Zap-N is the cognitive-games section of Optiver's online assessment — a timed battery of short reaction, memory and planning mini-games, run alongside the math rounds (Number Logic and the probability round). The eight formats above reward familiarity more than raw reflexes: Code Compare shrinks the decision window toward half a second; Balloon punishes greed once you've learned the pop distribution; Task Switch costs you every time the rule flips between arrows and arithmetic. These trainers reproduce the format and the speed-up curve so the real assessment isn't your first attempt.

Which games appear?

Reported games: Skyscraper (block stacking), Code Compare (string matching against the clock), The Switch (dual-task arrows vs odd/even math), a balloon risk game, digit-recall pincode, a 24-points arithmetic game, a dial-timing reaction test and a pattern-deduction game. The exact set varies by cycle — recent QT and PhD invites often show just three.

Can the games alone fail you?

Recent candidate reports suggest one weak game section no longer auto-rejects by itself; the math rounds carry most of the weight, so prepare both. Drill the 80-in-8 math screen and the Number Logic round too.