DRW Interview: Process, OA and Questions (2026)

DRW's Summer 2027 Quantitative Trading Analyst internship in Chicago lists an annual base salary of $250,000. Before anyone gets near that, they sit a timed test at home that DRW describes as "a quantitative challenge focused on probability and logic skills".

Candidates say it is about six questions in 45 minutes. Not mental arithmetic. Probability, statistics and, to the surprise of many, linear algebra.

Here is the short version. DRW's official process is a CV-only application reviewed on a rolling basis, a timed technical challenge, a Zoom interview of about 45 minutes, and a final round. For trading candidates the final is an in-person Superday with a Python coding challenge, a trading simulation and several technical interviews. For software developers, the test is on Codility, and candidates consistently report three problems in 150 minutes.

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DRW at a Glance

• Founded: 1992 by Don Wilson
• Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
• Size: "over 2,000 employees", according to DRW
• Offices: Chicago, New York, Greenwich, Austin, Houston, Palo Alto, Montréal, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Singapore and Hong Kong
• Related businesses: Cumberland DRW (digital assets, officially launched in 2014), DRW Venture Capital, Convexity Properties (real estate)
• Roles they hire: Quantitative Trading Analyst, Quantitative Researcher, Software Developer and others
• Application route: careers page or via the DRW firm page on Quantt

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The Interview Process

DRW publishes its intern process in four steps, and adds that "no need to worry if your recruitment process is slightly different".

1. Application. "We review applications on a rolling basis so we encourage you to apply early", and only a CV is required.
2. Technical challenge. Done at home under timed conditions: "a quantitative challenge focused on probability and logic skills or a coding challenge on fundamental computer science concepts", depending on the role.
3. Phone or Zoom interview. For Quantitative Trading Analysts, DRW says this tests "probability and statistics knowledge" and typically takes "about 45 minutes".
4. Final round. "We start day one in the afternoon with introductions followed by a technical challenge. Day two is a full day of interviews focusing on a range of topics, both technical and behavioral." For trading candidates, DRW describes a Superday with "a quantitative coding challenge using Python", a trading simulation and "multiple technical interviews".

Python matters for traders here more than at many trading firms. The Summer 2027 QTA internship lists "proficient programming in Python" as a requirement.

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Did you know?

Tap a tile for a quick interview snippet — then keep going.

• DRW’s breadth

  DRW spans trading, crypto-adjacent businesses, and serious tech. Role variance is high — confirm whether your loop is trader, QR, or eng-heavy.

• OA then phones

  Online assessments filter; phones probe depth. Don’t celebrate clearing the OA until you’ve rehearsed talk-aloud problem solving.

• FPGA seats exist

  Hardware-oriented roles are real at some desks. Only claim HDL/FPGA experience you can defend with projects.

The DRW Online Assessment

Trader and Researcher OA

DRW does not publish the format. Candidate reports and prep sites describe:

• About six questions in 45 minutes. One 2026 quantitative researcher report counts seven.
• Topics: probability, expected value, statistics, Markov chains, brain teasers and linear algebra, including eigenvalues of an inverse matrix and matrix calculus.
• Typed answers, rounded, in most reports. One prep site says multiple choice, and another notes that its own multiple-choice mock differs from the real test.
• Proctoring: one July 2026 researcher report mentions webcam proctoring and an on-screen calculator. We could not confirm the calculator from a second source.

No report we found describes speed arithmetic or questions about markets. If you have read that DRW's trader OA is a 60 to 75 minute mix of mental maths and market knowledge (this page used to say so), that does not match any candidate report we could find.

Software Developer OA

This one is official. DRW's preparation article says software developer candidates take a coding assessment on Codility, and that questions "will assess both correctness and performance of your code". Five candidate reports from 2023 to 2025, across the US, the UK and Singapore, describe three problems in 150 minutes.

Is the DRW OA Automatic?

Not reliably. Candidates describe gaps of a few days to about two weeks between applying and receiving the test, and one 2025 candidate was screened out with no test at all. We found no report of the test being sent instantly to everyone, which fits DRW's own description of a rolling CV review.

