / table-reading arithmetic without a calculator is exactly the muscle these batteries test.
Chicago Trading Company online assessment guide →Practice this round →
2Initial Technical Screen: Research Process
QR route, outside the trader funnel. One September 2026 report (PhD, quant researcher): invited from the resume and CTC's detailed application form, no online assessment first. Later rounds unreported; assume the probability and statistics round below.
How to prepare
- Have two lengths of the same project ready. A five-minute version that lands the question, method and result, and a twenty-minute version you can go deep on when they start pulling threads.
- Expect the follow-ups to be about process, not results. How you chose the model, how you validated it, what you would do with more data, what broke and how you found out.
- Know the statistics under your own work cold. Estimator assumptions, standard errors, multiple testing and out-of-sample checks are where a QR will probe.
3Core-Values Behavioral Screen
A behavioral round built around CTC's core values. Expect 'tell me about a time…' questions probing collaboration, ownership, integrity, and how you handle being wrong. CTC's own interviewing tips emphasize this round: fit and values carry real weight in the decision.
How to prepare
- Be honest and specific. Values interviews reward candor; a real story with a real lesson lands better than a polished non-answer.
Watch out: Prepare STAR stories mapped to values. Have one crisp situation→task→action→result story per theme (teamwork, taking ownership, a mistake you owned, a time you drove something).
Full Core-Values Behavioral Screen guide →Practice this round →
4Probability / Options Concept Interview
The technical round, drawn directly from CTC's QTA prep-guide topics: probability, conditional probability / Bayes, expected value, common distributions, independence, confidence intervals, and market-making bid/ask intuition. Problems are trading-flavored and concept-driven: they want clean reasoning applied to a setup, not a memorized formula.
- The technical round runs 30 to 45 minutes: mental maths, expected value, estimation questions with a confidence range, and questions on your CV.
How to prepare
- Master the QTA primer topics as reflexes. EV of a bet, conditional probability / Bayes updates, and the shape of common distributions should be instant.
- Think like a market maker. For pricing questions, state a fair value, put a credible spread around it, and widen with uncertainty — narrate the risk.
- Estimate, then refine. Give a fast point estimate and a bound before committing; talking through the setup scores more than a fast opaque number.
Full Probability / Options Concept Interview guide →Practice this round →
5Trading / Market-Making Game
As an options / ETF market maker, CTC's later rounds are reported to include a trading-game and mental-math component: quoting two-sided markets, sizing bets by edge, and rapid arithmetic under pressure. Specifics vary by cycle and role: treat this stage as candidate-reported / typical-for-the-firm rather than a fixed format.
- Mock trading is the centrepiece of the Chicago superday: you trade against other candidates and interviewers.
How to prepare
- Drill mental math cold. Fast multiplication, division, and percentage estimation without a calculator is table stakes for a market-making game.
- Quote a fair value with a disciplined spread. Size by edge, manage inventory as fills come in, and never bet so big one bad beat wrecks you.
- Stay composed and verbalize. The trader is grading how you reason and hold up under pressure more than any single number.
Full Trading / Market-Making Game guide →Practice this round →
6Final: Onsite / Fit
A closing onsite / fit stage with the team. Conversational and values-oriented, confirming both technical bar and whether you'd thrive on CTC's floor. Expect a mix of lighter technical framing and culture-fit discussion.
How to prepare
- Bring questions that show research. Ask about the desks, the QTA path, and how researchers and traders collaborate.
- Restate your 'why CTC' clearly. Connect the market-making culture and Chicago floor to something specific about you.
Practice the CTC rounds in order
Each round in the CTC funnel has its own practice set, with worked solutions and progress tracking. A free account saves your progress across rounds.
Intern vs full-time
CTC runs a Quant Trading Internship in Chicago and London with options and market-making coursework, and a Quant Trading Associate role for graduates starting in 2027. Its campus roles also include a software engineering internship and an Associate Engineer position.
Regional differences
CTC lists offices in Chicago, New York, London, Austin and Amsterdam. Its quant trading and intern roles are based in Chicago and London.
A 4-week CTC prep plan
Built from the order of Chicago Trading Company's rounds on the Quant Trader path and the topics in each round's practice set. Compress it if your first interview is sooner. Other tracks can swap in their own rounds from the table above.
| When | Focus | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Foundations | Review probability and expected value, the topics that dominate Chicago Trading Company's practice sets. Work the easy and medium questions in the Chicago Trading Company question set. |
| Week 2 | Early rounds: Online Assessment, Core-Values Behavioral Screen, Probability / Options Concept Interview and Trading / Market-Making Game | Practice the screening topics under time pressure, and take the free OA sample (format notes in the OA guide). Add a daily mental-math drill. Talk every answer through out loud; interviewers score the reasoning. |
| Week 3 | Later rounds: Final | Move to the harder final-round topics. Rehearse quoting markets with the Make a Market game and read the market-making game guide. Read how quant superdays work. |
| Week 4 | Rehearse the full loop | Run each practice round in order, redo the questions you missed, and prepare two project stories plus a specific answer to "why Chicago Trading Company?" (see behavioral questions at trading firms). |
CTC pay
| Role | Level | Total comp | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quant Trader | New grad | $200k – $350k | Base + sign-on + first-year bonus; upside scales with desk P&L in later years. Candidate-reported. |
| Quant Researcher / QTA | New grad | $200k – $350k | Comp tracks the trading tracks closely for equivalent tenure. Candidate-reported. |
Total compensation means base salary plus bonus and any sign-on, as candidates self-report it. Job postings usually show base salary only, so posted figures and outside salary pages often look lower. Rough, candidate-reported ranges — NOT offers or guarantees. CTC is a private prop market maker, so total comp is heavily bonus-driven and varies with desk performance. Treat as a sanity-check only. Source: Candidate self-reports aggregated from levels.fyi / Glassdoor / community forums — not employer-verified. Last updated July 17, 2026.
