Chicago Trading Company (CTC) is a proprietary market-making firm headquartered in Chicago, best known for options trading across equities, fixed income, and commodities. It hires undergraduates into a Quantitative Trading Analyst (QTA) track, software engineers, and PhD-level systematic researchers, and its campus funnel starts — like most prop shops — with an online assessment. This page covers what candidates report about that OA as of mid-2026. For the interview rounds that follow, see our full CTC interview questions guide.
The reported hiring process
CTC's own campus recruiting page describes a four-stage process, and candidate reports on Glassdoor, Wall Street Oasis, and forums are broadly consistent with it:
| Stage | What it is | What candidates report |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Application | Resume + short questionnaire, early fall | Straightforward; math-heavy backgrounds do well |
| 2. Online assessment | Aptitude test (QTA) or coding challenge (SE) | Timed critical-thinking / probability questions, or Codility DSA problems |
| 3. Interview | Behavioral + technical round | Some cycles use a one-way recorded video interview first |
| 4. Office visit | Final round in Chicago | Roughly six 1:1 interviews plus a desk shadow and mock trading session |
Timelines are reasonably fast: Glassdoor's aggregate puts the average CTC process at a little over two weeks, though campus cycles cluster around fall deadlines.
What's in the OA, by role
CTC explicitly splits the assessment by role: QTA candidates get “an aptitude assessment to test your critical thinking skills,” while software engineering candidates get “a coding challenge to test basic programming skills.” The firm says it provides practice tests before the real thing — use them.
- QTA aptitude test. Candidates describe a timed cognitive-style test — one account cites 34 minutes — built around logical word problems, vocabulary and shape-pattern items, mental math, estimation questions (Fermi-style “how many gas stations in California” territory), and probability. A separate commonly cited report describes roughly 10 probability and brainteaser questions in 30 minutes. The exact vendor and question count appear to vary by cycle, so treat these numbers as indicative rather than fixed.
- SE coding challenge. Engineering candidates report a Codility assessment with around three data-structures-and-algorithms questions — arrays and stacks come up in reports — at an easy-to-medium level. This is a filter for basic fluency, not a competitive-programming gauntlet.
If you're unfamiliar with how these screens work in general, our primer on what a quant online assessment is covers the common formats and proctoring norms.
What the OA is actually testing
Nothing on the QTA test requires more than a solid first course in probability. What CTC is filtering for is speed and accuracy under time pressure — the same trait the later trading simulation measures. A representative style of question (not attributed to CTC) is quick expected-value arithmetic: a fair die pays you its face value; the fair price is $E[X] = \frac{1+2+3+4+5+6}{6} = 3.5$. On the real test you'd need answers like this in well under a minute, then move on without second-guessing. Candidates consistently report that the first-round interview after the OA doubles down on the same material: probability, expectations, and brainteasers with light coding, solved fast, with your reasoning process mattering more than a polished final answer.
Notably, several reviewers observe that CTC leans harder on mathematical ability than CS skill for the trading track — the opposite weighting of many pod shops.
How to prepare
- Drill timed probability. The OA's core is exactly what our probability question bank and expected value problems cover — work them with a timer at 2–3 minutes per question, then cut the time in half.
- Mix in brainteasers and estimation. The aptitude test's word problems and Fermi questions reward the pattern library you build from brain teaser practice.
- SE candidates: rehearse easy-medium DSA. Arrays, stacks, hash maps under Codility-style constraints — our coding question bank covers the level reported.
- Take CTC's practice test. The firm provides one; it's the only fully reliable source on the current format, since third-party reports lag format changes.
- Prepare for the video round in parallel. One-way recorded interviews punish cold starts — have 60-second answers ready for “why trading” and “why CTC” before your OA result even comes back.
For calibration on where CTC sits relative to Optiver, SIG, and the rest of the prop-shop field, see our firms ranked by interview difficulty.
Practice for the CTC OA
The fastest way to get OA-ready is repetition under a clock: run timed sets from our probability bank, take a full prop-shop OA simulation to rehearse the time pressure end-to-end, and use our trading games to warm up the fast expected-value instincts CTC's mock trading session will test later in the funnel.
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Frequently asked questions
What is on the CTC online assessment?
It depends on the role. For Quantitative Trading Analyst candidates, CTC describes the OA as an aptitude assessment testing critical thinking, and candidates report logical word problems, mental math, estimation, and probability questions under tight time pressure. Software Engineering candidates instead report a Codility coding challenge with a small number of data-structures-and-algorithms problems.
How long is the CTC online assessment?
Reported timings vary by role and cycle. Some candidates describe an aptitude test of roughly half an hour, and one commonly cited account describes around ten probability and brainteaser questions in thirty minutes. Treat any specific count as approximate, since CTC has changed formats between recruiting seasons.
Is the CTC online assessment hard?
Candidates generally describe the questions themselves as reasonable rather than exotic; the difficulty comes from speed. Glassdoor reviewers rate CTC's overall interview difficulty around average for prop trading firms, and several note the aptitude test is mostly logical word problems and mental math rather than advanced material.
What happens after the CTC OA?
Candidates who pass report being invited to a first-round interview, which some cycles have run as a one-way recorded video interview and others as a live behavioral-plus-technical round. Finalists visit CTC's Chicago headquarters for interviews, a desk shadow, and a mock trading session.
Practice the real thing
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