Chicago Trading Company started in 1995 as a floor-trading operation on Chicago’s exchanges and has grown into one of the larger independent options market makers, with roughly 750 people across a Chicago headquarters and offices in New York, London, and Amsterdam. CTC makes markets in listed options and related products, which means its traders and technologists are constantly pricing risk and reacting to order flow in real time. That business shapes the interview: the firm wants to see how you think under pressure with incomplete information, not just whether you know the right formula.
CTC hires along three main tracks: the undergraduate Quantitative Trading Analyst (QTA) program that feeds its trading desks, a software engineering track split across execution, exchange connectivity, platform, and research and data-engineering teams, and a smaller PhD-level Quantitative Researcher track for systematic strategy work. Each track has its own assessment content, but they converge on the same final stage: a full day in the Chicago office built around a live trading simulation.
Process
CTC’s hiring funnel runs four stages for campus candidates, and it moves fast: expect roughly two to three weeks from the first assessment to a decision once you clear it. Start with an online application and short questionnaire, usually in early fall for campus roles.
The online assessment (OA) differs by track. QTA candidates get a proctored, timed aptitude test built around critical-thinking and quantitative-reasoning problems: word problems, mental math, estimation, and probability, all under heavy time pressure (candidates describe well under 30 seconds per question). Software engineering candidates instead get a Codility-style coding test on top of a shorter cognitive-aptitude screen, so budget time for both a proctored reasoning section and a data-structures-and-algorithms problem set. If you haven’t drilled timed coding under pressure recently, CTC’s algorithm patterns cheat sheet is a fast way to refresh the patterns that show up in a 30-45 minute window.
Candidates who clear the OA move to a first-round interview. For trading candidates this has run as a one-way recorded video interview: behavioral questions appear on screen, you get about 30 seconds to think, then you record your answer with no retakes. Other candidates, and some cycles, instead get a live phone or on-campus interview that mixes behavioral fit questions with 30-45 minutes of mental math, probability, expected value, and brainteasers. Either way, treat it like a real interview rather than a formality: it’s where CTC first screens for the values match it says it looks for, on top of raw problem-solving speed. Reviewing a framework for structuring answers, like the one in techinterview.org’s behavioral interview guide, is useful preparation even though CTC’s culture questions run shorter and more rapid-fire than a typical big-tech loop.
The final stage is CTC’s super day in Chicago, and it’s the part that sets the firm apart from most of the trading-firm processes covered in techinterview.org’s quant finance guides. The day splits roughly in half: a block of time on a mock trading simulation where you make markets, manage a position, and react to changing information in real time, and a separate block of about six one-on-one interviews with traders, quants, and engineers. Those one-on-ones cover mental math, probability, market-making intuition, and role-specific technical questions, plus a desk shadow and leadership presentations so you get a look at the floor before you decide whether to accept an offer.
What they actually ask
- Codility-style coding problems for engineering candidates: typically two or three data-structures-and-algorithms problems (arrays, strings, hash maps, sorting) solved against a timer, graded on correctness and edge cases more than style.
- Timed mental math under pressure: multiplying and dividing multi-digit numbers, converting fractions to decimals, and running quick expected-value calculations without a calculator.
- Probability and expected-value brainteasers: coin-flip and dice-game variants, conditional probability, and questions that ask you to price a simple bet or game on the spot.
- Estimation and Fermi-style questions: sizing an unfamiliar market or quantity from first principles, with the interviewer pushing on your assumptions as much as your final number.
- Market-making intuition during the trading simulation: setting a two-sided market, adjusting quotes as new information arrives, managing inventory, and explaining why you widened or moved a price.
- Behavioral and values-fit questions: why trading, why CTC, how you handled disagreement or a mistake, delivered in the recorded first round or live in later rounds.
- Resume-driven technical follow-up: for engineers, questions about a past project’s design trade-offs; for QTA and research candidates, questions about a probability or math background listed on the resume.
Levels and comp (2026)
CTC’s campus hiring splits into three ladders. The Quantitative Trading Analyst track starts analysts on a trading desk under a senior trader, with promotion tied to how well you manage risk and P&L on your own book over time rather than a fixed timeline. The engineering ladder runs through Associate Engineer for new grads up through senior and staff-level roles across execution, exchange connectivity, platform, and research and data-engineering teams. The Quantitative Researcher track sits alongside these and generally hires at the PhD level directly into research roles rather than through the undergraduate funnel.
CTC doesn’t publish base salary or bonus figures, and bonus-heavy comp at a prop trading firm swings a lot with individual and firm performance, so don’t lock onto any single quoted number you see online. Check levels.fyi and Glassdoor for current, self-reported ranges by title and location, and treat internship pay and new-grad packages as separate data points, since prop-trading offers often front-load a meaningful chunk of first-year comp into a signing bonus rather than base salary alone.
Prep priorities
Prepare for the trading simulation like a distinct skill, not an extension of the interview questions. Practice quoting two-sided markets on a made-up product with a friend or study partner: one of you feeds new information (a headline, a trade print, a related price moving), and the other has to adjust a quote within a few seconds and explain the reasoning out loud. The skill CTC is testing isn’t your final price, it’s whether you update fast, stay consistent under stress, and narrate your logic while a trader watches. If you’ve never sat in a market-making sim before, run a few practice sessions with any free options-market-making simulator built for interview prep before the super day, and get comfortable talking through your thinking while you calculate.
Drill mental math daily in the weeks before the OA and interviews: two- and three-digit multiplication, percentage and fraction conversions, and quick expected-value arithmetic, all without a calculator and against a timer. Speed compounds, so a five-minute daily habit beats one long cram session the night before. Pair that with probability fundamentals: conditional probability, expected value, and variance, worked through with concrete numbers rather than formulas alone, since CTC’s interviewers push on how you reason through a problem more than whether you can recite a definition.
For the software engineering track, treat the Codility round as a real coding test, not a formality: solve a handful of timed data-structure problems from scratch, then time yourself against a clock that’s shorter than you’d like. In technical interviews, be ready to explain a past project’s design choices and defend a trade-off, since that resume-driven follow-up shows up alongside the coding and math questions. Finally, prepare a short, specific answer for “why trading” and “why CTC” that references something concrete about market making rather than trading in general, because the recorded first round often gives you one take with no retakes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Chicago Trading Company actually do?
CTC is a proprietary trading firm that makes markets in listed options and related products. Traders quote prices on both sides of a market, manage the resulting inventory risk, and rely on quants and engineers to build the pricing models and low-latency systems that let them do that at scale.
How long does the CTC interview process take?
Candidates commonly report roughly two to three weeks from the online assessment to a final decision, though timing varies by cycle and role. The process runs four main stages: application, OA, a behavioral-and-technical round, and the Chicago super day.
Is the CTC online assessment the same for traders and engineers?
No. Quantitative Trading Analyst candidates take a timed aptitude test focused on critical thinking, mental math, estimation, and probability. Software engineering candidates take a Codility-style coding test on top of a shorter cognitive-aptitude screen.
What happens in the trading simulation at the super day?
You take part in a mock market-making session where you quote prices, manage a position, and react to changing information alongside other candidates or CTC staff. It’s built to show how you think and adjust in real time, not to test whether you already know options theory cold.
Do I need to know options pricing before interviewing?
Basic familiarity helps, but CTC’s own internship curriculum starts with options fundamentals, so the firm doesn’t assume deep options knowledge going in. What matters more heading into interviews is comfort with fast mental math, probability reasoning, and staying composed when an interviewer pushes back on your answer.
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