The Vatic Investments Interview Process

Vatic is a smaller London systematic fund, and its process uses a case-study assessment centre rather than a single trading game.

Vatic Investments is a London-based systematic trading firm, smaller and newer than the largest funds covered in this series, and its interview process runs four rounds culminating in an assessment centre day that combines a case study with individual technical interviews rather than a single high-pressure trading game. Candidates comparing Vatic to a firm like Optiver or DRW should expect a noticeably different format: less live market simulation, more structured problem solving presented and discussed as a group or in front of a small panel.

Because Vatic is a smaller shop, its research and trading teams are more tightly integrated than at a large multi-strategy platform, and interviewers are frequently the people a new hire would work with directly rather than dedicated recruiters or a rotating interview panel. This gives the process a more conversational tone in later rounds, but does not reduce the technical bar: candidates still need strong probability, statistics and coding fundamentals to reach the final stage.

The assessment centre format, common at UK graduate schemes generally but less common among the pure prop and systematic firms in this series, typically includes a written or presented case study built around a simplified trading or research problem, evaluated on both the analytical answer and how clearly the candidate communicates it.

The process opens with an online test covering numerical reasoning, probability and a short coding exercise, followed by a recruiter or researcher phone screen. Because Vatic's applicant volume is smaller than a large bank's graduate scheme, this stage moves comparatively quickly, and candidates who submit a complete application often hear back within one to two weeks.

Preparation for this stage benefits from the same drilling that any quant screening rewards: timed practice on practice and a review of probability fundamentals in the interview questions bank.