The Optiver 80 in 8 Test and the Score That Clears It

Candidates describe an 80 question, 8 minute arithmetic screen at Optiver, and the reported passing range demands a pace faster than 6 seconds a question.

Candidates who have interviewed at Optiver describe a timed arithmetic screen sometimes called the 80 in 8 test, 80 mixed arithmetic questions inside an 8-minute window, and the score described as clearing it clusters in the high 60s to low 70s correct answers out of 80, reported by people who have sat the test rather than published by the firm itself. Eight minutes across 80 questions is an average of 6 seconds per question, and the actual pace needed is faster than that average once time is set aside for the handful of questions that take longer to read than to solve.

The test reportedly mixes addition, subtraction, multiplication and division across two-digit and sometimes three-digit numbers, presented one at a time with no calculator and no scratch paper. Unlike a two-minute Zetamac round, the longer 8-minute window means fatigue becomes a real factor by the final quarter of the test, and candidates describe their error rate rising noticeably in the last two minutes compared with the first two.

The questions are not sorted by difficulty or operation, so a run of three consecutive division problems can appear back to back, and candidates who have only practiced mixed short rounds report being caught off guard by longer streaks of a single harder operation than a two-minute drill typically produces.

Aiming for 70 correct answers across 480 seconds works out to an average of 6.86 seconds per question, only slightly above the raw 6-second average across all 80, which leaves very little slack for questions that take longer. Building in a buffer means the realistic target pace on the easier three quarters of the questions needs to run closer to 5 seconds each, banking time to spend on the harder minority.

A candidate averaging exactly 6 seconds a question for the full 8 minutes answers all 80 with no time left over for a second look at anything, which is a risky target given that a handful of questions in any set of 80 will take noticeably longer than average. Practicing to a pace faster than the bare minimum required builds in the margin that an even 6-second average does not leave.