The IMC trading interview is built to do one thing: find people who can make fast, correct decisions about price under pressure. IMC is a proprietary trading firm and market maker — it trades its own capital across equities, options, ETFs, and futures on exchanges worldwide — so the interview is unapologetically quantitative. It opens with a timed mental-math screen that filters aggressively before anyone talks to you, then layers in probability, market-making games, and, for the more engineering-flavored seats, a programming round. This page covers the full process end-to-end, what each round tests, the question types, the firm-specific nuances, and a multi-week prep plan tuned to the loop.
The full process, end to end
A typical IMC trader pipeline runs roughly like this:
- Application and online assessment. Most candidates first hit a timed mental-math test — a large batch of arithmetic against a short clock — sometimes paired with a sequence or pattern-logic section. This screen is the single most decisive filter in the process, graded on accuracy under time pressure, not partial credit.
- Recruiter / HR screen (20–30 min). A recruiter confirms interest, walks you through the loop, and calibrates which track you are on (trader vs. trading-engineer / software). Logistics and fit, not technical.
- First-round interview (30–45 min). A conversation with a trader that mixes a few probability / brainteaser questions with motivation ("why trading, why IMC"). Some candidates get a second, sharper mental-math drill live on the call.
- Onsite / final loop (several rounds). The core of the process — back-to-back rounds covering market-making games, probability and EV problems, more mental math, and, for engineering-adjacent roles, a programming round. IMC often runs this as a half-day on-site (or a structured virtual equivalent), and historically has used cohort-style "trading challenge" game days for some candidates.
- Final / team conversation. A wrap-up with senior traders covering fit, how you think about risk, and offer / placement. For campus hires this can fold into a game day rather than a separate sit-down.
End to end the pipeline usually runs two to six weeks, with final-loop scheduling — not the firm's decision speed — the usual bottleneck. IMC moves quickly on candidates who clear the math bar.
What the rounds actually test
IMC hires for a specific skill profile, and every round maps to a piece of it:
- Arithmetic speed and accuracy. Two-digit multiplications, percentages, and fractions in your head, fast, without errors compounding. This is the entry ticket — the job means reacting to prices in fractions of a second, and the test is a direct proxy.
- Expected-value discipline. Reducing a messy game to "what is this worth, and how confident am I?" Most of the probability content is disguised EV.
- Market-making instinct. Quoting a two-sided market tight enough to signal confidence but wide enough to avoid being picked off, then updating it cleanly as information arrives and your position changes.
- Composure under loss. Desks watch for candidates who tilt — panic-widen after a bad trade, freeze on a wrong answer, or get visibly rattled. Calm beats brilliant-but-fragile.
- Programming / systems thinking (engineering-adjacent seats). Implementing clean, correct logic under a timer and reasoning about a strategy or automated trading bot.
The filter is steep: like its peers, IMC extends offers to only a small fraction of final-round candidates, and the math screen alone removes most applicants first.
Question types by round
Mental-math screen
This round defines IMC's reputation: a timed arithmetic test — a large batch of problems on a short, hard clock, where you answer as many as you can. Expect two-digit multiplication (37 × 48, 84 × 26) at a few seconds each; percentages and fractions (17 percent of 1,240; 7/13 as a decimal) with no calculator; addition, subtraction, and division mixed in to break any rhythm; and sometimes a sequence / pattern-logic section testing numerical pattern recognition alongside raw speed.
The bar is high. Treat a top-tier Zetamac-style score (roughly 80-plus correct in a couple of minutes, depending on settings) as the price of admission. The grading is accuracy-under-speed: a fast-but-sloppy run loses to a slightly slower, clean one, and a slow run loses to both.
Market-making games
The signature trading round. The interviewer names a quantity with some true distribution — "the sum of two dice," "the number of windows in the building across the street," "the number of countries in Africa" — and you quote a two-sided market (a bid and an ask) you will trade at. Then they trade against you, feed you new information, and you requote.
A representative flow: you set a market wide enough to be safe ("Sum of two dice — 6 at 8"); they lift your offer, buying at 8, so you are now short and need a new market above where you transacted; new information arrives ("one of the dice is a 4"), so the true expected sum is now 4 + 3.5 = 7.5 and you requote, accounting for the position you hold; and you repeat, tracking your running position and P&L as they keep trading.
