DATA · ONLINE ASSESSMENTS · UPDATED 2026-08-18
The Quant OA Census 2026-27
What is the first screen at every quant firm? This census compiles the documented first-round online assessment at 41 trading firms and quant funds — format, platform, timing, and whether the question bank repeats — from QuantVault's per-firm guides, which are rebuilt from candidate reports each cycle. Cite it freely with a link.
41firms covered
22open with a coding oa
15open with a math screen
2open with a take-home
2open with a cognitive battery
18/20documented banks recur
Key findings
- 22 of 41 firms open with a coding oa; 15 of 41 firms open with a math screen; 2 of 41 firms open with a take-home; 2 of 41 firms open with a cognitive battery. 25 of 41 run different formats by track — the same firm can be a coding OA for engineers and a probability screen for traders.
- HackerRank dominates hosting (11 of 41 firms), followed by CodeSignal (5), proprietary (4), take-home (3). The rest run proprietary or recruiter-administered tests.
- Where candidates document it, 18 of 20 question banks recur year over year — the single strongest argument for format-specific preparation over generic drilling.
- 5 firms explicitly ban calculators on their math screens; mental-math speed remains a hard filter at the trading firms.
The full table
| Firm | Formats | Platform | Timing | Bank | Track notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akuna Capital | Coding OA Math screen Game simulation Video interview | HackerRank | 3 problems | recurs | QR: Python coding then EasyHire math OA; traders: game/video; 2027 coding OA: 3 of a 7-problem pool / 120 min (HackerRank) |
| AQR Capital Management | Coding OA Math screen Take-home | CodeSignal | 3 problems / 75-90 min | recurs | QR: coding OA or recruiter take-home (~8 GRE-level math MCQ, no calculus); same screen for SDE |
| Aquatic Capital Management | Coding OA | CodeSignal | — | — | Engineering: Python CodeSignal reported; research-track OA contents undocumented |
| Bank of America | Cognitive battery | HireVue | ~30 min battery (4 modules) | — | Round 1 for HK/US campus: SJT + business case MCQ + self-report + 88 forced-choice pairs; not a quant test |
| Belvedere Trading | Math screen Coding OA | — | 22 MCQ | recurs | SWE: signature 3-problem coding; traders/quants: 22-q concept MCQ + judgment teasers |
| Bridgewater Associates | Take-home Coding OA | take-home | — | recurs | SWE: Codility set 90-180 min; investment tracks: cases/Excel take-home + culture rounds, no coding OA |
| Capstone Investment Advisors | Coding OA | — | 1 problem | — | QR/QT: single portfolio-weights coding problem (candidate-reported) |
| Citadel / Citadel Securities | Coding OA Math screen | HackerRank | 2 problems / 70 min | recurs | SWE pool rotates; QR/QT get probability screens; DS datathon |
| CTC (Chicago Trading Company) | Cognitive battery Math screen | SHL-style | ~34 min battery (one account) | — | All tracks: SHL-style verbal+numerical reasoning; QTA guide feeds the later probability interview |
| D. E. Shaw | Coding OA Take-home | CodeSignal | 4 problems / 90 min | recurs | SDE: CodeSignal 4-problem; QR/QA: live interviews only; data analysts: pandas take-home |
| DRW | Math screen Coding OA | proprietary | ~6 questions / 45 min | recurs | QR/QT: 45-min fill-in math; SDE: 150-min 3-problem coding; AI/ML: auto-graded ML task |
| Dynamic Technology Lab (DTL) | Math screen Coding OA | proprietary | 7 proof questions | — | All quant tracks: olympiad written proof paper; dev tracks add a C++/Python coding screen |
| Five Rings | Math screen | proprietary | ~17-20 questions / 17-40 min | — | One no-coding OA for all tracks; QT phone round adds 30-second timed math |
| Flow Traders | Coding OA Math screen | — | ~7 MCQ + 3 coding problems | — | One screen for trader/junior dev: language-quirk MCQ + 3 coding + probability items |
| G-Research | Math screen Coding OA | — | 10 MCQ / ~90 min (reports vary) | rotates | QR: general quant quiz or ML-specific variant; engineers: automated coding test |
| GTS | Coding OA | — | — | — | Single track: sliding-window and DP coding problems |
| Headlands Technologies | Coding OA | — | — | — | Single track: data-structure design and streaming/order-book coding |
| Hudson River Trading | Coding OA | HackerRank | 3 problems / ~150 min | recurs | QR takes the Algo-Dev OA; SWE 2-4 problems / 70-120 min; Quant Analyst 30-min C++ screen |
