IMC's trader process is unusual at the first hurdle: instead of a pure mental arithmetic test, the opening round is a 45 minute battery of neuroscience-based games. From there it runs a recorded video interview, a recruiter call, a technical interview with a trader, and a Superday built from rotating stations.
This walkthrough covers the trader stream. IMC's own APAC recruitment pages state that assessments vary from role to role and tell candidates to be ready for anything, and that is borne out in practice: software engineering, hardware and FPGA, quantitative research, quantitative development and India campus hiring all follow different paths. Those are summarised in how the process differs by role further down, and the regional differences in where you are applying. If you are not applying to trading, read the scope section before the walkthrough, because preparing for the trader assessments would be preparing for the wrong things.
- 1Online assessment. BrainsFirst NeurOlympics, sometimes with an aptitude test alongside it depending on role, region and intake.
- 2Recorded video interview. A one-way recording with no interviewer present, usually a few behavioural questions plus one technical.
- 3Recruiter call. 15 to 30 minutes on motivation and logistics, occasionally with a market making game or a light brainteaser.
- 4Technical interview. Usually a senior trader: brainteasers, probability, Fermi estimation and a market making game.
- 5Superday. A day at the IMC office in rotating stations: trading simulator, quantitative, technical and behavioural, plus time on a desk.
Stage 1: Online assessment
| Component | Status | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
| BrainsFirst NeurOlympics | Confirmed, and the core of the trader assessment | 4 neuroscience-based games, roughly 10 to 15 minutes each and about 45 minutes in total, building a cognitive profile from your accuracy, your strategic use of the tools you are given, and your speed without loss of precision. BrainsFirst is the vendor and names IMC as a client |
| Saville aptitude test | Variable, not guaranteed | Numerical and diagrammatic sub-tests. We have heard from candidates who sat this alongside the games and from others who never saw it, so treat it as dependent on role, region and intake rather than as a standard second component |
On the games themselves, what we hear from candidates points to accuracy in the first, strategic use of the diagonal cannons in the second, and speed with precision in the third and fourth. If you do get the Saville test, work through the numerical analysis and diagrammatic analysis preparation guides beforehand.
Because NeurOlympics is a games battery rather than an arithmetic test, generic mental maths drilling only partly prepares you for it. Our cognitive games work the same faculties: the Pincode game for working memory under load and Task Switch for the speed-versus-accuracy trade-off these batteries are built to expose.
Stage 2: The recorded video interview
A one-way recorded interview, with questions appearing on screen and no interviewer present. Most recent trader reports name SparkHire as the platform, though some name HireVue.
Most candidates report about 3 questions: roughly 2 behavioural and 1 probability or technical question, with the technical answer carrying the most weight. Question counts vary, so treat that as the common shape rather than a fixed specification.
The format is harder than it looks for a specific reason: there is nobody to hand you a hint or tell you when you have said enough. Practise answering out loud, to time, with no listener. Work the questions reported at IMC for the technical half, and have your motivation answers ready in a form you can deliver once, cleanly, without a conversation to lean on.
Stage 3: Recruiter call
A separate touchpoint from the recording, not another format of it. Expect 15 to 30 minutes with a recruiter or HR, covering motivation and logistics: your reasons for IMC, your timelines, locations and eligibility. Some candidates report a make-me-a-market game or a light brainteaser dropped into this call.
Between the recording and this call, the ground covered is:
Your motivation
"Why choose IMC over other trading firms?", "why do you want to work in trading?", and why this specific role. They are looking for reasons particular to IMC rather than to trading firms in general.
Behavioural questions
Examples of teamwork, resilience and adaptability, plus your strengths, your areas for growth, and how you handle setbacks. Concrete situations, not adjectives.
A market or brainteaser question
If a game does come up here it will be a light version of the real thing. Our guide to make me a market covers the mechanics, and quoting out loud once or twice beforehand is enough for this stage.
Stage 4: Technical interview
Usually conducted by a senior trader, occasionally by a recruiter. It covers your analytical ability, your technical grasp of trading and markets, and how you decide under pressure.
Brainteasers and probability
A mix of brainteasers and probability puzzles, judged on your approach as much as your answer. Amsterdam Ferry, Chips on a Table and Plane Tickets are reported at IMC and worth doing first.
Work the questions reported at IMC, which is the firm filter applied to our full database and grows as we add them.
Fermi estimation
Fermi questions test numerical intuition and whether you can narrate a decomposition rather than produce a number. Start with piano tuners, piano keys and tennis balls, then work the full Fermi trainer and put it under a clock with the Fermi estimation game.
The market making game
A simulated market making scenario, testing whether you understand market dynamics and can adapt as trades come in. If you have not quoted a two-way price out loud before, read our guide to make me a market first, then practise on the Market Making Dice Game.
Trading concepts and speed
- Concepts. Option theory, market making and financial instruments, at the level of being able to explain them rather than recite definitions. Expect to discuss market dynamics and current trends too.
- Real-time analysis. Rapid calculation, reading a market situation, and committing to a decision promptly.
- Estimation with intervals. Be ready to estimate a market figure or probability and give a confidence interval around it, which is how you show you are handling uncertainty rather than guessing.
