The IMC Trading Trader / Market-Making Game Round interview is stage 4 of 7 in the IMC Trading interview process, after the HR / Recruiter Phone Screen. Format: 30–45 min · interactive · with a trader. The decisive trading round: a trader runs a market-making or betting scenario.
Preparing for this round? Practice the 13 questions mapped to the IMC Trading Trader / Market-Making Game Round, with worked solutions. A free account saves your progress.
What the Trader / Market-Making Game Round tests
Candidates describe sports-style betting boards where you track profit and loss bet by bet and across the whole bankroll, card-guessing games with an edge, and pairs or price-movement bets. It rewards expected-value thinking, Bayesian updating and bankroll discipline.
QuantVault maps 13 practice problems to this round. By topic, the biggest groups are expectation (6), game theory (4), finance (1), market microstructure (1); by difficulty, 3 easy, 6 medium and 4 hard. 7 of them were reported by candidates who interviewed at IMC Trading, most recently in Jan 2026.
Who takes this round: Quant Trader candidates. See the full IMC Trading process and who takes each round.
How to prepare for the Trader / Market-Making Game Round
- Track P&L continuously — per bet AND across the book. The scenarios deliberately span multiple bets; show you're managing the whole bankroll, not each bet in isolation.
- Update as information arrives. Card-suit and betting boards reward Bayesian updating — recompute your edge after each reveal and re-size.
- Decide worst-case vs expected-value explicitly. Some scenarios ask when to protect the downside vs maximize EV — state your framing.
Further reading: Market-making game interview guide · How quant superdays work · Behavioral questions at trading firms.
Question types in this round
The 5 largest question types in the IMC Trading Trader / Market-Making Game Round practice set; across them the most common sub-topics are expected value, conditional probability, discrete probability, portfolio theory. The questions themselves, with worked solutions, are in the round practice.
Expectation6 in this round
Game Theory4 in this round
Finance1 in this round
Market Microstructure1 in this round
Probability1 in this round
Common mistakes
- Size by EV and edge. Bet more on fat edges, less on thin ones; never bet so big a bad beat wrecks the bankroll. Verbalize the EV.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the IMC Trading Trader / Market-Making Game Round interview?
It is stage 4 of 7 in the IMC Trading interview process, after the HR / Recruiter Phone Screen. Format: 30–45 min · interactive · with a trader. The decisive trading round: a trader runs a market-making or betting scenario. Candidates describe sports-style betting boards where you track profit and loss bet by bet and across the whole bankroll, card-guessing games with an edge, and pairs or price-movement bets.
How long is the IMC Trading Trader / Market-Making Game Round interview?
Candidates report: 30–45 min · interactive · with a trader.
What questions come up in the IMC Trading Trader / Market-Making Game Round interview?
The practice set QuantVault maps to this round centers on expectation, game theory, finance.
How should I prepare for the IMC Trading Trader / Market-Making Game Round interview?
Track P&L continuously — per bet AND across the book. The scenarios deliberately span multiple bets; show you're managing the whole bankroll, not each bet in isolation. Update as information arrives. Card-suit and betting boards reward Bayesian updating — recompute your edge after each reveal and re-size.
What comes after the Trader / Market-Making Game Round?
The Technical Round (stage 5 of 7). Format: 45–60 min · video · math / stats / coding / ML.
Practice the IMC Trading Trader / Market-Making Game Round round
Work the 13 mapped practice problems with progress tracking, then move to the next stage of the IMC Trading funnel.