In the 2027 internship cycle, tests were going out by mid-July 2026, and one candidate reported a first-round invite within a week of taking it.

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After the Test

The Zoom Interview

For trading candidates, a probability and statistics interview of about 45 minutes. Expect to talk through your reasoning out loud. Engineers get an interview that DRW describes as "technical and behavioral questions".

The Final Round

For traders, the Superday: a Python coding challenge on a quantitative problem, a trading simulation and several technical interviews, plus time with the team. For software developer interns, one 2025 candidate described a two-hour coding round on the first day and five to six hours of team interviews on the second, which matches DRW's official two-day format.

DRW does not publish how many interviews there are or how long each lasts, so we will not guess.

Decisions

Thinly reported. One intern candidate received an offer about 10 days after the final round.

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How Interviews Differ by Role

Quantitative Trading Analyst

The interviews centre on probability and statistics, and the Superday adds coding in Python and a trading simulation. DRW's desks trade very different products, so expect some questions about the markets you say you are interested in.

Software Developer

The Codility test, then technical interviews. DRW's graduate posting asks for "proficiency in modern C++, Java or Python", plus multi-threading, API design, data processing and network programming.

Quantitative Researcher

Candidates describe statistics, probability and research discussion, with the same style of test as traders.

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Real Question Types

OA-Style Questions

The first two are our own examples in the style candidates describe, and we have labelled them that way.

Question 1: Eigenvalues of an inverse (our example). A symmetric matrix A has eigenvalues 2 and 5. What are the eigenvalues of A⁻¹ and of A² + A?

Approach: If Av = λv then A⁻¹v = (1/λ)v, so A⁻¹ has eigenvalues 1/2 and 1/5. Any polynomial in A acts on the same eigenvectors, so A² + A has eigenvalues 2² + 2 = 6 and 5² + 5 = 30. The determinant of A⁻¹ is 1/10.

Question 2: Markov chain (our example). Each day is sunny or rainy. A sunny day is followed by another sunny day with probability 0.8; a rainy day is followed by another rainy day with probability 0.6. In the long run, what fraction of days are sunny?

Approach: Let π be the long-run fraction of sunny days. Balance the flows: 0.2π = 0.4(1 - π), so π = 2/3.

Probability and Brain Teasers

Question 3: Two dice You roll two fair six-sided dice. What is the probability that their sum is at least 9?

Approach: Count favourable outcomes: 9 (4 ways), 10 (3 ways), 11 (2 ways), 12 (1 way), so 10 out of 36 = 5/18 ≈ 0.278.

Question 4: Hat puzzle Three people stand in a line, each wearing a hat that is black or white with equal probability. Each can see the hats of those in front but not their own. They guess their own hat colour at the same time. They win if at least one is right. What is the best strategy?

Approach: Each person is right in exactly half of the eight configurations whatever they do, so the trick is to make their correct guesses overlap as little as possible. The person at the front guesses white. The middle person guesses white if the front hat is black, and anything otherwise. The person at the back guesses white if both hats in front are black. That wins in 7 of the 8 configurations, losing only when all three hats are black.

Market Knowledge

Question 5: Yield curve The 10-year US Treasury yield is 4.5%. The 2-year is 4.8%. What is this called, and what does it typically signal?

Approach: An inverted yield curve. It has historically been associated with a higher chance of recession over the following one to two years, because the market expects the Federal Reserve to cut rates as growth weakens.

Coding

Question 6: Two-sum target Given a sorted array of integers, return whether any two elements sum to a target value.

Approach: Two pointers from each end. Move the left pointer right when the sum is too small, the right pointer left when too large. O(n) time, O(1) space.

Question 7: Memory ordering Two threads share an integer flag and an integer value. Thread A sets the value, then sets the flag to 1. Thread B reads the flag in a loop and, when it sees 1, reads the value. Without explicit synchronisation, can Thread B see flag = 1 but the old value? Why?

