Optiver interview questions

Showing 31–60 of 76 results

• Design an object-oriented queue and compare implementationsMedium

  Design an object-oriented queue and compare implementations evaluates engineering fundamentals, trade-offs, examples, pitfalls, and operational implications in a realistic interview setting. A strong answer states assumptions, handles edge cases, explains trade-offs, and shows how to validate the result clearly.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Design and backtest a trading strategyHard

  This question evaluates a candidate's ability to design and rigorously evaluate a minute-level mean-reversion trading strategy, encompassing quantitative finance competencies such as signal construction, risk controls, position sizing, transaction-cost modeling, reproducible backtesting, and statistical validation; it belongs to the Analytics & Experimentation category within financial time-series and backtesting. It is commonly asked because it tests both practical implementation skills (reproducible backtests and walk-forward validation) and conceptual understanding (overfitting, data-snooping, and statistical significance testing), requiring a mix of practical application and conceptual statistical reasoning.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerAnalytics & ExperimentationTechnical Screen
• Design dice betting strategy under time limitMedium

  This question evaluates probabilistic reasoning, expected-value computation, risk management and staking-strategy concepts including Kelly-style bet sizing, confidence-interval estimation, and return–variance trade-offs in the Statistics & Math domain.

  OptiverQuantitative ResearcherStatistics & MathTechnical Screen
• Design low-latency trading infrastructureHard

  Design an end-to-end low-latency market making and execution architecture split between an exchange-colocated environment and a remote operational office.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerSystem DesignOnsite
• Detect Currency Arbitrage After a Cycle FeeHard

  You are given a matrix of positive currency exchange rates, where rates[i][j] units of currency j are received for one unit of currency i. Work through the function contract, boundary cases, correctness argument, and time and space complexity expected in a production-quality solution.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Detect currency arbitrage with costsMedium

  This question evaluates a candidate's competency in algorithmic problem modeling, graph-based cycle detection, and numerical reasoning about exchange rates and transaction costs.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Devise sequence-rule detection strategyMedium

  This question evaluates pattern-recognition, algorithm design, statistical reasoning, and model-selection skills required for sequence inference and candidate-term prediction in the Coding & Algorithms / Data Science domain.

  OptiverQuantitative TraderCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Estimate expected comparisons in a BSTMedium

  Estimate expected comparisons in a BST evaluates algorithm design, data structures, correctness, complexity, edge cases, and implementation details in a realistic interview setting. A strong answer states assumptions, handles edge cases, explains trade-offs, and shows how to validate the result clearly.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Expected Wait for a Bus That Runs Late Half the TimeMedium

  This question evaluates a candidate's understanding of probabilistic modeling and expectation calculations for stochastic arrival processes, touching on renewal-theory concepts and length-biased sampling phenomena relevant to timing and queuing problems.

  OptiverData ScientistMachine LearningTechnical Screen
• Fastest 1000 Meters: Max Average Speed from 5-Second Distance SplitsMedium

  Given the meters a runner covers in each consecutive 5-second interval, find the highest average speed over any continuous stretch of exactly 1000 meters, where stretches may start or end mid-interval. Tests sliding-window reasoning, linear interpolation at boundaries and edge cases such as one interval exceeding 1000 meters.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Fastest 500-Unit Stretch on a Conveyor Belt From Tick LogsMedium

  Given how many units of material a conveyor belt moves during each fixed-length tick, find the maximum average speed over any continuous time stretch covering exactly 500 units, where the stretch may start or end mid-tick.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Fastest Rolling One-Kilometer Average Speed from 5-Second Distance SamplesMedium

  Given the meters a runner covers in each 5-second interval, find the fastest average speed over a rolling one-kilometer stretch, defined as the shortest run of intervals ending at each point that covers at least 1000 meters. It tests sliding-window reasoning over large arrays and precise window definitions.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Fermi Estimation with Confidence Intervals: How Many Houses Does One Year of US Netflix Spending Buy?Easy

  This question evaluates a candidate's quantitative estimation and uncertainty-quantification skills, focusing on decomposition into estimable factors, clear articulation of assumptions, calibrated confidence intervals, and updating estimates when new aggregate data are provided.

  OptiverQuantitative ResearcherMachine LearningTechnical Screen
• Find missing numbers in sequencesHard

  This problem tests pattern recognition and algorithm design for identifying missing terms in a sequence that may follow arithmetic, geometric, polynomial, or linear recurrence rules.