| IMC Trading | Math screen Cognitive battery Video interview Coding OA | HackerRank | 15 questions (QT) / 11 questions (QR) | recurs | QT: 15-q math (2026: cognitive+personality first); QR: 11-q math; SWE: 120-min 2 hard; video scored |
| Jane Street | Math screen | HackerRank | ~4 questions / 30 min | — | Trader/QT/Research: probability set; QR round 2 adds live coding; trading ops: Excel task |
| JPMorgan (NAMR Quantitative Research) | Coding OA | HackerRank | 2 problems / 60 min | recurs | Campus QR: Python-only coding screen; small rotating pool with verbatim repeats across sittings |
| Jump Trading | Coding OA | Codility | 3-4 problems / ~80 min-4 hr | recurs | SWE: Codility C++; crypto QT: 1.5-hr coding; SRE: 40-min shell quiz; QR/QD: multi-hour data task |
| Millennium | Take-home Coding OA Cognitive battery | take-home | 4 challenges / 24 hours | — | QR intern: 24-h project + Caliper; QD/SDE: 3-h 6-q HackerRank; DE/DS: SQL/ML batteries |
| Old Mission Capital | Math screen Coding OA | — | 35 questions / 25 min | recurs | QT: fixed 35-q speed MC (+short coding); SWE: Codility ~2 hr |
| Optiver | Math screen Game simulation Coding OA | CodeSignal | 26 seq / 25 min + 30 prob x 90 s | recurs | QT/QR: Number Logic, Beat the Odds, 2026 modules, Zap-N games; QR +3 HackerRank algo; SWE: OOD sims |
| PDT Partners | Coding OA Take-home | take-home | — | — | Coding take-home plus clean algorithm/data-structure problems |
| Point72 / Cubist | Coding OA Take-home | HackerRank | 5 questions | recurs | Cubist QR: 5-q Python; DS/DA: pandas+SQL + 3-part take-home; QD: 3-hr scheduler |
| Quantlab Financial | Coding OA Math screen | — | — | — | Early coding+quant screen; the real filter is the live ETF/trading-knowledge interview |
| Qube Research & Technologies | Coding OA | HackerRank | 3 problems | — | QR/QD: trading-flavored 3-problem HackerRank coding |
| Radix Trading | Coding OA | — | 60-90 min | — | C++ implementation and numerical problems (shared_ptr, allocator, Kahan summation) |
| Renaissance Technologies | Coding OA Math screen | — | — | — | Timed screen mixing clean algorithm problems with applied-statistics tasks |
| Schonfeld Strategic Advisors | Coding OA | — | 2 problems ('one easy, one hard') | — | QR (QIS): two coding problems, candidate-reported; stats-heavy interview follows |
| SIG (Susquehanna International Group) | Math screen Coding OA | Mettl | 17 questions / 60 min | recurs | Trader/QR: 17-q math bank recurs since 2019; SWE proctored coding; StratDev CodeSignal; CapM finance |
| Squarepoint Capital | Math screen Coding OA | HackerRank | ~4 MCQ + 2 coding problems | recurs | Desk Quant/QR: stats/bias MCQ gate + 2 coding, pass every part; SWE: Python set; NG frontend: React |
| The Voleon Group | Coding OA Take-home | proprietary | 5 problems / 1-1.5 hr | — | Eng/research: exchange-sim + classic coding; data analyst: 4 SQL + 1 pandas / 1 hr |
| Tower Research Capital | Math screen Coding OA | in-house | ~13 questions / 45 min (phone) | — | QR/QT: probability phone screen; dev: 75-min 4-problem HackerRank OA or wangce DP |
| Two Sigma | Coding OA | HackerRank | 3 problems / ~3 h | recurs | QR/DS: frozen 3-problem set (~6 yrs); SWE: 2 of ~7 pool / 75 min, late-2025 refresh pair |
| Virtu Financial | Coding OA | CodeSignal | 5 problems (strategist: 4 / 90 min) | recurs | QT/dev/SRE share 5-problem bank; PhD strategist: 4-problem finance OA; separate FPGA OA |
| Wincent | Math screen | Testlify | 12 questions / 100 min (2 sections) | — | Quant screen for the crypto MM: probability and EV, calculator allowed, webcam proctored, no coding |
| WorldQuant | Math screen Coding OA | HackerRank | — | — | QR opens with timed math test; SDE: 2 coding + CS MCQ; DS: 120-min performance-gated; BRAIN path |
| XTX Markets | Math screen Coding OA | TestGorilla | ~20 questions / ~60 min (reported) | rotates | QR: ML+probability ~20-q screen; engineers: HackerRank-style coding; format varies by year |
Method: compiled from QuantVault's per-firm OA guides (each linked above), which aggregate candidate reports and are refreshed through the 2026-27 cycle. Formats and timings are candidate-reported and can change; each firm page carries the detail and caveats. "Bank recurs" reflects documented reports of repeated questions across cycles.
Practice the real formats free. Playable replicas of the game and math screens above, plus 391 free problems with full solutions.