The Highest-Paying Graduate Tech Roles in the UK - and Why Most Graduates Don't Apply
While the average graduate software engineer in London earns £45,000-£65,000, a small category of roles at quantitative trading firms and hedge funds starts at £90,000-£130,000 with significant performance bonuses on top. These are quant software engineer, quantitative researcher, and quantitative trader roles at firms like Jane Street, Optiver, Hudson River Trading, G-Research, Citadel Securities, and similar.
The reason most CS graduates don't apply is not that they're unqualified - it's that they don't know the format. The quant interview is a distinct discipline. If you walk in preparing for a standard LeetCode-style tech interview, you'll be caught off guard.
This guide gives you a complete picture of what quant interviews involve and how to prepare. For broader context on the tech graduate job market, see our guide to how to get a graduate tech job in the UK.
The Firms - and What They're Looking For
Jane Street
Roles: Software Engineer, Quantitative Trader, Quantitative Researcher
Graduate TC: £90,000-£130,000+
Primary language: OCaml (proprietary codebase). You don't need prior OCaml experience, but functional programming fluency (Haskell, F#, or strong understanding of functional concepts in Python) is a significant advantage.
What they test: Logic, probability, market-making intuition (for trader roles), and systems thinking. Jane Street is famous for their trading games during interviews - you'll be asked to make markets on uncertain quantities, price bets, and reason under uncertainty.
Optiver
Roles: Software Engineer, Trader, Quantitative Researcher
Graduate TC: £80,000-£120,000+
What they test: Heavy emphasis on mental arithmetic (80 calculations in 8 minutes is a standard first-round test), probability, and numerical reasoning. For SWE roles, C++ and low-latency systems knowledge is highly valued. Optiver's SWE interviews involve algorithm questions with an explicit focus on performance and cache efficiency.
G-Research
Roles: Software Engineer, Quantitative Researcher
Graduate TC: £70,000-£100,000+
What they test: G-Research sits slightly closer to a standard tech company in interview format. Expect LeetCode Medium-Hard problems, with a lean toward dynamic programming and graph problems. Quantitative researcher roles involve probability brainteasers and statistics questions.
Citadel / Citadel Securities
Roles: Software Engineer, Quantitative Researcher, Trading
Graduate TC: £80,000-£110,000+
What they test: Multi-round process. SWE interviews focus on C++ and systems design. Quant researcher interviews include probability, statistics, linear algebra, and ML concepts. Citadel's interviews are known to be longer and more academically rigorous than most.
The Four Core Areas of Quant Interview Preparation
1. Probability and Statistics
This is the area most CS graduates are least prepared for, and the one quant firms weight most heavily. You need to be fluent in:
- Expected value and variance - calculate these mentally for simple bets and games
- Conditional probability and Bayes' theorem - "Given that you've flipped 3 heads in a row, what's the probability the coin is fair?"
- Common distributions - Binomial, Poisson, Normal, Geometric. Know their PDFs, means, and variances.
- Combinatorics - permutations, combinations, inclusion-exclusion principle
- Markov chains - expected time to absorption, steady-state distributions
Best resource: "Heard on the Street" by Timothy Crack covers quantitative finance interview questions extensively. "A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews" (the green book) is the standard prep text for quant trader and researcher roles.
2. Mental Arithmetic
Optiver, IMC, and some other firms test mental arithmetic explicitly. The standard format: 80 simple calculations in 8 minutes. Practice daily using apps like "Mental Math" or "Math Workout." The goal is accurate calculation under time pressure, not perfection. Target 70+ correct answers in 8 minutes.
3. LeetCode - But Harder
For SWE roles at quant firms, the algorithmic bar is higher than at standard tech companies. Expect LeetCode Hard problems in interviews, with an emphasis on:
- Dynamic programming (2D DP, DP with state compression)
- Graph algorithms (Dijkstra, topological sort, strongly connected components)
- Bit manipulation and low-level optimisation
- Concurrency and threading (especially for C++ roles)
For firm-specific LeetCode patterns and technical question breakdowns, GradSignal's interview playbooks cover the quant firm technical process in detail.
4. Market-Making and Trading Games
Unique to quant trading firms: you'll be asked to play trading games or make markets. The classic format is: "I'll tell you a quantity. You give me a bid and ask price. I'll either buy from you or sell to you based on your prices." These games test your ability to reason about uncertainty, price risk, and update beliefs as new information arrives.
The key skill is not knowing the right price - it's managing the spread and updating quickly. Practice by playing trading card games (e.g., estimating the number of red cards in a partial deck) with a friend who acts as the market-maker.
The Application Process - Timeline and Tips
Quant firm applications open September-October for roles starting the following summer or autumn. The process is multi-stage:
- Online application and CV screen
- Mental arithmetic test / HackerRank assessment
- First round: 1-2 technical interviews (probability + coding)
- Final round: Full day (or half-day virtual) - multiple interviews across maths, coding, and trading games
The total process typically takes 4-8 weeks. Apply early - some firms close applications within days of opening.
Is a Quant Role Right for You?
These roles are genuinely demanding. The culture is fast-paced and high-performance. But for CS graduates who enjoy probability, mathematical reasoning, and performance-critical systems work, they represent the best compensation of any graduate track in the UK.
If you're targeting quant firms alongside traditional tech companies, use GradSignal's job alerts to stay on top of new graduate openings the moment they're posted - set up your free alerts here.