Zetamac (arithmetic.zetamac.com) is a free, no-signup speed drill: by default, 120 seconds to solve as many addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems as you can, with answers auto-submitting the moment you type them correctly. On those default settings, candidate-reported score bands are roughly 45–55 as a workable prep baseline, 55–70 as competitive for most prop trading firms, and 70+ as strong even for top market makers — community folklore, not official cutoffs, since no firm publishes a threshold. This guide covers the exact settings, what the score bands mean, how to improve, and where Zetamac stops matching the real tests.
What Zetamac actually is
Zetamac's Arithmetic Game predates the modern quant-prep industry and has stayed deliberately simple: a settings page, a timer, and a question stream. The details that matter for scoring, verified against the live site:
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Duration | 120 seconds (30, 60, 300, 600 also selectable) |
| Addition | Both operands from 2–100 |
| Subtraction | The addition problems in reverse (so answers stay in range) |
| Multiplication | Operands from 2–12 × 2–100 |
| Division | The multiplication problems in reverse |
| Scoring | +1 per solved problem; no penalty — the box auto-submits when correct, so a mistype only costs time |
Two consequences of that design. First, because every operation is on and ranges are fixed, scores are only comparable on defaults — a "70" on addition-only 1–10 means nothing. Second, because there is no wrong-answer state, Zetamac measures pure throughput. It cannot teach the skip-or-answer judgment that negatively-marked firm tests demand.
What a good Zetamac score is
Everything public is anecdotal — threads on r/quant, Wall Street Oasis, and college trading clubs — but the reported bands have been stable for years:
| Default-settings score | Candidate-reported reading |
|---|---|
| Below 40 | The speed layer is not there yet; format practice will not pay off until it is. |
| 45–55 | A workable baseline — roughly where serious applicants sit mid-prep. WSO threads cluster "you should be fine" answers around the 50s. |
| 55–70 | Competitive for most prop-shop screens. |
| 70+ | Arithmetic will never be why you are cut, even at the most selective market makers. |
Treat the bands as guidance, not gates: firms never see your Zetamac score, and the number is contaminated by typing speed — a numpad and touch-typing are easily worth several points. What the score is genuinely good for is tracking your own trend and locating yourself against the candidate pool, because everyone speaks the same default-settings language.
Raising your score: what actually moves it
- Fix accuracy first. Speed built on shaky technique plateaus in the 40s. Drill untimed until you are above 95%, using the core moves in our mental-math tricks playbook — anchor-and-adjust, difference of squares, overshoot division, and the fraction–decimal table.
- Log your misses by operation. Most people's errors concentrate in two places, usually subtraction borrows and two-digit division. Ten minutes on the weak operation beats an hour of full mixed sprints.
- Train the input, not just the math. Auto-submit rewards committing digits the instant you know them. Learn the numpad, and type left-to-right as the answer resolves rather than computing fully and then typing.
- Vary the distribution. Grinding only defaults overfits you to one question mix and typically stalls around 55–60. Widen ranges, run single-operation sessions, and mix in longer 300-second runs for stamina.
- Space it. Two or three 2-minute games daily beat a weekend marathon; most candidates report adding 15–20 points over three to six weeks of short daily sessions.
How firms actually test arithmetic (it is not Zetamac)
Zetamac is an independent practice site, not an assessment vendor — no firm sends you a Zetamac link as the official screen. What firms run is adjacent but different, and the differences are exactly where prepared candidates slip:
- Optiver's 80-in-8: 80 multiple-choice questions in 8 minutes with +1 / −1 scoring and no skipping. The negative marking changes strategy completely — answering below 50% confidence has negative expected value, a decision Zetamac never asks you to make. Candidate reports put the pass line near 55 net.
- Flow Traders: heavy on fractions, decimals and percentage conversions — a distribution Zetamac's integer defaults barely touch.
- Old Mission and CTC: arithmetic folded into speed multiple choice with probability and aptitude-style reasoning, so raw sprint speed is necessary but not sufficient.
- Live verbal math at firms like SIG: no keyboard at all — you answer out loud with an interviewer watching you think.
The transfer is real — a 70-Zetamac candidate is rarely slow on any of these — but pacing an 8-minute negatively-marked test and sprinting a 2-minute penalty-free one are different skills, and the question shapes (missing-operand equations like 66 × ? = 138.6, sequence items) need their own reps.
Where QuantVault fits
Use Zetamac for what it is best at — the free daily speed warm-up — and do format work where the format lives: the 80-in-8 simulator reproduces Optiver's exact timing, question shapes and negative marking; the Zap-N games cover the cognitive battery that accompanies Optiver's math screen; the tricks playbook is the technique layer; and the market-making games are where arithmetic speed finally earns money instead of points. For a structured week-by-week progression, see the mental math training plan, and if you are weighing the two platforms feature-by-feature, the QuantVault vs Zetamac comparison is the honest version: Zetamac is free and excellent at its one thing, and everything after the arithmetic screen is what we built QuantVault for.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Zetamac score?
On default settings, candidate-reported bands are: below 40 not ready to apply, 45–55 a workable prep baseline, 55–70 competitive for most prop trading firms, and 70+ strong even for top market makers like Optiver or Jane Street. These are community benchmarks from forums like r/quant and Wall Street Oasis, not official cutoffs — no firm publishes a Zetamac threshold.
Does Zetamac penalize wrong answers?
No. Zetamac's answer box auto-submits the moment the correct answer is typed, so there is no wrong-answer state and no negative marking — mistyping only costs time. That is a key difference from real firm screens like Optiver's 80-in-8, which scores +1 for correct and −1 for wrong, making skipping discipline a skill Zetamac never teaches.
Is Zetamac the actual test trading firms send candidates?
No. Zetamac is an independent free practice site, not an assessment vendor. Firms run their own screens — Optiver's 80-in-8, Flow Traders' fraction-heavy arithmetic test, Old Mission's speed multiple choice — which differ in timing, question mix, and scoring. Zetamac is the community's shared warm-up and benchmark, and its speed transfers, but the formats are not the same.
What are Zetamac's default settings?
A 120-second game (30, 60, 300 and 600 seconds are also selectable) with all four operations on: addition with both operands from 2–100, subtraction as those addition problems in reverse, multiplication with operands from 2–12 × 2–100, and division as those multiplication problems in reverse. Scores are only comparable on these defaults.
Turn sprint speed into a passed screen
The 80-in-8 simulator, Zap-N games, the tricks playbook, and trading games are all free — no card, no signup.