Optiver Trading Interview: Market Making Games & Betting
Optiver's trading interviews are famous for one thing: games. You will play market-making games, betting games, and dice games with your interviewers — sometimes across multiple rounds. Candidates who have never played these games before spend the first ten minutes learning the rules instead of demonstrating skill.
What the Trading Interview Games Look Like
The classic Optiver game: the interviewer states a random event (a dice roll, a card draw) and asks you to quote a two-sided market — a bid and an ask — for the outcome. Then they trade against your prices. Later games add order-book dynamics, where you react to a moving price, and betting rounds where you size wagers on your probability estimates. Final rounds may include the "trading floor" simulation: fast rounds of quoting against other candidates.
What the Games Assess
Everything a market maker does: estimate probability instantly, quote prices with a sensible spread, manage the risk of being picked off, and update when information changes. Optiver interviewers watch how you handle being wrong — do you widen your spread, or stubbornly hold? They also watch temperament: calm, quick, and willing to trade beat clever and slow every time.
How to Prepare for the Trading Games
Practice with a partner: one person names an event, the other quotes bid/ask in five seconds. Learn the golden rule — your spread should reflect your uncertainty, and the mid should reflect your true estimate. Play the games in our pack repeatedly until quoting feels like reflex. Watch recorded market-making game sessions to see how strong candidates handle adversarial interviewers who exploit tight quotes.
Our 2027 Optiver Online Assessment Exact Questions & Answers includes the exact game formats Optiver interviewers use, with strategy breakdowns for quoting, spreading, and bet sizing — so you walk in having played, not just having read.
Everyone in the room knows probability. The winners are the ones who have already played the game fifty times.
FAQ
Do I need trading experience for the Optiver trading interview? No. The games assume zero market knowledge — they test probability, pricing, and temperament.
What is a two-sided market in the Optiver interview? A bid (price you buy at) and an ask (price you sell at). Your spread reflects your uncertainty about the true value.
How many trading interview rounds are there? Typically 2–4 rounds before the final on-site, with games escalating in complexity each round.
What sinks candidates in the trading games? Quoting without thinking about uncertainty, spreads too tight for the risk, and freezing when the interviewer trades against them.
Preparing for Optiver's trading game? Our 2027 Optiver Online Assessment Exact Questions & Answers has the exact questions and answers — $79 one-time, instant download.
