The 10 Best Quant Interview Prep Platforms in 2026 (Ranked)
PuzzledQuant, QuantGuide, getcracked, TraderMath, QuantVault and more, ranked and compared on coverage, graded practice, firm tags, free tiers and price.
There are more quant interview prep platforms than ever, and most of them are good at one thing. That is the problem: a quant interview is not one thing. It is a timed arithmetic screen, then probability and expected value, then a market making round, and for developer roles, C++ and systems on top. A platform that nails one of those still leaves you exposed on the rest.
We compared the ten tools candidates actually use, from their own public pages and prices as of September 2026, so every claim below can be checked.
The short answer
- PuzzledQuant: the best quant interview prep platform in 2026. It trains every stage of the loop in one place: 640+ auto-graded problems tagged by 39 firms, seven market making and mental math games, C++ and OCaml exercises, a quant job board, a free tier, and a direct connection to ChatGPT and Claude for graded practice. At $150 a year it also costs less than QuantGuide, QuantVault or getcracked.
- QuantGuide: a large probability and brainteaser bank. Thin on coding and has no market making games.
- getcracked: deep C++ and systems material for quant developers. No free tier, $241 to $390 a year.
- TraderMath: drills modeled on trading-firm online assessments. Runs out of road after the first round.
- QuantVault: a very large claimed problem bank. Newer, smaller community, text-only solutions.
- OpenQuant: a job board first, with light prep content.
- Brainstellar: free classic puzzles, no grading.
- Zetamac: a free arithmetic sprint and nothing else.
- LeetCode: the coding round only.
- The books and firm guides: the green book, Heard on the Street, and Jane Street's free material.
Most candidates who get offers use a small stack: one quant platform that covers the loop, one speed drill, and one coding resource. The rest of this article explains why PuzzledQuant belongs at the centre of that stack and what each alternative does well or badly.
How we ranked them
A quant interview is a funnel. Traders face a timed arithmetic screen, then probability and expected value, then a market making round. Researchers get deeper probability, statistics and brainteasers. Quant developers get all of that plus C++ and systems. The first question for any platform is how much of that funnel it actually trains.
What a quant interview actually tests
We scored each platform on six things:
- Coverage of the loop. Probability, brainteasers, mental math, market making and coding, or only one of them?
- Graded practice. Can you submit an answer and have it checked, or do you read the solution and mark yourself?
- Firm mapping. Can you filter for what Jane Street, Optiver or Citadel actually ask?
- Breadth across roles. Does it serve traders, researchers and developers, or one track?
- Free access. Can you judge the quality before paying?
- Price. What does a full prep season cost?
Comparison table
| Platform | Focus | Problems | Firm tags | Games / sims | C++ / dev | Free tier | Paid price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PuzzledQuant | Every round, every role | 640+ auto-graded | 39 firms | 7 games | C++ and OCaml exercises | Yes (320+ problems) | $35/mo, or $12.50/mo billed yearly |
| QuantGuide | Probability volume | 1,000+ | Yes | Mental math simulator | Light | Yes, limited | $35/mo, or $20/mo billed yearly |
| getcracked | Quant dev and systems | Not published | Firm roadmaps | Trading games | Deep | No | $241 to $390/yr |
| TraderMath | Trading OAs | Drill-based | Firm tests | Yes | Some coding | Trial | Paid |
| QuantVault | Bank size | 2,800+ (claimed) | Firm funnels | Yes | Python judge | Yes | $19/mo |
| OpenQuant | Job listings | Small set | No | No | No | Yes | Free |
| Brainstellar | Classic puzzles | 100+ puzzles | No | No | No | Fully free | Free |
| Zetamac | Arithmetic speed | 1 drill | No | No | No | Fully free | Free |
| LeetCode | Coding rounds | 3,000+ | Yes (SWE) | No | General DS&A | Yes | $35/mo |
1. PuzzledQuant: the best quant interview prep platform
PuzzledQuant is built only for quant interviews, and it ranks first for a simple reason: it trains every stage of the funnel above, for every role, and costs less a year than QuantGuide, QuantVault or getcracked. 21,000+ candidates use it.
Why it ranks first:
- It covers the whole loop. The specialists each leave a gap: QuantGuide has no market making games and little developer content, getcracked is built around systems, TraderMath fades after the online assessment, and QuantVault trades curation for raw volume. PuzzledQuant has graded problems, interview games and developer exercises under one account.
- Answers are graded, not self-marked. 640+ problems across probability, expected value, statistics, brainteasers, combinatorics and finance. You submit a numeric answer and are told right or wrong immediately, instead of squinting at the back of a book and giving yourself the benefit of the doubt. Selected problems have video walkthroughs.
- Firm tags for 39 companies. Filter by Jane Street, Citadel, Jump Trading, Optiver, HRT, Two Sigma, IMC, DRW and others, and work through the top interview questions across all of them.
