What to Expect at a Chicago Trading Company Interview
Chicago Trading Company (CTC) runs a four-stage process for trader, quantitative analyst and software developer roles: an online assessment covering probability and mental maths, one or two phone interviews, an onsite or virtual assessment day with a trading simulation, and a final round focused on fit. The whole process typically takes four to six weeks, and CTC is known among candidates for a strong educational culture that shows up throughout the interviews as much as in its training programme.
This guide covers CTC's history and focus areas, the interview process stage by stage, the question types candidates report, and current 2026 salary data for the firm's main roles.
Chicago Trading Company at a Glance
CTC was founded in Chicago in 1995 and specialises in derivatives market making across equity index, interest rate and commodity products, combining quantitative pricing models with experienced human judgement on the trading floor. The firm has grown to over 400 employees and is known for an unusually strong internal training culture, with new hires across trading and quant analyst tracks going through extensive structured education in options theory and market microstructure before taking on live risk.
CTC builds much of its trading technology in-house, and its main hiring tracks are Quantitative Trader, Quantitative Analyst and Software Developer, all based out of its Chicago headquarters. The firm sits in the same Chicago options cluster as Optiver, IMC Trading, Akuna Capital and Belvedere, and candidates frequently interview at several of these firms in the same recruiting cycle. Our Optiver interview guide and Akuna Capital interview guide cover two of CTC's closest competitors for comparison.
The Interview Process, Stage by Stage
Stage 1: Online Assessment
CTC's online assessment is typically 45 to 60 minutes and combines mental arithmetic under time pressure with probability and logical reasoning questions. Software developer candidates instead, or additionally, receive one or two algorithmic coding problems on a standard testing platform.
Stage 2: Phone Interview
A 30 to 45 minute call with a trader, quant analyst or engineer from the hiring team. Trading and analyst candidates should expect probability puzzles and mental maths questions similar in style to the online assessment but delivered live, with the interviewer probing how you reason through a problem rather than just checking the final answer. Developer candidates face live coding focused on data structures and algorithmic thinking.
Stage 3: Assessment Day
CTC's assessment day runs for most of a day, either in Chicago or virtually, and typically includes a further round of probability and options-theory questions, a trading or market-making simulation, and a session with current traders or analysts to assess communication style and composure. Developer candidates instead face deeper technical interviews covering system design and CTC's in-house technology stack.
Stage 4: Final Round and Offer
The final round usually involves conversations with senior traders or the hiring manager, focused on cultural fit and how you approach decision-making under uncertainty rather than fresh technical material. Offers typically follow within one to two weeks of the final round.
Question Themes You'll Actually See
Probability and Mental Maths
Expect classic conditional probability problems, expected value calculations, and fast arithmetic under time pressure. CTC's questions tend to reward a clear, structured approach over a fast guess, and interviewers frequently ask you to walk through your reasoning even after you reach the correct number.
Options and Derivatives Theory
Because CTC specialises in derivatives market making, later-stage interviews often include questions on how the Greeks behave as an underlying moves, how implied volatility relates to expected price ranges, and basic intuition around skew and term structure. Candidates coming from a pure mathematics or physics background without prior options exposure should expect to spend real preparation time here specifically.
Trading and Market-Making Simulations
The assessment day trading game typically presents an uncertain payoff, such as the value of a card-based game or a synthetic instrument, and asks you to quote a two-way market. Interviewers trade against you and watch whether you adjust your price sensibly as information arrives, which matters more to CTC's evaluation than whether your very first quote happens to be close to fair value.
Coding and System Design (Developer Track)
Developer candidates face standard algorithmic coding covering arrays, hash maps and graph problems, plus system design questions around building components such as an order book or a real-time market data pipeline with correctness under concurrent updates.
Two Sample Questions
Expected value under a stopping rule. You see a sequence of random numbers between 0 and 1, one at a time, and can stop and keep any number you see, but cannot go back once you move on. If you have three numbers to look at, what is the expected value of the best strategy?
Approach: Solve by backwards induction. On the last number, always keep it, giving an expected value of 0.5. On the second number, keep it only if it exceeds 0.5, otherwise take the third; this raises the expected value to 0.625. On the first number, keep it only if it exceeds 0.625, otherwise continue; the overall expected value works out to approximately 0.695.
Options intuition. A stock is trading at £50. You hold a call option with a strike of £55 expiring in one month. Implied volatility rises sharply overnight with no change in the stock price. What happens to the option's value, and why?
Approach: The option's value rises because vega, the sensitivity of an option's price to implied volatility, is positive for both calls and puts. Higher implied volatility increases the market's expectation of how far the stock might move before expiry, which raises the probability the option finishes in the money and therefore its price, independent of any actual move in the underlying.