- Calculation speed. Mental arithmetic remains load-bearing here. Keep it sharp with the Math Trainer and our mental arithmetic guide.
Final stage: the IMC Superday
A full day at the IMC office, split into what IMC calls stations, which you rotate through. Recent reports consistently describe a trading simulator, quantitative and technical stations, a behavioural component, and time spent on a desk.
Trading station
Market making games built around trading principles, weighted toward equity derivatives and options, run on a trading simulator. You may be asked to predict the outcome of an event, such as a tennis match, and make a market on it. What is being assessed is how you understand and reduce risk, and whether you can recall and justify the quotes you gave.
Know the basics of option trading and market making, practise on the Market Making Dice Game and the Card Game for the other side of the trade, and get used to explaining why a quote was where it was.
Quantitative station
Two senior traders, working through brainteasers and probability problems. The focus is your approach, your reasoning, and whether you can communicate a complex idea cleanly. Circle Center, Flip Math and Mom's Spaghetti are reported here.
Be ready to move between intuition and calculation, and say which one you are using.
Behavioural station
A dedicated conversation on fit and motivation, at more depth than the recruiter call, now that you are a finalist.
Time on a desk
An informal stretch with traders, often including one of IMC's Desk Leads: senior traders who run a team covering a specific market segment. Informal does not mean unassessed. They are reading your adaptability, your technical knowledge, your fit, and whether your interest in trading is real.
Know the firm's history and the market segments it trades, and bring questions you actually want answered.
We have heard from candidates who completed a personality questionnaire before the behavioural station, its scorecard shaping the questions asked. It may have been discontinued. If it appears, answer honestly.
How the process differs by role
The walkthrough above is the trader stream. These are the other paths, in outline.
Software engineer and graduate software engineer
HackerRank online assessment, 2 problems over 120 minutes, medium to hard, heavy on data structures and algorithms, in C++, Java or Python. Then the one-way video interview covering behavioural questions plus CS fundamentals. Then a recruiter screen of 15 to 30 minutes on tech stack and logistics. Then an onsite or virtual super day: live coding implementation, low-level design against pre-written test suites, and system design on trading-domain problems such as order books and matching engines, plus a behavioural component. Some candidates report a mini trading simulation as well. Graduate hires go through a 5-week Development School.
Quantitative researcher
Application, then a cognitive or psychometric assessment, then a recruiter behavioural call, then technical interviews with a researcher covering probability and statistics and sometimes shared-screen coding, then further rounds. Expect Markov chains, linear algebra, Bayes and the law of total probability, plus a round on machine learning concepts.
Quantitative developer
Similar in shape to software engineering, with a CoderPad live-coding round over Zoom and more weight on data handling and modelling. On-desk quantitative developer roles blend statistics, data engineering and programming rather than sitting purely in either.
Hardware and FPGA engineer
Two online technical assessments, one aptitude and digital-logic oriented and one a longer coding round, followed by multiple behavioural and technical rounds with engineers on system design and implement-the-logic exercises. Graduate hires attend a 3-week FPGA School.
Where you are applying changes things
Amsterdam
The full trader pipeline as described above. NeurOlympics plus the recorded video interview are consistently reported through 2026. Some graduate roles can be based in either Amsterdam or London.
Chicago
The same shape, with the final round held in the office. A maths interview and a strategy or card game are reported. One practical constraint: the US traineeship requires travel to the US, and postings flag candidates from Russia, Belarus and Iran.
Sydney and APAC
The same structure again. Entry requires a minimum Distinction average, and for engineering roles that has to be in a closely related degree; trading roles accept a wider range of STEM backgrounds. Summer internships run over the Australian summer.
Mumbai and India
Genuinely different from the rest, so do not prepare for it from the sections above.
The online assessment is SHL-based rather than NeurOlympics. Eligibility is campus-linked: a minimum CGPA of 8.0 and enrolment at one of a named list of institutions, covering the older IITs plus ISI Kolkata, CMI Chennai, BITS Pilani and IISc Bengaluru. Internships run 9 weeks starting in July.
IMC also runs Launchpad, a 2-day immersive event for students who will be eligible for a summer internship later, where standout performers are fast-tracked to the interview stage. Our IMC Launchpad guide covers that programme and its eligibility rules in full.
Timelines and when to apply
- End to end the process runs roughly 3 to 6 weeks.
- Graduate roles reopen each September for the following season.
- The graduate traineeship starts twice a year, around February or March and around August or September.
- Training length depends on the track: Trading School runs 6 weeks, Development School 5 weeks, and FPGA School 3 weeks.
- Hiring is rolling within cohort windows and many roles carry no hard public deadline. Resumes are screened before assessments are sent out, so applying early is a genuine advantage rather than just good practice.
- You can make one application per role per year, so pick the role that fits your year of study before you apply.
Closing remarks
IMC selects for a combination of technical ability and fit, and the process tests them separately across five touchpoints for traders. Two things are worth planning around. The first is the opening assessment, which is easy to underestimate and where most of your early preparation should go. The second is that the number of stages is larger than it looks, since the recorded interview and the recruiter call are separate steps, so budget for a process of weeks rather than days.
Work through everything we have for IMC before your first stage, and read our full interview guide for how these stages compare across firms.