IMC hires quant trading interns for Chicago every cycle, and the process moves fast once it starts. This guide maps the 2027 listing, the assessment, and the maths you should be comfortable with before you apply.
IMC Trading is a market maker: the firm quotes prices and takes the other side of trades on exchanges around the world. Interns do not start on a real book. They learn on simulated markets, sit close to experienced traders, and get pushed on the speed and quality of their decisions.
This guide covers the 2027 quant trader listing in Chicago, the parallel software and research paths, what the assessment and interviews actually measure, and how to prepare if your mental maths is a little rusty. If you are applying to several market makers at once, keep the calendars side by side using our finance internship deadlines guide.
What an IMC Trading internship actually is
IMC runs a structured summer internship rather than an open-ended job. You join a desk-style cohort, learn how the firm makes markets, and spend most of your time solving quantitative problems and trading in simulations. Trainers give direct feedback, and a large share of the assessment is behavioural: how quickly you recover from a bad call.
The Chicago office runs the US campus programme. Roles fill on a rolling basis, and a listing that stays open does not mean places remain. Apply when your materials are clean and your maths practice has started, not when you feel completely ready.
Quick Facts: IMC Trading internship 2027
| Item | Detail (verify on live listing) |
|---|---|
| Role | Quantitative Trader Intern, Summer 2027 |
| Location | Chicago (US campus programme) |
| Apply | IMC's Greenhouse board, reached from the firm's careers site |
| Window | Opened around 1 Jul 2026, no listed close; rolling review |
| Format | Online application, quantitative assessment, trader interviews |
| Pay | Competitive monthly salary, sometimes with housing support; confirm on the posting |
The firm also posts software engineer intern roles and, in some cycles, research or trading support positions. Read the path in the job title before you write anything, because the interviews diverge quickly.
Quant trader, software engineer, or research paths
IMC is a technology-heavy firm, so campus hiring is wider than just trading. The three paths most students see are:
- Quantitative Trader Intern: probability, expected value, mental maths, and market games. The most competitive and the most direct route to a trading desk.
- Software Engineer Intern: data structures, systems design, and low-latency thinking. Coding screens replace the trading game for this path.
- Research or strategy roles: statistics, modelling, and experiment design, usually posted less often than the other two.
Pick the path your evidence supports. If you have built trading simulations or played competitive games seriously, the trader path fits. If your strength is code and systems, the engineering listing is a better use of your one strong application.
The application and interview ladder
IMC keeps the early stages fast and the later stages conversational. The shape is usually:
- Online application: resume, education, and a short interest statement.
- Quantitative assessment: timed arithmetic, probability, and pattern or market questions, sometimes with a game-based section.
- First trader interview: probability puzzles, expected value, and how you think aloud.
- Further rounds: more market games, decision-making under time pressure, and behavioural questions.
- Offer: interns are placed by desk interest and cohort fit.
The trader interview is not a finance quiz. Interviewers care about how you frame a problem, estimate an answer, and react when they change a variable. Say your reasoning out loud, because a correct number with no working is worth less than a clear method with a small slip.
What IMC assesses in the online tests
The assessment rewards speed and clean thinking more than memorised formulas. You should be comfortable with:
- Mental arithmetic: percentages, fractions, and quick multiplication without a calculator.
- Probability and expected value: dice, cards, and simple betting decisions.
- Estimation: sizing an answer before you calculate it.
- Pattern recognition: spotting structure in number or shape sequences.
- Decision-making under uncertainty: choosing between bets with different risk and reward.
If any of those feels slow, that is the signal to practise, not to delay the application. Twenty focused minutes a day for two weeks sharpens mental maths more than a weekend of cramming.
How to stand out before the window closes
Because IMC hires on a rolling basis, the strongest preparation happens before you submit. Four moves matter most:
- Get your resume to one clean page. Use the structure in our finance resume and CV template, then lead with any competitive maths, trading, or quantitative project you can defend.
- Practise probability aloud. Work through expected value and conditional probability problems while narrating your method.
- Play games with a score. Poker, market simulations, and strategy games all build the decision-making the interviews probe.
- Prepare a short, honest interest answer. Explain why market making appeals to you specifically, not why finance in general does.
None of this needs a finance internship. IMC hires from maths, physics, engineering, and computer science. What it screens for is quantitative comfort and a willingness to be wrong and adjust.
IMC Trading pay and what interns do
Interns are paid a competitive monthly salary, and some listings add housing support or a relocation allowance. Confirm the exact package on the live posting, because it changes by year and by hub.
Day to day, quant trader interns learn how IMC prices and hedges, practise on simulated markets, and take part in training sessions on options, probability, and risk. The work is closer to a trading floor than a classroom, and performance is judged on decisions, not on how many formulas you can recite.
IMC vs other market makers
IMC competes for the same students as Optiver, DRW, Five Rings, Jane Street, and Susquehanna. Each firm runs its own assessment and its own style. IMC leans on speed and market intuition, with a strong emphasis on the trading game and on how you respond to pressure.
Keep the applications separate. A generic "I want to work in markets" answer reads the same to every market maker, and interviewers notice. If you are comparing firms, our guides to Optiver, DRW, and Five Rings show how the processes differ.
Common application mistakes
| Mistake | Better move |
|---|---|
| Waiting for a deadline that may not exist | Apply early once your maths practice has started |
| One "markets" answer for every firm | Tailor the interest answer to IMC's market-making model |
| Skipping timed practice | Do daily arithmetic and probability sets under a clock |
| Applying to the wrong path | Match your evidence to trader, engineering, or research |
Most rejections happen before the first interview, in the assessment. Treat the timed practice as the application, not as an optional extra.
What to do after reading this
Applying to IMC this cycle? Open the live 2027 listing, confirm the location and pay on that posting, and start daily mental maths and probability practice before you submit.
Keep IMC on its own row next to your other market maker applications, and compare windows with the Jane Street internship guide. If your resume is the weak point, fix that first with the finance resume and CV template.