We use analytics and advertising cookies to understand how the site is used and whether our ads on Facebook and Instagram work. They are set only if you accept. See our Privacy Policy for details.
Prep for Optiver's software engineer loop - a multi-part online assessment, data structures and memory layout, low-latency design, and behavioral rounds Optiver says it uses to see the real you.
Optiver is a global trading firm and market maker, and its software engineers build the trading infrastructure directly - posted US teams include research and simulation, low-latency execution, equity options, core trading strategies, and retail execution. Optiver's own interview advice is unusually specific: be confident in one major object-oriented language (C++, Java, or Python), know the time and space complexity of your data structures and how data is represented in memory, expect to be asked why you made each design decision, and use diagrams when discussing architecture. It also says it assesses more than coding - critical thinking, adapting quickly, and clear communication - and that reasoning matters more than a perfect answer. Candidate reports describe the loop as an online assessment (coding, often with a small object-oriented system to build, plus multiple-choice CS fundamentals and an aptitude section), a recruiter screen focused on motivation, one or two technical rounds with a project deep dive and live coding, and a final round mixing behavioral questions, CS theory (concurrency, memory, caching, networking), and system design. Experienced-hire postings say interviews assess fundamentals, problem-solving, and the ability to build high-performance systems, and senior roles ask for systems-level C or C++ with Linux and networking. Graduates join an eight-week Global Academy covering trading fundamentals and the tech stack, so no trading background is needed.
Optiver's own tips put data structure choice first: know the complexity of key operations and how the structure is laid out in memory. Practice order-book-style structures, queues, heaps, and hash maps.
Reports say the online assessment can ask you to build a small system (an order manager or scheduler) with clean classes and interfaces. Readable, well-structured code matters.
Medium difficulty is the common report, with correctness and clean implementation weighted heavily. Talk through your approach before you code.
One of the three languages Optiver names, and the expected one for low-latency and senior systems roles (postings ask for systems-level C or C++). Java or Python is fine for many generalist roles.
Reported CS-theory questions cover concurrency, memory models, and cache locality.
TCP vs UDP, latency, and market data delivery come up in reported theory and design rounds. Senior postings list networking fundamentals.
Low-latency flavored - market data feeds, order handling, execution - with back-of-the-envelope estimates. Use diagrams and justify each choice.
Optiver runs a dedicated behavioral assessment and recommends STAR. Prepare honest stories about technical disagreement, deadlines, and defending a design.
Curated walkthroughs for the bounded designs that show up in Optiver's system design rounds. Capacity estimation, architecture, deep-dives, and trade-offs.
Partitions, consumer groups, replication, retention, and the exactly-once myth - the implementation details Kafka users gloss over until they don't.
Batch vs streaming, lambda vs kappa, the warehouse-vs-lakehouse decision, and dimension modeling that survives schema drift.
Five algorithms, three sharding strategies, one fail-open vs fail-closed decision. The bounded design that surfaces in every backend interview loop.
Time-series DBs (Prometheus, M3, VictoriaMetrics), trace sampling, exemplars, OpenTelemetry, alerting, and the cardinality explosion that turns a $10K/month platform into a $1M/month outage.
Sample STAR answers, common prompts, pitfalls, and follow-up strategies for the behavioral themes that decide Optiver's loop.
The most universal behavioral question. Tested everywhere. The signal is in how you investigate the disagreement, not in how you 'won.'
Amazon's two-part bar: challenge decisions you disagree with respectfully, even when uncomfortable - then commit fully once the decision is made.
Interviewers want self-driven learning that produced a concrete result - not a list of courses you took or technologies you've 'heard of.'
Tested at every level, scored harder at senior. Did you take responsibility for outcomes - or just for tasks?
The software engineer learning path and the judgment cases that mirror this loop's execution and metrics questions.
Total comp ranges, base, equity, and bonus across the levels tested in this loop. Aggregated from public sources.
3 SWE levels covered. Updated 2026-10.
496 MCQs and 256 coding challenges, grouped by topic. Free preview shows question titles - premium unlocks full content.
Behavioral and system design rounds reward practice with a live AI interviewer that probes follow-ups, not silent reading.
Start an AI mock interview →Optiver's interview tips say confident knowledge of a major object-oriented language - C++, Java, or Python - is key. Use the one you are strongest in. Low-latency and senior systems roles ask for C or C++ with Linux and networking, so expect C++ depth there.
Candidate reports describe several parts: a coding section that may ask you to implement a small object-oriented system, multiple-choice questions on CS fundamentals such as operating systems and networking, and an aptitude section. Reports put the total at a few hours. Optiver accepts one application per role per year, so a failed assessment usually means waiting for the next recruiting season.
No. Graduate hires start with Optiver's eight-week Global Academy, which covers trading fundamentals and the tech stack. You do need a specific reason for wanting to build trading systems - reports say generic finance answers in the recruiter screen go badly.
A lot. Optiver's own tips say you may be asked how data is represented in memory, and reported theory rounds cover concurrency, memory models, cache locality, and TCP vs UDP. Even for Java or Python candidates, be ready to reason about the cost of your data structures.
All are trading firms with high engineering bars. From public material, Optiver's loop puts more weight on object-oriented design in the assessment, data structure and memory-layout reasoning, and a separate behavioral assessment. HRT leans harder on systems C++, and Jane Street on OCaml-friendly clean code and probability. Many candidates interview at several.
There is no equity. US postings state a single base figure - $200K for graduate, mid-level, and most senior Chicago roles - plus a discretionary bonus from a global profit-sharing pool whose size Optiver does not publish. Levels.fyi US reports put the overall median total near $400K. Our beta bands put graduates around $275K-$440K and mid-level around $400K-$680K; senior data is sparse.