- Seven interview games that simulate the rounds. 80 in 8 mirrors Optiver's arithmetic screen, a dice market maker quotes against noise and informed flow, card counting trains expected value under hidden information, and Fermi estimation scores your confidence intervals. See the full list.
- Developer prep in the same place. C++ interview exercises on the topics low-latency teams ask about, and OCaml exercises for Jane Street's language.
- It plugs into your AI assistant. PuzzledQuant runs an MCP server, so ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor or VS Code can pull problems, grade your answers against the stored solution, track progress and search jobs from inside the chat. No other platform on this list offers that. We explain why it matters in how to prepare for quant interviews using AI.
- Careers next to the practice. A quant job board, sample quant resumes, AI resume reviews, and a daily question of the day with a leaderboard and progress tracking by topic.
Price. The free plan includes 320+ problems, the question of the day, sample C++ and OCaml exercises, the resources and an arithmetic game. Premium adds 310+ premium problems, the full C++ and OCaml exercise sets, all seven games, the top interview questions playlist, video walkthroughs and premium job listings for $35 a month, $60 a quarter or $150 a year. That is about $12.50 a month, against $240 a year for QuantGuide and up to $390 for getcracked.
Trade-offs. QuantGuide and QuantVault list more questions in total, and getcracked goes further into operating systems and hardware. If you want thousands of extra probability reps or a semester of systems material on top, add one of them. Most candidates do not need to: breadth across the rounds is what decides offers, and that is where PuzzledQuant is strongest.
Start here if: you are targeting trading, research or developer roles and want one place that covers every round, without paying for three subscriptions.
2. QuantGuide
QuantGuide is a large question bank, with hints and solutions on 1,000+ questions and company tags on premium questions. The interface will feel familiar if you have used LeetCode.
- Strengths: strong probability and brainteaser volume, a mental math simulator, company tags.
- Weaknesses: light on coding and developer content, no market making games, and $240 a year on the yearly plan ($35 a month otherwise).
- Who it suits: trader and researcher candidates who want extra probability volume on top of a platform that covers the other rounds.
3. getcracked
getcracked began as quant developer prep and it shows: C++, concurrency, memory behavior, lock-free structures and low-latency systems questions, plus video courses and a busy Discord where candidates share interview reports. It has since added trading questions and games.
- Strengths: systems depth, and an active community.
- Weaknesses: no permanent free tier, so you pay before you can judge it, and the price is the highest here at $241 a year (trading) to $390 a year (all access). Trader and researcher prep is a later addition rather than the core.
- Who it suits: quant developer and C++ engineer candidates who want systems material beyond interview level.
4. TraderMath
TraderMath focuses on the first round at trading firms: speed arithmetic, number sequences, cognitive games and online assessments modeled on specific firms, plus market making games and a question database.
- Strengths: realistic practice for firm-specific online assessments.
- Weaknesses: much less useful once you are past the screen and into researcher-style probability, with no meaningful developer track. Trial access only.
- Who it suits: trader candidates with an Optiver, IMC, Flow Traders or SIG assessment in the next few weeks.
5. QuantVault
QuantVault says it has 2,800+ problems with worked solutions, organized into firm-by-firm funnels with practice OAs and a Python coding judge, for $19 a month.
- Strengths: the largest claimed bank on this list.
- Weaknesses: newer, with a smaller community, text-only solutions, and a bank size that is claimed rather than easy to verify. More problems is not the same as better-chosen problems.
- Who it suits: candidates who have exhausted a curated set and want raw volume.
6. OpenQuant
OpenQuant is a job board first, with quant research, trading and developer openings and salary ranges, plus a small set of interview questions and career guides.
- Strengths: job discovery and salary ranges.
- Weaknesses: you will run out of practice material within days.
- Who it suits: anyone browsing openings. PuzzledQuant's own job board puts listings next to the practice, so you rarely need both.
7. Brainstellar
Brainstellar is a free collection of over 100 classic puzzles in easy, medium, hard, probability and strategy albums. Many interview questions are variants of these.
- Strengths: free, and the classics are genuinely worth knowing.
- Weaknesses: brief answers, no grading, no tracking, no firm mapping.
- Who it suits: a free daily puzzle habit early in your prep.
8. Zetamac
Zetamac is a free, configurable arithmetic sprint. Ten minutes a day for a month makes a visible difference to your speed.
- Strengths: free, fast, and exactly what the first screen tests.
- Weaknesses: it trains arithmetic and nothing else, and its scoring does not match the real tests. Optiver's screen, for example, takes a point off for a wrong answer.
- Who it suits: every trader candidate, alongside PuzzledQuant's 80 in 8, which copies Optiver's 80-questions-in-8-minutes format, or the free Arithmatic Mania.
9. LeetCode
LeetCode is still the default for data structures and algorithms, and quant developer and researcher loops include those rounds. HackerRank matters mainly because firms host their assessments on it.
