Prep by Firm

DRW interview prep: train the exact formats

A broad funnel: an online assessment mixing mental math, probability and market questions, brainteaser rounds over Zoom, then a Super Day with a live trading simulation and market-making games. Every one of those formats has a matching drill here, free, in your browser.

Open the DRW training plan Try the probability bank first

What the DRW process tests

An online assessment of roughly 60 to 75 minutes: mental math, probability and short market-knowledge questions (one reported section is 8 probability and expected-value problems in 30 minutes).
Zoom rounds: brainteasers plus a market-intuition discussion.
Expected-value classics: envelope problems, dice games, card combinatorics.
Bayesian updating and Markov-chain style questions.
Super Day: four to six interviews including a trading simulation and market-making games.

Warm up on the real thing

Reported OA staple: how many 5-card poker hands are four of a kind?

624. Pick the rank (13 ways), take all four of that rank, then any of the 48 remaining cards: 13 × 48. Their combinatorics questions are countable in two clean steps if you fix the structure first.

A fly sits on one corner of a square. Each second it walks to one of the two adjacent corners at random. Expected time until it first returns to its start?

4 seconds. The walk's stationary distribution is uniform over the 4 corners, and for any Markov chain the expected return time to a state is 1 over its stationary probability. Knowing that identity turns a two-minute equation system into a one-line answer.

Trading-floor arithmetic: you are long 200 shares from 49.50 and the market is 49.80 / 49.90. Where do you mark the position, and what is it worth?

At the bid: +60. You liquidate long positions by selling at 49.80, so the honest mark is (49.80 − 49.50) × 200. Marking longs to the bid and shorts to the offer is the reflex their simulation rewards.

A ready-made training plan

The app's Prep by Firm desk has a DRW card that maps each stage of their process onto the right drill and launches it in one click: the Odds Sprint for fast probability on a clock, a probability study set on expected value, combinatorics, cards and Bayes (their reported questions map onto these topics almost one for one), a timed 8-minute arithmetic run, the brainteaser desk with an AI examiner that probes your reasoning out loud, the market-making arena for the Super Day simulation, and a full timed interview rehearsal. Your best scores are tracked per format so you can see where the bar still is.

Start the DRW plan free

Prep for other firms

Optiver prep80-in-8, Beat the Odds, sequences, market making Jane Street prepProbability out loud, market making, estimation IMC prepOA formats: arithmetic, sequences, trading games Citadel Securities prepEV, Bayes, market-making scenarios at speed Flow Traders prepRapid arithmetic, sequences, ETF market making Five Rings prepEstimation with bounds, probability, game theory SIG prepEV games, poker-style decisions, options basics Akuna Capital prep80-in-8, sequences, probability, derivatives Maven Securities prepFast numerical screen, cards, market making Da Vinci prepHard numerical quiz, volatility, card games

Explore the rest of the desk

Mental MathZen, timed and sprint drills across 11 categories Probability Lab285 interview questions with worked solutions BrainteasersClassic puzzles with progressive hints and AI grading Market Maker ArenaQuote two-sided markets against informed flow Interview SimA timed, three-part mock with a debrief

Based on public interview reports and candidate accounts; formats change, so verify the current process with your recruiter. My Quant Journey is independent: not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by DRW.