Da Vinci Trading Interview Guide

Da Vinci is a proprietary trading firm founded in Amsterdam in 2015. It has since opened offices in Miami, Hong Kong and Mumbai, and as of 2026 it has more than 150 staff across the four.

It trades only its own money and has no clients. It provides liquidity in digital assets and traditional instruments, and takes positions on volatility when it sees an opportunity.

Options are the main product, with stocks and futures used for hedging. Da Vinci trades on the main exchanges in India and the USA and on digital-asset exchanges around the world.

It uses two strategies, market making and position taking. Its desks run high-frequency automated strategies as well as less automated positional ones. Da Vinci's development team built its own trading system from scratch in 2020, and the firm says it does not compete on speed alone.

Quant Trading Intern

As of September 2026 the internship is 8 weeks in Amsterdam, and Da Vinci covers your flights and your stay.

The posting asks for students graduating in 2028 in maths, physics, engineering or a similar subject. The form asks for your graduation year (2026, 2027 or 2028) and whether you need visa sponsorship to work in the Netherlands.

The posting sets out the 8 weeks:

• Weeks 1 to 2: theory classes.
• Weeks 3 to 4: simulated trading sessions.
• Week 5: intensive programming training for quantitative analysis.
• Weeks 6 to 8: projects that put the first five weeks into practice.

Da Vinci's March 2026 sign-up page described the programme as option theory, market simulations and real-world research projects. If you do well, you can get a full-time offer as a quant trader or quant researcher after you graduate.

Da Vinci also has part-time roles for students based in the Netherlands. As of September 2026 the Graduate Trader posting says it is not offering places to write a thesis.

Graduate roles

As of 5 November 2026 the jobs board lists three graduate roles:

• Graduate Trader, Amsterdam. You trade volatility through position taking and market making. It asks for a technical degree such as maths, physics, engineering, econometrics or quant finance, and real or simulated trading experience is a plus.
• Graduate Quant, Amsterdam and Miami. The Amsterdam posting splits the work into Quant Trader, Quant Researcher and Quant Developer tracks by your background, and asks for Python, MATLAB, R or C++. The Miami posting includes a training period in Amsterdam.
• Graduate Trading Risk Analyst, Amsterdam. For current or recent Bachelor's or Master's students in econometrics or similar.

Know which trading job you want before you apply. Da Vinci says a Quant Trader works where trading, quantitative algorithms and risk management meet, often improving automated strategies. A Trader typically makes more discretionary decisions.

Training and start dates

Da Vinci prefers graduates to start in groups because training comes first. Classes normally start in March, July and September, and you agree your start date with Da Vinci.

The Amsterdam Graduate Trader and Graduate Quant postings both list theoretical and practical training from an in-house trainer. Da Vinci says the training shows you every area before you specialise.

Da Vinci's FAQ lists three steps: CV submission, assessments and interviews. Interns are judged on the same criteria as full-time hires.

If you would take more than one role, apply for one and list the others in your motivation letter, as the FAQ asks.

The intern posting was first published in July 2023 and last updated in September 2026, so Da Vinci reuses it across cycles. It says review of the first batch starts on Monday 27 July, with no year given, and later applications are still considered. Apply as soon as you are ready.

Sign-up fast track

As of March 2026, the internship sign-up page, aimed at students graduating in 2027, let you take the numerical challenge and go straight to the first interview, skipping the application round.

Numerical quiz

Trader and quant researcher applicants take it. The quiz is mental arithmetic and approximations. Da Vinci gives no example questions and no extra details, because the quiz also tests how you deal with the unexpected.

You get one attempt. If you fail, you cannot reapply for any role that uses the same quiz. Da Vinci's advice is to prepare well and take it only in optimal conditions.

The questions change from time to time, though rarely. Da Vinci names no prep source and says any online practice of fast mental calculation and approximation could help.

AI trading challenge

Intern applicants take an AI trading challenge after the video introduction.

Quant researcher programming challenge

Da Vinci judges it on four things:

• Your understanding of the trading concept.
• Whether the implementation is correct.
• Cross-verification of your results, by intuition or with data.
• The structure of your code.

Successful candidates excel in at least one and meet the standard in the rest.

Software engineer coding challenge

Da Vinci wants either developers with financial-industry experience, or developers without it who see that a task has hidden requirements, ask the right questions and give efficient, practical solutions.

For interns, two stages follow the AI trading challenge: an online technical discussion, then onsite final assessments.

Options are Da Vinci's main product and the Graduate Trader role trades volatility. Know how an option's price moves when volatility changes before you interview.

The graduate postings list what Da Vinci looks for, so be ready to show it:

• Graduate Trader: decisions under pressure, a strong affinity with numbers and a strong interest in trading.
• Graduate Quant: understanding mathematical theory and putting it into practice.
• Graduate Trading Risk Analyst: statistics, probability and financial modelling, plus Python or C++ for data analysis and model development.

Da Vinci's student events have included game theory and market-making entry challenges, maths and logic puzzles and trading case studies, and it planned a dice game tournament for its London brunch.

Discover Da Vinci Days

A three-day in-house event at the Amsterdam office for a closer look at trading. As of 29 October 2026 the date is still to be confirmed.

Dice game tournament in London

For its London networking brunch on 25 October 2026, Da Vinci planned a tournament of its dice game, with the winners invited to visit the Amsterdam office.

Trading Cricket League in India

Entry to the Trading Cricket League at IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi in September 2026 was an online challenge on game theory and market making. Only the top finishers earned a spot.

Netherlands

Battle Royale, on 16 June 2026 at the Amsterdam office, was a competition for teams of four from Dutch study societies: maths and logic puzzles plus office games against Da Vinci staff. Da Vinci also runs in-house days for Dutch university societies, such as a TU Delft day on 27 May built around an interactive case study.

UK and US campuses

Da Vinci's autumn 2026 career fair list covers Michigan, MIT, Chicago and Columbia in the US, and Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College London in the UK. In October 2026 it ran Ace Your Trades workshops with trading games and case studies at Cambridge and at the Oxford Mathematical Institute.

The UK list includes the Oxford Jobs for Mathematicians Fair on 17 November 2026.

Does Da Vinci Trading have a graduate programme?

Yes. As of 5 November 2026 its jobs board lists a Graduate Trader in Amsterdam, a Graduate Quant in Amsterdam and Miami and a Graduate Trading Risk Analyst in Amsterdam. Graduate training classes normally start in March, July and September.

What is the Da Vinci numerical quiz?

A test of mental arithmetic and approximations for trader and quant researcher applicants. Da Vinci gives no example questions, you can take it only once, and a fail rules you out of every role that uses it.

How many interview rounds does Da Vinci have?

For the internship, two stages follow the video introduction and AI trading challenge: an online technical discussion, then onsite final assessments. Full-time applicants interview after the assessments.

Where is the Da Vinci internship?

Amsterdam. It lasts 8 weeks, Da Vinci covers your flights and your stay, and the current posting asks for students graduating in 2028.

What maths does Da Vinci test and ask for?

The numerical quiz is mental arithmetic and approximation. The Graduate Trading Risk Analyst posting asks for a solid grasp of statistics, probability and financial modelling.