How the Three Tracks Differ
| Dimension | Quantitative Trader | Quantitative Analyst | Software Developer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online assessment | Mental maths and probability | Probability and statistics | Algorithmic coding |
| Assessment day focus | Trading simulation | Modelling and statistical case discussion | System design and coding |
| Options theory depth | High | Moderate to high | Low |
| Typical background | Maths, physics, engineering | Maths, statistics, financial mathematics | Computer science |
CTC's structured training programme means candidates for the trader and analyst tracks are evaluated more on raw quantitative aptitude and composure than on existing market experience, which makes the firm a realistic target for strong candidates without a prior finance internship.
Chicago Trading Company Salary in 2026
CTC pays competitively with the other major Chicago derivatives market makers, using a base salary plus bonus structure where the bonus reflects both individual and firm-wide trading performance.
| Role | Entry-Level Total Comp | Senior Total Comp |
|---|---|---|
| Quantitative Trader | $200,000 - $350,000 | $350,000 - $550,000+ |
| Quantitative Analyst | $180,000 - $300,000 | $320,000 - $500,000 |
| Software Developer | $160,000 - $250,000 | $280,000 - $450,000 |
Estimate caveat: CTC is privately held and does not publish compensation data. These figures are compiled from Glassdoor and candidate-reported data and should be treated as illustrative estimates rather than confirmed figures. For how CTC's pay compares with the wider Chicago market-making cluster, see our quant trader salary guide.
Bonus at CTC typically represents a substantial share of total compensation even at entry level, consistent with the pay structure at most Chicago-based derivatives market makers, and grows further with seniority as individual and desk performance become a larger factor.
How to Prepare for a CTC Interview
Weeks 1-2: Mental arithmetic and probability. Practise fast, accurate mental maths daily and drill conditional probability and expected value problems until the reasoning becomes close to automatic.
Weeks 3-4: Options theory. Build genuine intuition for how the Greeks behave, not just their formulas. Our Greeks and volatility in options guide is a useful starting point if you have not covered this material before.
Week 5: Trading simulation practice. Practise quoting two-way markets on simple uncertain payoffs with a study partner, focusing on how you adjust your price as they trade against you rather than on finding the mathematically perfect starting quote.
Week 6: Mock assessment day. Run a full mock day combining mental maths, a trading game and a technical interview back to back, since sustaining sharp performance across a long day is itself part of what CTC evaluates.
Compensation & recruiting notes
CTC's graduate programme has a well-defined structure that changes relatively little year on year - which is why this guide is more concrete on stage detail than most - but the firm still does not publish its interview criteria or pay data officially. The material here is drawn from candidate reports, recruiter commentary and public sources, and interview content on individual desks (index options, single-name options, delta-one) can differ meaningfully from the graduate loop described above. Nothing here guarantees any specific interview format, question, offer or compensation level.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many interview rounds does Chicago Trading Company have?
Typically four stages: an online assessment, a phone interview, a full assessment day including a trading simulation, and a final round focused on fit. The whole process usually takes four to six weeks from application to offer.
What is the average Chicago Trading Company salary?
Entry-level trader and quantitative analyst roles typically pay $180,000 to $350,000 in total compensation, rising to $320,000 to $550,000 or more at the senior level. Software developer roles pay somewhat less in absolute terms but remain well above general industry software engineering pay.
Do I need a finance background to interview at CTC?
No. CTC hires primarily for quantitative reasoning ability from mathematics, physics, engineering and computer science backgrounds, and its structured training programme is built to teach options theory and market microstructure from scratch to strong candidates without prior trading experience.
How does CTC's interview compare to Optiver's?
Both firms test mental arithmetic, probability and options intuition through a trading simulation, though CTC's assessment day is generally reported as slightly less purely speed-focused than Optiver's famous mental maths test, with somewhat more weight given to structured reasoning during probability questions.
Does Chicago Trading Company hire software developers?
Yes. CTC builds much of its trading technology in-house and hires software developers for its execution systems, data infrastructure and internal tooling, alongside its trader and quantitative analyst tracks. Developer interviews focus on algorithmic coding and system design rather than options theory.
Is Chicago Trading Company a good firm to start a quant trading career at?
CTC is well regarded for its structured, education-heavy approach to training new traders and analysts, which makes it a reasonable option for strong candidates who want thorough foundational training rather than being expected to learn primarily on the job. See our prop trading firms guide for how CTC compares with the wider set of Chicago and global proprietary trading employers.
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