The process, as the firm describes it
IMC sets out three stages: application, assessment, and interviews.
On the assessment stage the firm is careful to say it is not universal - "for some roles, you may be invited to complete an assessment as part of the selection process." On the interview stage it says that advancing candidates are "invited to a series of interviews where we'll evaluate specific competencies."
What it says it evaluates: skills and experience relevant to the role, technical ability and programming proficiency, problem solving, and role-specific competencies. For experienced hires it weights sector knowledge more heavily than for entry-level candidates - a useful signal that graduate applicants are not expected to arrive knowing the industry.
Its own advice to applicants is to highlight relevant experience, technical skills and problem-solving ability, to stay responsive during the process, and to research the firm's culture and values beforehand.
IMC also publishes an interview code of conduct, which is worth reading before you sit anything - it tells you what the firm considers acceptable during an assessment.
Where the widely repeated detail comes from
Almost everything else circulating about IMC's process - specific question counts on the mental-arithmetic screen, the presence of timed cognitive or game-based assessments, the number of rounds on a final day - is candidate reporting, not firm publication. It is often broadly right and it shifts year to year, so treat it as a guide to the kind of thing to expect rather than a specification.
What candidates consistently describe, hedged accordingly: a fast arithmetic and pattern-recognition screen early in the funnel, aptitude-style timed exercises, and later rounds with traders that probe how you handle unfamiliar problems rather than whether you already know the answer. Resilience under an unfamiliar, fast-moving task is a recurring theme in these reports.
What to prepare
Speed with accuracy, not speed alone. A timed arithmetic screen punishes guessing, so build a reliable pace before pushing for a faster one.
Pattern recognition as a trainable skill. Sequence and rule-spotting questions respond well to volume, more so than most interview preparation does.
Composure on unfamiliar problems. The recurring reported theme is not whether you know a technique but what you do in the first thirty seconds of not knowing one.
Practise the same formats
The question sets below are ours, written in the formats this process is reported to use. They are not IMC's questions, and nothing here reproduces any part of its assessment.