IMC Trading Online Assessment — What to Expect
Format guide IMC's trader OA is not a published 80-in-8. The opening screen is widely reported as a ~45-minute BrainsFirst NeurOlympics games battery. This page maps the public funnel and points at free skill practice for the rounds that actually use math — without inventing a fake IMC speed test.
Why this page has no fake IMC timer
Several prep blogs list conflicting IMC math papers (24 questions in 18 minutes, 20 in 30, 50–80 mixed items). Those numbers do not agree with each other, and they do not match the most detailed public walkthroughs of the trader OA. IMC's own campus-recruiting article says the process starts with an online assessment; it does not publish question counts. Where the public record is this messy, shipping an "IMC 80-in-8" would be invention. We would rather say what is actually reported.
Stage 1 as publicly described
| Core OA (trader) | BrainsFirst NeurOlympics — 4 games, ~10–15 minutes each, ~45 minutes total. Accuracy, strategy, and speed-with- precision. Not a mental-math sheet. |
|---|---|
| Saville aptitude | Numerical and diagrammatic sub-tests. Reported by some candidates, absent for others — treat as role/region/ intake dependent. |
| India campus path | Reported as SHL-based rather than NeurOlympics, with campus and CGPA constraints. Do not prep this path from the Amsterdam trader write-up. |
What the rest of the trader funnel looks like
- Recorded video interview — one-way, typically a couple of behavioural prompts plus one technical / probability question. No interviewer to hint.
- Recruiter call — 15–30 minutes on motivation and logistics; occasionally a light market-making or brainteaser prompt.
- Technical interview — brainteasers, probability, Fermi estimation, a market-making game. Arithmetic speed matters here even if the OA was games.
- Superday — rotating stations (trading simulator, quantitative, behavioural) plus time on a desk.
How to practice on this site without pretending we cloned IMC
80-in-8 mental math
Fast typed arithmetic under a −1 penalty. Useful for IMC interview-round calculation speed — not a stand-in for NeurOlympics.
Skill drillProbability & EV
Dice, coins, cards, expected value — the language of the technical interview, not the OA games.
Daily drillBrain teasers
Worked puzzles in the same families IMC interviewers are reported to use: probability, games, estimation.
Interview roundRobot Games
Play or pass a wager against true EV — a solo stand-in for the decision habit inside a market-making game, not IMC's simulator.
EV judgmentContinue preparing
Three genuinely related next steps. Browse every route on Free Tests.
- Probability & EVPractice a transferable skill
- Brain TeasersWork through web puzzles and solutions
- How TradeMind builds questionsRead the independence boundary
FAQ
Does IMC Trading use an 80-in-8 math test?
Not as the standard first OA for traders. Public candidate guides — and IMC's own recruiting write-up — describe kicking off with an online assessment. For the trader stream that assessment is widely reported as BrainsFirst NeurOlympics: four neuroscience-based games, about 10–15 minutes each, roughly 45 minutes in total. A Saville numerical/diagrammatic paper shows up for some roles, regions, and intakes, and is not guaranteed.
What is NeurOlympics?
A vendor cognitive-games battery (BrainsFirst names IMC as a client). It builds a profile from accuracy, how you use the tools the games give you, and speed without losing precision. It is not a sheet of arithmetic questions, so grinding 80-in-8 only partly prepares you for it.
Where does mental math actually show up at IMC?
Later. Public reports put brainteasers, probability, Fermi estimation, and market-making games in the technical interview and Superday, with calculation speed still load-bearing there. Train arithmetic for those rounds; do not treat an 80-in-8 clone as IMC's OA.
Is the process the same in Amsterdam, Chicago, Sydney, and Mumbai?
No. Amsterdam/Chicago/Sydney trader reports are built around NeurOlympics plus a recorded video interview. Mumbai / India campus hiring is described as SHL-based rather than NeurOlympics, with campus-linked eligibility. Software engineering, FPGA, and quant research follow different assessments again. Always read the role posting.
Is TradeMind affiliated with IMC?
No. This page is an independent summary of publicly described process, with links to skill drills. It is not IMC's assessment and does not reproduce vendor games.
TradeMind is an independent training tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by IMC Trading, BrainsFirst, or any other firm or vendor mentioned. This page summarises publicly available descriptions of IMC's hiring process for practice orientation only. Formats vary by role, region, and year. We do not reproduce NeurOlympics, Saville, or any other vendor assessment.