Bp Quantitative Analyst interview typically runs 2 rounds: psychometric tests and quizzes, then a HireVue-style screen and trading simulation. The process takes about 2 stages and is unusually market-style and real-time.
$197K
Avg. Base Comp
$257K
Avg. Total Comp
2-3
Typical Rounds
2-4 weeks
Process Length
Our candidates report that BP is not screening for a textbook quant who can recite formulas on command; it’s looking for someone who can think like a market participant. The standout signal in the experience we saw was the commodity trading simulation, where the candidate had to react to rapidly changing oil headlines and decide whether to go long or short. That tells us BP cares about speed of interpretation under uncertainty as much as raw analytical ability. In other words, they seem to value people who can turn noisy information into a defensible position without freezing up.
A recurring theme is that the company appears to reward judgment over perfection. The candidate didn’t feel there was one “right” answer, and that’s important: BP seems to be observing how you size positions, adjust when new information arrives, and stay composed while the environment shifts. For this role, the non-obvious differentiator is not just understanding the commodity itself, but showing that you can make calm, incremental decisions in a live market-style setting. That’s a very different bar from a traditional analytics interview, and it’s the part that most candidates underestimate.
Synthetized from 1 candidates reports by our editorial team.
Had an interview recently?
Share your experience. Unlock the full guide.
Real interview reports from people who went through the Bp process.
The first part of the application process was pretty standard: psychometric tests, a few quick quizzes, and the usual online HireVue-style questions, nothing too out of the ordinary. What stood out to me was the second part, which was a trading simulation rather than a traditional interview. They put us in a room with other applicants and gave each of us our own laptop to play a game where you had to decide whether to go long or short on a commodity based on news headlines that flashed across the screen every minute or so. In my case it was oil. You could adjust your position in different sizes, up to a limit, so it felt less like a pure quiz and more like a test of how quickly you could process information and react under pressure.
It was definitely more unusual than I expected for a quantitative analyst role, and the main challenge was staying calm while the headlines kept changing. I didn’t get the sense that they were looking for one perfect answer so much as watching how you handled uncertainty and made decisions in real time. I didn’t receive an offer, but the process itself was memorable because it was so different from the standard technical screen. If you’re preparing for something similar, I’d focus less on memorizing formulas and more on practicing fast judgment in a market-style simulation, especially how you’d size positions and respond to new information quickly.
Prep tip from this candidate
Practice making quick long/short decisions from fast-moving headlines and think through how you would size positions under a limit. The key part of the process was reacting calmly to new information in a trading simulation, not solving a traditional technical problem.
Share your own interview experience to unlock all reports, or subscribe for full access.
Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Bp
Create top_ads with the top 3 ads and return the row counts for inner, left, right, and cross joins with ads
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Safe Deployments | |
| LRU Cache 1 | |
| 2nd Highest Salary | |
| Employee Salaries | |
| Encoding Categorical Features | |
| Hurdles In Data Projects | |
| Food Delivery Times | |
| Data Preparation for Imbalanced Data | |
| Mapping Nicknames | |
| Decision Tree Evaluation | |
| Risk Assessment Model | |
| Your Strengths and Weaknesses | |
| Minimize Wrong Orders | |
| Stakeholder Communication | |
| Electricity Supply | |
| Simple Explanations | |
| Why Do You Want to Work With Us | |
| Underpricing Algorithm | |
| WhatsApp Metrics | |
| Merchant Acquisition | |
| Xgboost vs Random Forest | |
| Accessible Data | |
| Clustering Basketball Players | |
| Empty Neighborhoods | |
| Rolling Bank Transactions | |
| Customer Orders | |
| Comments Histogram | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Top Three Salaries |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
The initial stage involves completing standard psychometric assessments and a series of quick quizzes online. These are used to screen candidates before advancing them to more interactive stages of the process.
Candidates complete recorded video responses to a set of structured questions in a HireVue-style format. This stage is described as fairly standard and is part of the broader online application screening process before the in-person assessment.
Candidates are brought into a room alongside other applicants and each given their own laptop to participate in a live commodity trading simulation. You must decide whether to go long or short on a commodity like oil based on news headlines that flash across the screen every minute or so, adjusting position sizes up to a set limit. Assessors appear to focus on how candidates handle uncertainty, process information quickly, and make real-time decisions under pressure rather than looking for a single correct answer.