The interviewer grades initial-quote quality, how fast you integrate new information into a fresh market, whether you know your position and P&L at any moment, and whether you stay composed after a losing trade. It is a repeated game about edge and information flow — not a one-shot pricing exam.
Probability and expected value
Two to four problems over a round, with conversational follow-ups. Common shapes:
- EV of a game. "You can pay to roll a die and receive the face value in dollars — what is the most you should pay?"
- Conditional probability. Dice and card setups, Bayesian updates, "given X, what is the probability of Y."
- Sequential decisions. "You see numbers one at a time and must commit to one — what is your stopping rule?"
- Classic brainteasers with a twist. Coins, light bulbs, and prisoners — but the interviewer cares about a clean, followable setup, not a memorized punchline.
IMC interviewers push on reasoning: they want the EV framing out loud, and they probe an answer that arrives without a visible structure.
Programming / automated-trading round (engineering-adjacent roles)
For trading-engineer, software, and the more technical trading seats, IMC adds a coding element — where it diverges from the pure mental-math prop shops. Expect a standard coding screen (data structures, complexity, clean implementation under a timer, usually Python or C++); a strategy- or simulation-flavored problem for some roles, such as implementing the logic for a simple automated trading bot or matching-engine fragment and reasoning about its correctness and performance; and, for engineering tracks, systems and low-latency awareness — how data flows, where the bottlenecks are, and why a given data structure or memory layout matters when microseconds count.
The weighting depends on the seat: a pure quantitative-trader candidate may see only a light coding touch, while a trading-engineer candidate sees a substantial, real programming loop.
Firm-specific nuances
A few things set the IMC loop apart from its peers:
- The arithmetic screen is the gatekeeper. More than almost any other firm, IMC fronts the process with a timed math test. If you do not clear it, nothing else matters — so the highest-leverage prep is daily arithmetic, not brainteaser trivia.
- Game days and the trading challenge. IMC has historically run cohort-style trading games for campus hiring — a live, gamified market-making session where candidates trade against each other and the clock. The skill is identical to the one-on-one round, but the pace and noise are higher; practice quoting calmly while others are shouting prices.
- Two distinct tracks. "IMC trader" and "IMC trading engineer / software" are different loops — the engineering track front-loads programming, the trading track front-loads mental math and market-making. Confirm which one you are on.
- Technology-driven and low-ego. IMC presents itself as a technology firm that happens to trade, with a flat, collaborative culture. "Why IMC" answers that reference its technology focus and market-making mission land better than generic "I want to trade" energy, and the loop rewards depth on the core dimensions — arithmetic, EV, composure — over being merely fine at everything.
A multi-week preparation plan
Weeks 1–2 — Mental-math foundation. Daily timed arithmetic on Zetamac (default settings, then ratchet difficulty): two-digit multiplication, percentages, fractions, division with remainders. Clear a top-tier score consistently before moving on — for IMC this is non-negotiable, because the math screen is the gate.
Weeks 3–4 — EV, probability, and market-making mechanics. Drill 5–8 EV and conditional-probability problems per day until framing any new game as an expected value is automatic. In parallel, start market-making reps: quote a two-sided market, get hit or lifted, update on new information, requote, track your P&L out loud.
Weeks 5–6 — Market-making fluency and (if relevant) coding. Run full market-making rounds against a partner or drill that can take the other side, at increasing speed. On the trading-engineer track, add daily coding reps — data-structure problems plus one strategy/simulation problem — in Python or C++.
Weeks 7–8 — Full mocks and stamina. Chain mental math, probability, and market-making back to back. The IMC final stage is fatigue-inducing; these weeks build composure under accumulated pressure, not new content. If a game day is ahead, practice quoting in a noisy, fast, competitive setting.
The single biggest differentiator is raw arithmetic speed, and candidates underinvest in it because the drills feel boring. Boring is the point.
