Jane Street Trader Interview Guide
Understand the qualifications and background you need to become a quantitative trader at Jane Street.
Introduction
Becoming a quantitative trader at Jane Street is a super fascinating career path. As a trader, you will be at the forefront of trading execution by discovering and capitalising on price inefficiencies, developing trading models, analysing risk, and investigating new products.
In this guide, we will take you through Jane Street's interview process, culture, and the prerequisites you must satisfy to land a quantitative trading position. We will also provide you with resources and advice to help boost your application, and maximise your chances to break into quantitative trading.
Quantitative Trading at Jane Street
Jane Street is a quantitative trading firm and liquidity provider for various financial markets. In 1999, Jane Street was created by a small group of traders in the heart of New York. They used the intersections of maths and technology to trade derivatives and alternative investments on the New York Stock Exchange.
Fast forward to 2025 - Jane Street has employed over 2600 people across five global offices, in the likes of New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Amsterdam.
Jane Street preaches the importance of ethics, honesty, intellectual humility, responsible risk management, and collaboration. This promotes a work environment that is humble, open, and respectful to all voices. Such an environment is great for inspiring innovation and creativity.
As a trader at Jane Street, you will work side-by-side experienced traders in managing the execution of algorithmic trading algorithms, as well as executing manual trades yourself. You will not be short of intellectual stimulation and exciting quantitative challenges.
Your Background
Jane Street's quantitative trader prerequisites are quite different to other firms. Before applying, you must meet these prerequisites:
- A critical thinker with a strong quantitative mind
- Passionate about problem solving, and thrives working in a team environment
- Strong communication, coordination, and organizational skills
- Mature enough to admit mistakes, ask questions, and learn from others
Jane Street doesn't require you to have a background in any specific field - they are simply looking for intelligent people looking to solve problems, and have an open mind to challenges.
However, you can focus on developing particular qualities that Jane Street values in their traders. To be more competitive within the interview process, consider these attributes and qualifications:
- Experience in competitive and strategic environments to a high/professional standard (e.g. sports, chess, poker, esports, and so on)
- Strong projects that demonstrate your passion for quantitative domains and problem solving
- Software and programming experience - Jane Street urges that general programming experience (not limited to any language) is a benefit
- A competitive GPA and distinctive academic record
- A solid understanding of fundamental statistics and probability concepts
Let it be known that these are a few attributes that would be beneficial to improve your chances of landing a quantitative trading position at Jane Street. There are multiple other experiences/qualifications that will also be beneficial, but the qualities from these attributes are highly sought out at proprietary trading firms like Jane Street.
If you would like to brush up or learn fundamental concepts in programming and probability, learn by doing with our courses in Python Programming for Traders, and Probability for Quantitative Finance.
Your Application and Screening
As previously discussed, Jane Street has a different outlook to talent acquisition compared to other firms. At Jane Street, the recruiting team goes through every application themselves, leaving nothing to AI resume scanners (like most firms do).
You will be asked to fill out a range of questions, including your degree, your GPA, your graduation date, your resume, and so on.
The main focus is on your resume, which will contain your:
- Career objectives and overview
- Area of study and academic performance
- Experience and projects
- Extracurricular/competitive achievements
- Characteristics and interests
It is important you structure your resume correctly. We recommend a platform such as resume.io to assist you with building your resume.
You will also be asked a range of cover letter related questions, such as, "why would you like to work at Jane Street?", "what about trading interests you?", and other personal questions. Make sure your responses are genuine and well structured. Do NOT use AI to write your cover letters, as HR will notice this immediately, and bin your application.
Typically, a recruiter at Jane Street will get back to you regarding your application in a week, and will inform you if you have been chosen to progress to the next interview stage.
Round 1-3: Technical interviews
Jane Street has 3 technical interviews, which increase in difficulty successively. You will be interviewed by experienced traders throughout all 3 interviews. These questions can become quite tricky as you progress, but with the right preparation, you will become better at the problem solving process and maximise your chances of progressing to the next round.
Before we detail what types of questions may appear in the interviews, there are certain misconceptions about Jane Street's interview process that you must know to elevate your chances of passing them:
Mental Maths
Jane Street emphasises that you do not need to be good at mental maths. However, what you do need to be good at is numeracy - your ability to navigate numbers, and provide sound estimations to large, bulky calculations.
Understanding that multiplying 2323 * 4988 will be somewhere in the 10 millions, or squaring a number 0 > n > 1 will make it smaller, is a skill that is valued at Jane Street.
Being Correct All of the Time
Just because you didn't get something correct in a Jane Street interview doesn't mean you will fail the interview. In fact, errors don't really matter - Jane Street focuses on how you solve problems, and how well you work in a team to come to reasonable solutions.
Some of their questions dont even have an exact solution - they are designed that way. Therefore, it is imperative that you focus more on your evaluation and communicating your thought process than the solution itself.
Second Chances
Jane Street is all about second chances - if you have been rejected in the past, this won't have a bearing in your future applications. Many traders who were rejected the first time around applied again, and are now working at Jane Street!
With that being said, here are guidelines for Jane Street's technical interviews:
Round 1
In Jane Street's round 1 interview, you will be tasked with basic brainteasers, and probability-based questions. You will be tasked to think outside of the box, and come up with innovative solutions to these problems.
Although we use the term 'basic' here, it is still imperative that you practice with our brainteasers. We categorise this level as somewhere between easy and medium, so make sure you prepare with these levels of questions before starting the interview.
Round 2
In round 2, the complexity and technicality of the questions get harder. You will have to make decisions in a hypothetical game, and find the optimal solution using expected value techniques and risk management.
These questions are approximately the same level as medium (and some hard) within our probability interview questions. Specifically, understand questions such as 50 Coin Challenge, Exponential Wins, and Erasing Bias before beginning the interview.
Round 3
Jane Street's round 3 interview is the hardest of them all, swiftly ramping in difficulty. In this interview, you will encounter problems similar to round 2, except with increased complexity, with some of the games being multiplayer.
If you have made it so far, we suggest brushing up on your game theory, in an expected value setting. Practice with our interview questions die optimisation, greedy dice, and Not so Perfect Squres.
The fact that these are multiplayer opens up the opportunity for strategic vulnerabilities. When you are answering these questions, ensure you consider all possibilities associated with your strategies, including strengths and weaknesses. And remember, there may not be one correct solution.
Final round: Superday
If you passed all three technical interviews, then you've done great so far!
The final round of Jane Street's interview process comprises of a full day of behavioural, technical, and team building activities, monitored closely by traders and technologists alike. You may take the superday online, or in their office at the nearest location.
As such, Jane Street's superday is split up in the following sections:
Behavioural Interview
In the behavioural interview, you will be interviewed by an HR member and an experienced quantitative trader. You will discuss various questions regarding your motivations for joining Jane Street, the work culture, your experiences, and any outstanding questions you have about the firm.
Common HR questions include:
- General questions: Questions regarding your motivations, values, personality, and work style allow the interviewer to further understand how you will integrate into the work environment. You can see examples of these types of questions in our common general questions list.
- Background questions: These questions dive into your previous work experience, projects, and education to get a better understanding of how you qualify for the role. view common background questions.
Also, make sure you ask questions about what you will do as a trader, how you will integrate into the work environment, the work culture at Jane Street, and so on.
Technical Interview
In the technical interview, you will be posed with problems similar to round 3, except live simulations of these hypothetical situations. Instead of finding optimal expected value strategies from a theoretical perspective, you will actively play out these strategies and make decisions in real time.
To do well in this interview, you need to be patient, quick-witted, and rational. Chances are there will be times where you are losing, and will have to decide whether to change your strategy, or stay confident in your previous judgement and assume the losses are a result of unlucky events. The best thing you can do is stay calm, and show no emotions.
Success!
If you made it to the end, then congratulations! You are now a quantitative trader at Jane Street. You worked hard, and deserve to celebrate!
Going beyond, in your first few weeks, make a good impression by demontrating your views in continuous learning, staying humble, displaying humility, and listening to the experienced traders. Be receptive to advice throughout your quantitative career!
Closing Remarks
If you are feeling quite overwhelmed by the complexity and length of the Jane Street's interview process, that is totally normal! By reading this, and understanding the interview process holistically, you have already gained a competitive advantage over most applicants.
To gain an even further advantage in the interview process, it is imperative that you start preparing early and stay consistent in your preparation. Many applicants fail to delegate adequate time for interview preparation, or overlook interview preparation in general, leading to their demise in the interview process.
For competitive jobs, interviewing is a must-have skill. Please understand, quantitative trading is a super competitive industry, with only a select few that will fill in positions. To stand out, and maximise your chances of securing your dream position, you must prepare early.
Further, if you feel that you're not up for a quantitative trading position at Jane Street, the biggest mistake you can do is not apply! You miss all opportunities you do not take. And understand that all successful traders have imposter syndrome at many points within their career.
Overall, becoming a quantitative trader at Jane Street is a highly fascinating and lucrative career path, and with enough preparation and knowledge, you will be well-positioned to crack the interview process, and become a quantitative trader yourself.
