Optiver Software Engineer Interview Questions
Master your tech interview with our curated database of real questions from top companies.
Design a queue and analyze tradeoffs
Design a FIFO queue data structure that supports enqueue, dequeue, peek, and isEmpty. Compare implementations using a singly linked list, a dynamic ar...
Design a balloon stability tracker
Implement a class BalloonFestival to manage hot-air balloons and wind fields over time, and to report rewarded balloons at inspection times. Methods a...
Design a satellite propagation simulator
Implement a SatelliteNetwork class to simulate message propagation over an undirected satellite graph. Provide these methods: ( 1) satellite_connected...
Plan for timed probability assessment
Timed Probability/Statistics Assessment Strategy (30 Questions, Strict Time Limit) Prompt You are taking a timed online assessment with 30 probability...
Design a topic-based news subscription system
Topic-Based News Subscription Service — Design and Implementation Context Build an in-memory service that manages subscribers and delivers relevant ne...
Compute permutations with repeated letters
Counting Strings with Repeated Characters Problem Given two nonnegative integers m and n, how many distinct strings can be formed that contain exactly...
Decide and implement DP/heap and approximation
You have 90 minutes to complete three related coding tasks: a) Dynamic programming: Given an integer array nums (n ≤ 2e 5) and a threshold T, design a...
Solve numeric sequence pattern puzzles
Sequence Prediction Task You are given five independent number sequences. For each, determine the next term and briefly explain the rule you used. Ass...
Find patterns in numeric sequences quickly
Pattern-Finding Number Sequences (No Calculator) In a fast technical screen, identify the next term for each sequence and briefly explain the rule you...
Implement price-based order matcher
Design and implement a price-based order matcher for unit-sized orders. You are given an array orders where each element is [type, price]: type = 1 de...
Solve quick probability questions
Rapid-Fire Probability Questions Context Answer the following independent probability questions. Assume fair dice/coin and a standard 52-card deck. Sh...
Demonstrate task switching and memory strategies
Task-Switching and Working-Memory Exercise Context You will simulate a classic cognitive control task that requires rapid switching between two simple...
Design and backtest a trading strategy
Minute-Level Mean-Reversion Strategy: Design, Backtest, Validation, and Significance Context You are given minute-level OHLCV data (open, high, low, c...
Compute negative-price probability after n steps
Random-Walk Price Crossing Probability Setup - Initial price: S₀ = s (real number). - Step size: x > 0. - Number of days: n (integer ≥ 0). - Each day ...
Compute expectations, conditionals, odds, and distributions
Fast Probability and Statistics (No Calculator) Context: Answer quickly with mental math and concise reasoning. Show set-up and any helpful shortcuts....
Design dice betting strategy under time limit
Repeated Dice Betting with Time and Risk Constraints You have T = 10 minutes and an initial bankroll B = $1,000 to play a repeated betting game with a...
Introduce yourself and justify quant research fit
Behavioral Prompt: Self-Intro, Motivation, and High-Stakes Decision You are interviewing for a Software Engineer role in a quantitative trading resear...
Design a Balloon Festival Simulator
Implement a class BalloonFestival with the following API and rules. Goal Track hot air balloons (yours and competitors), evolving wind fields, and bal...
Design an object-oriented queue and compare implementations
You are asked to design an object-oriented Queue abstraction and discuss how it can be implemented internally in different ways. Describe: 1. Queue in...
Identify OS component causing process starvation
A system with 2 CPU cores runs 5 identical processes continuously. Four processes get equal CPU time, but the fifth appears to get none. Which part of...