How to practice for the IMC loop
InterviewDen's quant-trading track simulates the IMC loop end to end with a voice-driven AI interviewer, so you practice the actual skill — reasoning and quoting out loud under time pressure — rather than typing numbers into a box. The market-making module runs the full flow: you name a two-sided market, the AI takes the other side of your trades, new information arrives, and you requote while it tracks your running P&L and flags composure issues (hesitation, price reversals, panic widening). The mental-math drills run against a timer you can ratchet up as you improve, mirroring the IMC arithmetic screen, and the EV and probability questions come with live follow-ups that push on your reasoning the way an IMC trader would. Every session ends with a scored debrief across speed, accuracy, EV discipline, and composure, and the track is free to start.
For the conceptual foundation — the mental-math bar, the market-making mechanics, and the firm-by-firm differences including IMC — work through the quant trading interview guide. To build EV and brainteaser fluency before your loop, drill the quant trading brainteasers set, which mirrors the probability and puzzle questions IMC favors.
When you are ready to rehearse the real thing, run an IMC-style trading mock and get a scored read on where you stand against the bar.
Common mistakes
- Underpreparing the math screen. It is the gate. Candidates who treat brainteasers as the priority and arithmetic as an afterthought get filtered before anyone evaluates their reasoning.
- Quoting markets too tight. Nervous candidates quote a razor-thin spread to look confident, and the interviewer picks them off. Wider is safer and a stronger signal than falsely tight.
- Losing track of P&L and position. By the later rounds of a market-making game you should always know whether you are long or short and roughly up or down. Lose the thread and you cannot make rational updates.
- Freezing on a wrong arithmetic answer. If you realize a computation is wrong, say "recomputing" and redo it cleanly. Sitting silent reads as a tilt.
- Over-explaining brainteasers. A clean, structured setup in a minute beats a five-minute meandering monologue.
- Treating market-making like a pricing exam. It is a repeated game about edge and information, not a quest for one "right" number.
- Confusing the two tracks. Prepping for the trader loop when you are interviewing for trading engineer (or vice versa) wastes your highest-leverage weeks. Confirm the track early.
FAQ
How hard is the IMC trading interview?
It is one of the more selective quant-trading processes, on par with Optiver, Jane Street, and SIG. The defining difficulty is the timed mental-math screen, which filters aggressively up front and requires a top-tier arithmetic score under a hard clock. Beyond the math, the market-making and probability rounds reward EV discipline and composure, and like its peers IMC extends offers to only a small fraction of final-round candidates.
What is on the IMC mental-math test, and how do I prepare?
A large batch of arithmetic problems against a short, hard timer — two-digit multiplication, percentages, fractions, addition, subtraction, and division, sometimes with a sequence / pattern-logic section. It is scored on accuracy under speed, so a fast-but-sloppy run loses to a clean one. Prepare by drilling timed arithmetic daily on Zetamac, starting at default settings and ratcheting up the difficulty until a top-tier score is consistent. For IMC this is the gate, so it deserves the most reps early.
Does the IMC interview involve coding?
For trading-engineer, software, and the more technical trading seats, yes — IMC adds a programming round covering data structures, complexity, and clean implementation, often with a strategy- or simulation-flavored problem, typically in Python or C++. For a pure quantitative-trader seat the coding touch is usually lighter, so confirm which track you are on.
What is the IMC market-making game?
A round where the interviewer names a quantity with some true distribution, you quote a two-sided market (a bid and an ask) you will trade at, and they trade against you while feeding you new information. You requote after each trade and as your position changes, tracking your running P&L. It tests initial-quote quality, update speed, position awareness, and composure — a repeated game about edge, not a one-shot pricing question.
Do I need a finance degree to interview at IMC?
No. IMC recruits heavily from math, physics, computer science, and engineering backgrounds. The filtering is on raw reasoning and arithmetic, not finance vocabulary. A finance course helps with the language of markets but will not substitute for mental-math speed or EV discipline.
What is an IMC trading game day?
A cohort-style trading game IMC has historically run for campus and early-career hiring — a live, gamified market-making session where candidates trade against each other and a clock. The underlying skill matches the one-on-one round, but the pace and noise are higher, so practice quoting calmly in a fast, competitive setting first.
How long does the IMC interview process take?
Usually two to six weeks end to end. The most common bottleneck is scheduling the final loop or game day, not IMC's decision speed — the firm tends to move quickly on candidates who clear the mental-math bar. Timelines compress for campus cohorts on a fixed game-day schedule and for candidates with competing offers.