  OptiverData ScientistCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Find next terms in sequencesHard

  This question evaluates pattern recognition, numerical reasoning, and sequence-inference competency across arithmetic, fractional, and recurrence-style relationships, and falls under the Statistics & Math domain relevant for data scientist roles.

  OptiverData ScientistStatistics & MathOnline Assessment
• Find the Color Probability After Discarding CardsHard

  This problem tests your understanding of conditional probability, combinatorics, and how dependent events (sampling without replacement) impact statistical expectations.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerStatistics & MathTechnical Screen
• Find the Probability That the Three Smallest Dice Sum to ThreeHard

  This problem tests combinatorics and probability theory by requiring the derivation of the exact probability that the three smallest values of four independent dice rolls sum to exactly three.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerStatistics & MathTechnical Screen
• How to rank statements by likelihoodHard

  This problem tests your ability to translate statistical distributions and categorical data into ranked probabilistic likelihoods, accounting for uncertainty and sample size variance.

  OptiverData ScientistMachine LearningOnline Assessment
• Identify OS component causing process starvationMedium

  This question evaluates understanding of process scheduling, kernel-level resource allocation, and starvation-related concurrency issues within the operating systems domain.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Implement Expiration-Aware Retrieval Across Storage LevelsHard

  Design and implement a multi-level storage system that purges expired items, filters for under-utilized storage tiers, and deterministically retrieves the highest-weight item.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsHR Screen
• Implement a Multicore Overheat Prevention ControllerHard

  Simulate a multicore thermal controller with delayed workload changes, shared passive cooling, vibration-sensitive active cooling, shutdown and restart thresholds, and transition-only tick output.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Implement price-based order matcherMedium

  This question evaluates competency in data structures and algorithmic design for price-based order matching systems, including priority-based matching, efficient order book maintenance, and deterministic tie-breaking requirements.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Introduce yourself and justify quant research fitMedium

  This question evaluates communication, motivation, collaboration, and quantitative engineering competencies, including domain skills such as low-latency systems, data/ML for signal generation, simulation/backtesting, probabilistic/statistical literacy, and rapid estimation under pressure.

  OptiverQuantitative ResearcherBehavioral & LeadershipTechnical Screen
• Maintain Price Levels For A Single-Symbol Order BookMedium

  Design and implement a single-symbol limit order book that tracks individual orders and aggregates quantity by price level, supporting order additions, modifications, cancellations, and best price queries.

  OptiverSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Make Two Apple Piles Equal With Doubling MovesMedium

  This question evaluates algorithmic problem-solving and discrete-mathematics competencies, focusing on reasoning about state transitions, invariants, and number-theoretic constraints within the Coding & Algorithms domain for data scientist roles.

  OptiverData ScientistCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Market-Making Estimation Game: Optimal Confidence-Interval Strategy Over 5 RoundsHard

  This question evaluates probabilistic reasoning, decision-theoretic optimization of confidence intervals, and sequential risk–reward trade-offs by requiring interval estimation under a nonstandard scoring rule, relevant to a Data Scientist and categorized in Machine Learning/statistical decision theory.

  OptiverData ScientistMachine LearningTechnical Screen
• Match alphanumeric patterns in a streamMedium

  This question evaluates skills in exact and approximate alphanumeric string matching, streaming pattern lookup, noise-tolerant comparison, and performance-oriented data structures and encodings.

  OptiverData ScientistCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Minimize moves to transform floor layoutsMedium

  This question evaluates algorithm design and combinatorial optimization skills, focusing on reasoning about minimal moves, greedy heuristics, and proving optimality within the Coding & Algorithms domain for data-science technical roles.

  OptiverData ScientistCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Optimize interval-scoring strategyHard

  This interview question evaluates statistical assumptions, formulas, estimation strategy, uncertainty, edge cases, and interpretation in a realistic interview setting. A strong answer for Optimize interval-scoring strategy states assumptions, handles edge cases, explains trade-offs, and shows how to validate the result clearly.

  OptiverQuantitative TraderStatistics & MathTechnical Screen
• Optimize switching puzzle solutionMedium

  This question evaluates the ability to model a Lights Out-style grid puzzle as a linear system over GF(2), linear algebra skills (Gaussian elimination and null-space reasoning), and combinatorial optimization for minimizing toggle moves.

  OptiverQuantitative TraderCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment