Susquehanna International Group (SIG) runs one of the more demanding interview processes in trading: 4 stages, heavy on probability and expected value, and built to see how you think under time pressure rather than what you have memorised. This guide walks through each stage and how to prepare for it.
This guide covers the trading track. Quant Research and Software or Quant Dev roles follow a different process with different assessments.
- 1Online Assessment. A timed quantitative test, sat on an external platform.
- 2Recruiter Phone Interview. Your background and motivation, mixed with maths from the start.
- 3Technical Interview. Roughly 60 minutes with a senior trader. The number of these rounds varies.
- 4Final Super Day. Expected value games, a group exercise, and an HR conversation about fit.
Stage 1: Online Assessment
After the resume screen you receive a link to SIG's online assessment, hosted on Mercer | Mettl. There are 2 formats.
| Assessment | Length | Format | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem Solving Assessment | 60 minutes, 17 questions | Free response, rising difficulty. You can navigate back and flag questions | Continuous probability, expected value, combinatorics, calculus, deductive logic |
| Quantitative Evaluation | 20 minutes | Shorter and faster, with no moving back | Probability and statistics, plus algebra and geometry |
We suggest preparing for the Problem Solving Assessment. It is what most candidates we speak to report sitting, internship applicants included, and the shorter Quantitative Evaluation now turns up far less often.
If you are one of the people who does get the short format, we keep a practice test for it as well, and it is worth a run through rather than assuming the long one covers it. The two are not interchangeable. The Problem Solving Assessment leans harder on continuous probability, expected value and combinatorics, while the Quantitative Evaluation moves faster and mixes in algebra and geometry that the longer format never touches.
Test conditions:
- Answer with integers or fractions. Decimals may be marked wrong.
- A calculator, pen and paper are permitted.
- The link arrives in a separate email from the assessment platform, and you have 7 days to start once it lands.
- Switching tabs can end the test. Close everything else before you begin.
- On the 60 minute format you can move back through questions and flag them. On the short format you cannot.
Stage 2: Recruiter Phone Interview
This is a mixed call from the start, not a soft chat with maths bolted on at the end. Alongside your CV and motivation, expect at least 1 probability or expected value question, asked conversationally and without warning.
Your story
Expect "walk me through your resume" and questions about what in your background prepared you for trading. Pick the 2 or 3 experiences that show quantitative judgement under uncertainty, and be ready to say what you actually did rather than what the team did.
Why SIG
Be specific. SIG is known for game theory, poker and options market making, and a generic answer about "fast-paced markets" lands badly here. Connect one concrete thing about how the firm operates to something you have genuinely done.
Markets
You may be asked what is happening in the markets right now, or how you keep up. You are not being tested on a price level. You are being tested on whether you follow markets at all and can hold an opinion.
The maths
Probability, quantitative reasoning and logic, asked out loud. You will not need to recall formulas, but you do need to narrate your reasoning cleanly while you work. Practise against our SIG interview questions, which are tagged to the firm and grow as we add them.
Stage 3: Technical Interview
A video interview of roughly 60 minutes, usually with a senior trader. It is mostly probability and expected value, with Markov chains coming up regularly, plus discussion of your CV, background and skills.
The number of technical rounds varies: usually 2, sometimes 1, and strong candidates are occasionally moved straight to the final stage. Do not read the count as a signal either way.
Work through the probability questions asked at SIG, which is where the bulk of this stage lives.
Stage 4: Final Super Day
The final stage is a set of interviews and exercises across a day, each looking at something different.
Technical interviews
About an hour, built around expected value games with cards, dice or coins. You will be asked to price or evaluate a market-making setup: the expected value of rolling a die or drawing a card, then what you would quote around it. It tests your arithmetic, but just as much your composure and your ability to keep talking while you calculate.
Play our dice and card market making games on higher difficulty with market events enabled. These are close to what you will face, and they are played in person at SIG rather than through software, so practise saying your quotes out loud.
Given how central game theory is to SIG, our game theory and strategic trading course is the closest match on the site to what this stage is testing: equilibrium, bluffing frequencies, adverse selection and bet sizing, worked with numbers.
The group game
You may also play a board game with the other candidates, built around auction and bidding dynamics. It is a physical group exercise played in the room, not a software simulator and not conducted over video.
What is being assessed is how you behave with your competitors sitting next to you: whether you bid a number you can justify, whether you adjust when the room tells you something, and whether you stay pleasant while doing it.
Key tips for success
Stay calm under pressure
- Keep your head cool and work through each problem methodically.
- Take a breath if you feel overwhelmed. Interviewers will push you toward your limit on purpose.
Communicate as you work
- Say your reasoning out loud as you go. Silence reads as being stuck.
- A clear wrong answer you can explain beats a right answer you cannot.
Show relaxed confidence
- Stay focused without being rigid. They are testing how you handle pressure, not whether you can avoid it.
- Do not overdo it. Like every trading firm, SIG is looking for people who are both sharp and humble.
Work methodically
- Break complex problems into smaller steps.
- Check your arithmetic as you go, not at the end.
Practise under real conditions
- Time yourself. Speed under pressure is a separate skill from getting the right answer.
- Play the trading game on the highest difficulty and treat each session as if it were the interview.
HR stage
A 30 minute conversation covering the fundamentals: why trading, why SIG, what your weaknesses are, and what your edge would be against other traders.
Rather than memorising answers, build each one from your own material. SIG recruiters read prep guides too, and a scripted opener is a filter working against you.
Know the firm. Name something specific about how SIG operates, its history or its trading scope, and say why it matters to you. Their website is the place to start. Structure: one concrete detail, then the honest reason it appeals.
Teamwork. Describe a time collective problem-solving beat working alone, and what you contributed. Structure: the situation, your specific role, what the group got that you could not have alone.
Competitive spirit. Poker runs deep at SIG: the firm has 3 WSOP bracelet winners on the team and runs a firm-wide Hold'em tournament. It is culture and post-hire training rather than an interview round, and new traders are taught it after joining, so you will not be dealt in and you need no poker background to get an offer. If you do play poker, chess, bridge or anything strategic, bring it up here. Structure: the game, the decision type it trained, how that maps to trading.
Growth mindset. Point at something you actively taught yourself recently and what you did with it. Structure: what you did not know, what you did about it, what changed.
Ask real questions. Ask about things you actually want answered: how trading teams are structured, how new traders are given risk, what the first year looks like. Questions that could be asked of any firm signal you have not thought about this one.
What SIG actually asks
These are the topics that keep coming up, and where in the process they show up:
- Online assessment: gambler's ruin, random walks, path and grid combinatorics, single-variable calculus optimisation, Bayes, sequences, and deductive logic puzzles such as seating order and ages.
- Phone and technical rounds: probability, expected value and Markov chains, asked out loud.
- Final stage: make-a-market pricing, expected value with cards, dice and coins, and mental arithmetic at speed.
- Some roles: put-call parity and basic options intuition.
If you have not made a market out loud before, read our guide to make me a market before the final stage.
Timeline and when to apply
- End to end the process takes 2 to 8 weeks, most often 2 to 4.
- Expect roughly 1 week between rounds.
- Offers typically follow the final stage by 1 to 2 weeks.
- You have 7 days to start the online assessment once the link arrives.
Applications are rolling and listing-driven, with no single deadline, so timing matters more than at firms with a fixed window. US summer roles post 11 to 12 months ahead: Summer 2026 roles appeared in June 2025. Sydney intern roles tend to post around December for a November intake. Apply as early as you can.
Closing remarks
SIG interviews reward the same thing at every stage: clean reasoning under pressure, explained out loud. The maths is demanding but rarely exotic, and most candidates who struggle do so because they went quiet, not because they lacked the technique.
Give yourself weeks rather than days, work through everything we have for SIG until the common patterns are automatic, and practise saying your reasoning aloud. Whether or not it ends in an offer, preparing properly for this process makes you better at every other trading interview you sit.