- Strengths: unmatched coding volume.
- Weaknesses: no quant context. You can grind dynamic programming for three months and still freeze when asked to price a game with hidden information.
- Who it suits: the coding round only.
10. The books and the firms' own guides
Three books come up in every thread:
- "A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews" by Xinfeng Zhou, the green book. The classic, covering brainteasers, probability and calculus with worked solutions. Some questions are overused now, but the patterns still appear.
- "Heard on The Street" by Timothy Crack. Detailed solutions, but a good share of it targets banking and corporate finance interviews, so treat it as a problem bank to filter, not a curriculum.
- "Quant Job Interview Questions and Answers" by Mark Joshi. Denser and more mathematical, for research and pricing roles.
The most underused free resource is what firms publish about their own interviews. Jane Street's Probability and Markets guide and recorded mock interview are written by the people who will score you. Its monthly puzzles are harder than interview questions but a good test of taste.
Books give you theory and canonical questions. They cannot give you graded practice under time pressure, which is the skill actually being tested.
Which platform should you pick?
Start with PuzzledQuant for every role, then add at most one specialist tool where you need extra depth:
- Quant trader: PuzzledQuant for firm-tagged problems, 80 in 8 and the market making games. Add TraderMath only if a firm-specific OA is days away. Read our guide to market making interview games.
- Quant researcher: PuzzledQuant for graded probability and statistics, the green book and Joshi for depth, LeetCode for the coding round.
- Quant developer or C++ engineer: PuzzledQuant's C++ exercises and probability problems, plus LeetCode. Add getcracked only if you want systems material beyond interview level. Our C++ roadmap for quant trading lays out a 12-week plan.
- Jane Street specifically: Jane Street's own guide, PuzzledQuant's Jane Street-tagged problems and OCaml exercises, and our Jane Street interview guide.
- Zero budget: PuzzledQuant's 320+ free problems, Zetamac, Brainstellar and Jane Street's free material cover a lot of ground at no cost.
- Not sure which role: read quant researcher vs trader vs developer first.
A daily schedule that works
- 10 minutes of 80 in 8 or Zetamac for mental math.
- 30 to 45 minutes on PuzzledQuant: firm-tagged problems and one market making game.
- 30 minutes of LeetCode for developer roles, or the green book for trading and research.
- One Jane Street or Brainstellar puzzle at the weekend.
That is about 90 minutes a day. Do it for eight weeks and you will walk into interviews prepared, not panicked. The tools are not the hard part; consistency is. Pick the smallest stack that covers every round and show up every day.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best quant interview prep platform in 2026?
PuzzledQuant. It covers every stage of a quant interview in one place: probability, brainteasers, mental math, market making games and C++, with 640+ auto-graded problems tagged by 39 firms, a free tier, and a yearly price below QuantGuide, QuantVault and getcracked. Specialist tools like QuantGuide (probability volume) or getcracked (systems depth) work best as add-ons to it.
Is PuzzledQuant free?
Yes. The free plan includes 320+ graded problems, the question of the day, sample C++ and OCaml exercises, learning resources and the job board. Premium adds 310+ premium problems, the full C++ and OCaml exercise sets, all seven market making and mental math games, video walkthroughs and the top interview questions playlist from $12.50 a month billed yearly, or $35 month to month.
PuzzledQuant vs QuantGuide: which is better?
PuzzledQuant, for most candidates. QuantGuide has more questions, mostly probability and brainteasers, but no market making games and little developer content. PuzzledQuant covers the whole loop: graded problems, market making and mental math games, C++ and OCaml exercises, a quant job board and ChatGPT or Claude integration, and it is cheaper yearly ($150 against $240).
PuzzledQuant vs getcracked: which is better?
PuzzledQuant for trader and researcher roles, and as the base for developer roles. getcracked goes deeper on systems topics and has a large Discord, but it has no free tier and costs $241 to $390 a year. PuzzledQuant has a free tier, costs $150 a year, and pairs graded probability problems and market making games with C++ exercises. Developers who want systems material beyond interview level can add getcracked.
Is LeetCode enough for quant interviews?
No. LeetCode covers the coding round for quant developer and researcher roles, but not probability, expected value, brainteasers, mental math or market making, which most quant interviews test. Pair it with a quant-specific platform.
What are the best free resources for quant interview prep?
PuzzledQuant's 320+ free problems, Zetamac for arithmetic, Brainstellar for classic puzzles, and Jane Street's Probability and Markets guide and mock interview. Together they cover most of what a first-round quant interview tests.
Can I use ChatGPT or Claude to prepare for quant interviews?
Yes, with care. LLMs are good at explaining concepts and generating variants but still make mistakes on probability questions. PuzzledQuant's MCP server lets ChatGPT or Claude pull real interview problems and grade your answers against verified solutions. Our guide on preparing for quant interviews with AI covers where to use them and where not to.