IMC Trading Interview Process & Prep

IMC is a proprietary market maker with a fast, volatile recruiting process. The pipeline leans on a timed numerical-reasoning OA and a one-way recorded video interview (scored as part of the OA), then trader-led market-making game scenarios for the trading track and a coding+systems gauntlet for engineers. Two behavioral questions follow you everywhere: 'Why IMC?' and 'Why trading?'

Quant TraderQuant ResearcherSoftware Engineer / Quant Performance Engineer
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The IMC Trading interview funnel

1. HR / Recruiter Phone Screen

10–45 min · phone / Zoom

The first step for every track. Logistics (visa, grad date), 'tell me about yourself', and IMC's two signature behaviorals — 'Why IMC?' and 'Why trading?' — asked here and again later. Often includes one light brain-teaser, classically the coin-flip-with-an-edge question to probe EV and bankroll intuition.

2. Online Assessment

Trader/QR ~60 min · SWE ~120 min · HackerRank / Codility

Track-split. Trader / QR: a timed numerical-reasoning OA — the QR fingerprint is 15 questions in 60 minutes of probability, combinatorics, logic (knights & knaves), information-gain / decision-trees, graph-connectivity, and sequence puzzles (SHL-style); considered hard. SWE / Quant-Perf: 120 min, 2 algorithmic problems on HackerRank/Codility (grid BFS, simulation, data-structure design) where timing out is the common failure.

3. Recorded Video Interview

One-way · HireVue · scored as part of the OA

A one-way timed video interview (everyone gets the same prompts; ~15 min think-time, 1–2 min answers, 6–9 segments). It is motivation + behavioral — why IMC / why trading, 'explain your favorite project to a non-technical person', 'a failure and how you bounced back', and how you handle pressure. It is scored as part of the OA, not a separate gate.

4. Trader / Market-Making Game Round (QT)

30–45 min · interactive · with a trader

The decisive human round for the trading track. A trader runs a market-making / betting scenario: sports/match betting boards where you place bets and track both per-bet and unified bankroll P&L, card suit-guessing ($4 correct / −

wrong), pairs-trading and daily-price-movement bets, and 'taxman'-style games. It rewards EV thinking, Bayesian updating as information arrives, and risk/bankroll discipline. Rehearse the exact format with the games below.

5. Technical Round (QR / Quant)

45–60 min · video · math / stats / coding / ML

The QR technical round: probability and statistics, a coding problem (often 2-D DP or Combination Sum), and — for the ML-QR variant — ML fundamentals (information gain, decision trees, classification, regression-vs-transformer trade-offs) plus an ML coding task and a Monte-Carlo / optimization segment. Derivations expected, not just answers.

6. Onsite Coding + Systems (SWE / Quant-Perf)

2-hr sessions · live coding + systems deep-dive

The engineering onsite: live coding (often 2-hour sessions) plus a deep systems/OS round — CPU, TLB, segfaults, signals & signal masks, C++ internals, Linux debugging, REST/asyncio. Chicago/Amsterdam systems-engineer onsites can simulate a server-outage triage with many candidates. The Python-developer variant swaps in a 3–5 hr take-home with a README and library-choice justification.

7. Superday / Virtual Onsite

Onsite or virtual · ~5 rounds across the day

The culmination — often a combined trading-floor superday. ~5 rounds: rapid probability/quant-reasoning (~4 min each), brain teasers (~1 hr), a coding block (~1 hr), game-theory problems (e.g. a newspaper-delivery turn-taking game), Fermi/market-sizing estimation, and the recurring behavioral pair. Strong quantitative-product knowledge expected.

IMC Trading interview — FAQ

What is the IMC Trading interview process?

IMC is a proprietary market maker with a fast, volatile recruiting process. The pipeline leans on a timed numerical-reasoning OA and a one-way recorded video interview (scored as part of the OA), then trader-led market-making game scenarios for the trading track and a coding+systems gauntlet for engineers. Two behavioral questions follow you everywhere: 'Why IMC?' and 'Why trading?' The loop runs 7 stages: HR / Recruiter Phone Screen, Online Assessment, Recorded Video Interview, Trader / Market-Making Game Round (QT), Technical Round (QR / Quant), Onsite Coding + Systems (SWE / Quant-Perf), Superday / Virtual Onsite.

How many rounds does IMC Trading have?

7 stages in total, starting with the HR / Recruiter Phone Screen and ending with the Superday / Virtual Onsite.

How do I prepare for the IMC Trading interview?

Work the stage notes above, then drill the IMC Trading interview-questions set and the IMC Trading online-assessment practice — each problem has a full worked solution.