Optiver Interview Questions
Practice 83 real Optiver interview questions for 2026. This Optiver interview questions collection is designed for interview preparation and includes real questions from actual interviews with detailed solutions. Lean heavily on coding and systems thinking: expect Coding & Algorithms and System Design problems first, then Statistics & Math, Behavioral & Leadership, and Analytics & Experimentation. For Software Engineer roles (the bulk of our set) recurring themes include designing low‑latency trading infrastructure and queue/data‑structure problems (circular and object‑oriented queues), algorithmic optimization and backtesting of trading strategies, and fast probabilistic/expectation calculations under time pressure. Data Scientist interviews concentrate on probability and expectation puzzles, sequence and pattern‑detection in streams, optimization puzzles (min‑moves, transforming layouts), and communicating statistical tradeoffs to traders. Use this set to simulate timed mental math and whiteboard coding, rehearse system tradeoffs that prioritize latency and correctness, and build clear STAR stories for behavioral loops.
"I got asked a hardcore MCM DP question and I saw it on PracHub as well. Solved that question in 5 minutes. Without PracHub I doubt I could solve it in 5 hours. Though somehow didn't get hired, perhaps I guess I solved it too fast? /s"
"Believe me i'm a student here jn US. Recently interviewed for MSFT. They asked me exact question from PracHub. I saw it the night before and ignored it cause why waste time on random sites. I legit wanna go back and redo this whole thing if I had chance. Not saying will work for everyone but there is certainly some merit to that website. And i'm gonna use it in future prep from now on like lc tagged"
"10 years of experience but never worked at a top company. PracHub's senior-level questions helped me break into FAANG at 35. Age is just a number."
"I was skeptical about the 'real questions' claim, so I put it to the test. I searched for the exact question I got grilled on at my last Meta onsite... and it was right there. Word for word."
"Got a Google recruiter call on Monday, interview on Friday. Crammed PracHub for 4 days. Passed every round. This platform is a miracle worker."
"I've used LC, Glassdoor, and random Discords. Nothing comes close to the accuracy here. The questions are actually current — that's what got me. Felt like I had a cheat sheet during the interview."
"The solution quality is insane. It covers approach, edge cases, time complexity, follow-ups. Nothing else comes close."
"Legit the only resource you need. TC went from 180k -> 350k. Just memorize the top 50 for your target company and you're golden."
"PracHub Premium for one month cost me the price of two coffees a week. It landed me a $280K+ starting offer."
"Literally just signed a $600k offer. I only had 2 weeks to prep, so I focused entirely on the company-tagged lists here. If you're targeting L5+, don't overthink it."
"Coaches and bootcamp prep courses cost around $200-300 but PracHub Premium is actually less than a Netflix subscription. And it landed me a $178K offer."
"I honestly don't know how you guys gather so many real interview questions. It's almost scary. I walked into my Amazon loop and recognized 3 out of 4 problems from your database."
"Discovered PracHub 10 days before my interview. By day 5, I stopped being nervous. By interview day, I was actually excited to show what I knew."
"I recently cleared Uber interviews (strong hire in the design round) and all the questions were present in prachub."
"The search is what sold me. I typed in a really niche DP problem I got asked last year and it actually came up, full breakdown and everything. These guys are clearly updating it constantly."
Count Ordered Sequences That Sum to a Target
Count Ordered Sequences That Sum to a Target Given a positive target n and a set of unique positive order sizes, count the distinct ordered sequences ...
Compare common data structures and uses
Compare common data structures and uses Compare common data structures and select appropriate ones for specific tasks. For arrays, linked lists, stack...
Prove a Tight Lower Bound on a Latin Square's Lower-Triangle Sum
Consider an $n \times n$ grid ($n \ge 1$) filled with integers so that every row contains each of the numbers $1, 2, \ldots, n$ exactly once, and ever...
Compute odds under time pressure
Timed Probability: At Least Two Reds in Three Draws You have an urn with r red, b blue, and g green balls. Let N = r + b + g with r, b, g ≥ 0 and N ≥ ...
Trading Game: Expected-Value Betting, Kelly Sizing, and Arbitrage Under Time Pressure
You are in a live 45-minute trading-game round at a proprietary-trading / market-making firm. You start with a bankroll of 1,000 (game money). The gam...
Optimize switching puzzle solution
Consider a switching puzzle on an m×n grid of lights where toggling a cell flips its state and that of its orthogonal neighbors (Lights Out variant). ...
Compare two programs for equivalence
You are given two short programs (or functions) that process an integer array A (|A| ≤ 10^ 5). Determine whether they are functionally equivalent for ...
Estimate expected comparisons in a BST
Estimate expected comparisons in a BST In a particular binary search tree, finding node A takes 1 comparison and finding node D takes 3 comparisons. W...
Compute expected coin flips to meet on octagon
Compute expected coin flips to meet on octagon Meeting Time on a Random Walk Around an Octagon Problem Two independent particles start at opposite ver...
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...
Minimize moves to transform floor layouts
You are given an initial arrangement of apartments across Floors 1–4 and a target arrangement. In one move you may reposition a single apartment to a ...
Compute expected counters after color elimination
Compute expected counters after color elimination Problem You have a bag with 30 counters: 10 red, 10 yellow, and 10 blue. You draw counters uniformly...
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 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...
Optimize interval-scoring strategy
Optimize interval-scoring strategy Five-Round Interval-Estimation Game: Optimal Intervals and Risk Allocation You play five independent rounds. In rou...
Devise sequence-rule detection strategy
You are given an integer sequence with 2 ≤ n ≤ 50 terms, possibly following rules such as arithmetic/geometric progressions, alternating patterns, pol...
Optimize flight and cargo bookings for profit
OptiCargo: make the booking algorithm profitable You are given two streams/lists: - Flights you may attempt to book. Each flight has: - flight_id ...
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....
Fermi Estimation with Confidence Intervals: How Many Houses Does One Year of US Netflix Spending Buy?
Estimate how many houses could be purchased with the total amount that people in the United States spend on Netflix subscriptions in one year. You sta...
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...