Optiver NumberLogic
Built by Optiver
- Format
- A run of numbers appears and you give the next term. It sits alongside the 80 in 8 rather than replacing it, and the pressure is thinking time rather than raw speed.
- Timing
- Reported at around 15 questions in 25 minutes. Unlike Beat the Odds you can move between questions, so the usual advice is to bank the ones you see immediately and come back.
- What is uncertain
- Counts and clock vary between accounts and years, and Optiver publishes neither. Treat 15 in 25 as a working figure, not a promise. No marking scheme is published for this section.
- How to practise
- Sequences runs the same format against a clock.
SequencesOptiver Beat the Odds
Built by Optiver
- Format
- Probability under time pressure: expected value, conditional probability and Bayes, binomial questions and the occasional Markov chain. Once you leave a question you cannot return to it.
- Timing
- Reported at about 90 seconds a question, five options, and you pick the closest value rather than computing it exactly. Wrong answers are widely reported to deduct marks, which makes skipping better than guessing when you are stuck.
- What is uncertain
- Three different lengths are in circulation: 10 questions in 15 minutes, 30 minutes at 90 seconds each, and 30 questions at 90 seconds each. They cannot all be right and Optiver publishes none of them. The most recent and most detailed candidate accounts (2025 and 2026) say 30 questions, 90 seconds each, +1, 1 off and 0 for a skip, which is what Probability (Hard) runs. Treat the count as reported, not confirmed.
- How to practise
- Probability (Hard) runs the reported format question for question: 30 questions, a strict 90 second clock on each, five coarse options where you pick the closest, no feedback until the end, with the families candidates describe (coin pairing, grid and polygon random walks, martingales, stopping sums, overshoot). The six minute Probability drill is the gentler place to learn the families first.
Probability (Hard)Optiver Zap-N
Built by Optiver
- Format
- An hour of short cognitive games rather than one test. Reported games include a barbecue timing task, a Number Box where you hit a target using four numbers and the four operations, digit recall, task switching and pattern guessing.
- Timing
- About 60 minutes across roughly nine games, each running two to fifteen minutes. It produces a profile rather than a mark, so there is no pass score and no negative marking to play around.
- What is uncertain
- The game list comes from candidate reports and changes year to year, so expect a different set from any list you read, including this one. No scoring, weighting or pass mark has ever been published.
- How to practise
- Battery runs five games of these kinds back to back. Memory Digits is the closest analogue to the digit recall game.
BatteryOptiver Zap-Q
Built by Optiver
- Format
- A personality questionnaire, reported at around 150 forced choice pairs where you pick the statement that describes you better. It is profiling, not an ability test.
- Timing
- Untimed. No right answers, no negative marking, no score to improve.
- What is uncertain
- The item count is a candidate figure. Optiver publishes nothing about how it is weighted or whether it is scored at all.
- How to practise
- Nothing to practise and we will not build a drill for it. Rehearsing a personality test mostly produces inconsistent answers, which is the one thing these instruments do reliably detect.