Maven Securities is a London-headquartered options market maker hiring trading and quant roles through a process candidates describe as a textbook trading-firm funnel. (Based on consistent candidate reports; formats change — verify against your own invite.)
The reported stages
- Numerical/math screen. Timed arithmetic and probability under pressure — the standard market-maker gate, in the same family as Optiver's 80-in-8: speed and accuracy on mental calculation, sequences, and quick expected-value questions.
- Probability and brainteaser interviews. Expected value, conditional probability, and game pricing — "would you play this game, and at what price?" is the recurring shape.
- Trading games / market-making exercises. Live rounds where you quote two-way prices on uncertain quantities and update on flow — composure and sizing logic over precision.
- Options intuition (desk-dependent). As an options shop, later rounds can probe basic options reasoning: what moves an option's value, hedging intuition, and simple Greeks-level questions for experienced hires.
What Maven-type firms select for
Options market makers filter hardest on calibrated quick probability — fast expected values with stated confidence, sensible bet sizing, and updating without ego. The math bar is real but not exotic; the differentiation is doing it at speed, out loud, while someone pushes back.
Prep plan by stage
- Math screen: daily 80-in-8 runs + timed drilling in the probability bank.
- Interviews: the expectation bank (75 free, fully solved) and dice-game pricing — the exact question family.
- Games: the market-making game and betting game replicate the live rounds, including sizing under uncertainty (Kelly logic).
- Options: basic payoff/hedging intuition from the options bank.
More firm guides
Frequently asked questions
What is the Maven Securities interview process?
Candidates report a timed numerical/math screen, probability and brainteaser interviews built around game pricing, live market-making exercises, and — being an options market maker — options-intuition questions in later rounds.
How hard is the Maven math test?
Comparable to other market-maker screens (Optiver, IMC family): the material is arithmetic, sequences, and quick probability, and the difficulty is the clock. Daily timed mental-math practice is the right preparation.
What kind of questions do the interviews ask?
Expected value and fair-price questions ('would you play this game? at what price?'), conditional probability with follow-up twists, and live two-way quoting exercises where you update on simulated flow.
How should I prepare for Maven?
Timed mental math daily, expectation/probability drilling with worked solutions, market-making game practice for the live rounds, and basic options intuition if interviewing for options desks.
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