Optiver Software Engineer candidates report a long online assessment, a recruiter conversation, and technical rounds centered on object-oriented design, trading-style systems, and low-level fundamentals, followed by behavioral and design interviews.
$160K
Avg. Base Comp
$300K
Avg. Total Comp
4-6 rounds
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
Candidates describe the Optiver Software Engineer interview as design-heavy rather than a pure LeetCode exercise. The online assessment is where several reports begin, and it often looks like a small systems problem. Reports mention an order management system with add, modify and cancel functions, an order book with insertion, deletion and volume lookup at a price level, a topic-based news subscription system, and a one-hour C++ news feed with subscription management and a message rate throttle. One candidate ran out of time on that last task, so deciding early what to build fully and what to stub looks like a sensible habit.
The assessment can also be long. Some candidates mention mental math or logic games alongside coding, and one reports a proctored HackerRank. Later technical conversations touch on object-oriented design, concurrency and correctness, Big O, operating systems, cache locality and garbage collection. One candidate debugged a mini trading system. Others mention an LRU cache without OrderedDict, a scheduler, a circular-buffer queue, and an exchange-related system design round.
Behavioral questions appear alongside the technical work. Candidates mention "Why Optiver?", why software engineering, and detailed follow-ups on projects and teamwork. Outcomes in the reports are mixed: most report no offer, one reports an offer, and one received and declined an offer. Round counts differ between reports, so confirm your own schedule with your recruiter. Practice designing small trading-flavored components in a language you can write cleanly, and rehearse explaining your trade-offs aloud.
Synthesized from 63 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Featured question at Optiver
Find the maximum profit from at most two stock buy/sell transactions
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Sum to N | |
| Session Difference | |
| Stranded Miner | |
| Hurdles In Data Projects | |
| Priority Queue Using Linked List | |
| 85% vs 82% | |
| Slow SQL Query | |
| Optimistic vs Pessimistic Locking | |
| Ticket Reservation Locking | |
| Gas Station Counting | |
| Minimum Days for Scheduling All Meetings | |
| Client Solution Pushback | |
| Index Fund Return | |
| Ranking Metrics | |
| Processing Large CSV | |
| LRU Cache 1 | |
| Reddit-like Notifications | |
| 2nd Highest Salary | |
| Merge Sorted Lists | |
| Employee Salaries | |
| Subscription Overlap | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Empty Neighborhoods | |
| Top Three Salaries | |
| Monthly Customer Report | |
| Rolling Bank Transactions | |
| Find the Missing Number | |
| Bagging vs Boosting | |
| String Shift |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates report an online assessment that often looks like a small system design task. Examples include an order management system, an order book with insertion, deletion and volume lookup, and a news subscription system. Some mention math or logic games, and one a proctored HackerRank. Length reportedly varies widely, so plan for a long sitting.
Several candidates describe a recruiter or HR-style conversation, with one call reported at roughly 15 minutes and another at 30. Reported questions include why Optiver, why software engineering, and why this role. Recruiters may also walk through your background and the open roles, so prepare concise, specific answers.
Reports of technical rounds vary. Candidates mention OOD, debugging a mini trading system, and an LRU cache. Others mention concurrency, Big O, operating systems, cache locality and garbage collection. Some were asked how the solution behaves if the data grows. Expect to explain trade-offs aloud, not just produce working code.
Candidates who went further report system design, including a trading or exchange-related design, plus behavioral interviews. One reported a final behavioral round with a software engineer and a recruiter, and another a four-hour onsite with whiteboarding. Interviewers may probe your projects and teamwork, so prepare specific stories.