Approach: Yes. CPUs and compilers can reorder reads and writes. Without acquire-release semantics there is no guarantee that Thread A's write to the value happens before Thread B's read. The fix in C++ is std::atomic with std::memory_order_release on the store and std::memory_order_acquire on the load.

Behavioural

Question 8: Disagreement Tell me about a time you strongly disagreed with a senior team member. How did you handle it?

Approach: Describe the disagreement specifically, the evidence each side brought, how you resolved it and what you learned. Avoid stories that make the senior person look foolish.

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Quick quiz

DRW-style mini quiz

Probability and coding judgement.

1 / 3

Two fair dice. P(sum = 7)?

• 1/12
• 1/8
• 1/6
• 1/4

How to Prepare - A Five-Week Plan

Week 1: Probability and statistics. Chapters 1 to 4 of A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews (Xinfeng Zhou), plus our probability interview questions.

Week 2: Linear algebra and Markov chains. Eigenvalues, determinants, inverses and stationary distributions, since these appear in OA reports and rarely appear in other firms' tests.

Week 3: Python. Traders will code at the Superday. Practise short numerical problems and simulations in Python; our Python quant interview questions are a good start. Engineers should do timed Codility-style problems instead.

Week 4: Trading games and markets. Run mock market-making sessions with a study partner, and read up on the desk you are applying to. Our market making interview questions cover the quoting style.

Week 5: Mock final. Two full timed mock rounds under realistic conditions.

For broader context, see our high-frequency trading guide and online assessments guide.

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What DRW Looks For Beyond Technical Skill

DRW trades across many asset classes, from Treasuries and futures to digital assets through Cumberland DRW. Candidates who are curious about markets beyond their target desk tend to have more to talk about in the interviews. DRW's own advice for traders is blunt: "Not sure which programming language to choose? Try Python."

For broader context on what firms across the industry value, see our quantitative analyst career guide.

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Where This Guide Goes Wrong

DRW publishes more about its process than most firms, but nothing about test content, pass rates or how many people it hires. Everything about the OA questions comes from a handful of candidate reports and prep sites, which disagree on details such as multiple choice versus typed answers. The process also varies by desk and office, as DRW itself says.

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Compensation & recruiting notes

DRW's US postings publish base salaries; bonuses are discretionary and not published, so total pay figures are estimates, not numbers from DRW, and vary by role, office, year and performance. Hiring processes change; nothing here guarantees an interview, assessment format or offer.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the DRW online assessment?

For trading and research roles, a timed test at home that DRW describes as "a quantitative challenge focused on probability and logic skills". Candidates report about six questions in 45 minutes on probability, statistics, linear algebra and Markov chains. For software developers, it is a Codility coding test, reported as three problems in 150 minutes.

Is the DRW OA automatic?

Not reliably. DRW reviews CVs on a rolling basis, and candidates report waiting from a few days to about two weeks for the test, while some are rejected without one.

How many interview rounds does DRW have?

Officially, a technical challenge, a phone or Zoom interview and a final round. The final for trading candidates is a Superday with a Python coding challenge, a trading simulation and several technical interviews. DRW's intern final runs over two days.

How much does DRW pay?

DRW's US postings list an annual base salary of $250,000 for the Summer 2027 Quantitative Trading Analyst internship in Chicago, $250,000 to $300,000 for campus Quantitative Researchers, and $225,000 for graduate Software Developers in Chicago, plus a discretionary bonus. The most recent US graduate QTA posting we found (July 2025) listed $175,000 to $200,000. See our quantitative analyst salary guide for wider estimates.

Do I need to code for a DRW trading interview?

Yes. DRW's Superday for Quantitative Trading Analysts includes "a quantitative coding challenge using Python", and the Summer 2027 internship lists proficient Python as a requirement.

What is Cumberland and how does it relate to DRW?

Cumberland DRW is DRW's digital-asset trading business, which DRW says was officially launched in 2014. DRW made its first bitcoin trade in 2010.

Can I reapply if rejected?

DRW does not publish a reapplication policy. If you were rejected, applying again in a later cycle with stronger evidence of improvement is the normal route.