CTC teams and what their interviews test
CTC hires quant traders and researchers into its options / ETF market-making business. Both tracks share the early funnel (reasoning OA → core-values behavioral → probability/options concepts) and then lean into trading-game and mental-math rounds appropriate to a market maker.
| Tracks | What it does | What its interviews test |
|---|---|---|
| Quant Trader Trader | Price and make markets in options / ETFs; manage risk and inventory in fast markets. | Reasoning OA → core-values behavioral → probability / EV / options concepts → trading game + mental math. Composure and fast estimation matter as much as the exact number. |
| Quant Researcher / QTA Quant Researcher | Signal and pricing research feeding the trading desks; CTC's Quant Trading Analyst (QTA) track. | Same early funnel plus a deeper probability / statistics / options-pricing conversation drawn from the QTA prep guide (conditional probability, distributions, market-making bid/ask intuition). Researcher applicants from a PhD have also been reported to skip the OA and start with a research-process screen with a QR (see that stage). |
About CTC
| Firm type | Proprietary options / ETF market maker |
|---|---|
| Trading style | Options / ETF market making · High-frequency market making |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Headquarters | Chicago, IL |
| Other offices | New York, London |
| Structure | Private (trades its own capital) |
| Employees | ~500 (candidate-reported) |
| Offices | Chicago, New York, London, Austin and Amsterdam, per CTC |
| Superday centrepiece | Mock trading against other candidates and staff |
Founded 1995 in Chicago
CTC (Chicago Trading Company) is a proprietary options and ETF market maker founded in Chicago in 1995. It trades its own capital across listed derivatives and has expanded its quant research and technology footprint over time.
Culture
Chicago trading-floor culture with a strong stated emphasis on core values and team fit — CTC's official interviewing tips are built around behavioral / values questions, not just technical horsepower.
What the interviews feel like
Process-forward and values-driven: a timed online reasoning battery up front, a core-values behavioral screen, then a probability / EV / options concept interview (mirroring CTC's own QTA prep guide) and — as an options market maker — trading-game and mental-math pressure in later rounds.
Practice for CTC on QuantVault
Practice
Courses
Games and drills
Further reading
- How quant superdays work
- Market-making game interview guide
- Behavioral questions at trading firms
- Mental math for trading interviews
- Fermi estimation questions
- The quant interview process, explained
Similar firms to compare
Firms with a similar business and interview style. Many candidates interview at several of them in the same cycle.
Sources and how this guide is built
- Updated October 20, 2026; firm data last reviewed September 26, 2026; pay last updated July 17, 2026.
- Round detail draws on candidate interview reports collected by QuantVault.
- Chicago Trading Company's own pages: CTC campus recruiting · Early careers at CTC.
- Public candidate reports and outside interview guides are cross-checked against each other. Where they disagree the page says "reports differ"; details from a single source are marked as candidate reports.
- No actual interview questions are reproduced on this page. The questions, with worked solutions, are in the practice rounds.
CTC interview FAQ
How many rounds are in the Chicago Trading Company interview?
It depends on the track: Quant Trader: 5; Quant Researcher: 6 stages. Across all tracks candidates report 6 distinct rounds: Online Assessment, Initial Technical Screen, Core-Values Behavioral Screen, Probability / Options Concept Interview, Trading / Market-Making Game, Final.
Is there an online assessment at Chicago Trading Company?
Candidates report one: Timed · online · reasoning + numerical. The first filter is a timed online reasoning assessment. Candidate captures show an SHL-style verbal-reasoning section (reading-comprehension MCQs plus true / false / cannot-say passage judgments) under a per-section countdown, typically alongside numerical reasoning.
What happens in the Chicago Trading Company final round?
Final (Onsite · multiple conversations). A closing onsite / fit stage with the team. Conversational and values-oriented, confirming both technical bar and whether you'd thrive on CTC's floor.
Does the Chicago Trading Company process differ by role?
Yes. Quant Trader: Online Assessment, Core-Values Behavioral Screen, Probability / Options Concept Interview, Trading / Market-Making Game, Final. Quant Researcher: Online Assessment, Initial Technical Screen, Core-Values Behavioral Screen, Probability / Options Concept Interview, Trading / Market-Making Game, Final.
How much does Chicago Trading Company pay?
Candidate-reported total compensation: Quant Trader (New grad) $200k – $350k; Quant Researcher / QTA (New grad) $200k – $350k. These are self-reported totals including bonus, not offers; job postings usually list base salary only.
How should I prepare for the Chicago Trading Company interview?
Prepare round by round over about four weeks: foundations first, then the early rounds (Online Assessment, Initial Technical Screen, Core-Values Behavioral Screen), then the later rounds, then a full rehearsal. Each round has its own practice set on QuantVault, and the online assessment has a dedicated guide.
What does Chicago Trading Company do?
Chicago Trading Company (CTC) is a proprietary options / ETF market maker headquartered in Chicago, IL. CTC (Chicago Trading Company) is a proprietary options and ETF market maker founded in Chicago in 1995. It trades its own capital across listed derivatives and has expanded its quant research and technology footprint over time.
Does CTC hire software engineers?
Yes. CTC's campus roles include a software engineering internship and an Associate Engineer position.
Are practice tests available before the CTC assessment?
CTC says practice tests may be provided before the online assessment.
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