Valkyrie Trading Interview Guide

Valkyrie Trading's office is at 425 South Financial Place, Suite 3200, Chicago, the only address on the firm's site. Valkyrie marked 15 years in business in September 2026.

Valkyrie calls itself a lean firm that builds its technology from the ground up. Its software engineers build the trading systems in house and improve them daily.

Derivatives traders run the firm's proprietary trading system and are fully responsible for day-to-day PnL and risk. The firm's trader page says a trader's day also includes research to improve the models, risk parameters and strategy, and work on where market making goes next.

Valkyrie describes three teams: developers, traders and quants. It calls the quants a bridge between trading and software, with data science as their main tool.

Junior Derivatives Trader

The role is on-site in Chicago. The posting asks for a degree in mathematics, physics, engineering, computer science or equivalent, plus Python or R programming experience.

As of February 2026, Valkyrie's Boot Camp posting said the firm aims to train its future junior traders to become desk leads quickly.

Junior Software Engineer

The posting asks for clean, efficient code in C++ or C# and experience building complete, multi-threaded server-client applications.

Other roles

As of November 2026 the careers page lists four more open positions, and each asks for prior experience:

• Quantitative Researcher: at least two years of full-time professional experience. Its posting splits researchers into modelling and execution, and modelling researchers design automated market-making and risk-management algorithms.
• Trade Support Engineer: at least two years in a production-support role.
• Derivatives Trader (European Hours): at least a year on an options market-making desk.
• Senior Derivatives Trader: at least four years on a trading desk.

As of November 2026 Valkyrie has no entry-level quant role open. It has posted them before: a summer 2025 Quantitative Researcher Intern role in August 2024, and a Junior Quantitative Researcher role in October 2025 that has since closed.

If quant research is what you want, Valkyrie's campus recruiting interest form lists it as a track, next to trading and software engineering.

Questions on both junior forms

• Your desired start date and how many years of full-time work experience you have.
• The type of work environment you want.
• Your highest degree, earned or expected before you start, and where you studied.
• Why you want to join Valkyrie's team.
• Your expectations for total annual compensation.

Trader form questions

• What you find compelling about financial markets, in 100 words or fewer. The form says to skip the AI and write in your own voice.
• A competitive activity you kept up over time, and how you went about getting better at it.
• Something real you built with your own stakes.
• Any upcoming decision deadlines or active offer timelines Valkyrie should know about.
• An optional unofficial transcript.

Valkyrie says it may use AI tools to help review applications, résumés and written answers. People make the final hiring decisions.

No official online assessment is documented.

Our pick is timed mental maths and logic drills, since the trader posting asks for split-second logical decisions in a high-pressure environment.

Valkyrie does not publish its interview format. Its software engineers interview candidates for their own team, and the Junior Software Engineer posting asks for experience building complete, multi-threaded server-client applications.

For the trader role, the posting asks for split-second logical decisions under pressure and quick recovery from mistakes. Have a story ready for each.

Valkyrie says there is no perfect way to model the financial world, so understanding a system's limits matters as much as building it. Be ready to say where your own models or projects break down.

As of November 2026 no Boot Camp is among the six open positions on Valkyrie's careers page. To hear when a short programme such as a one-week Trading Boot Camp is posted, fill in the form on that page and Valkyrie emails you.

As of February 2026, the May 2026 Boot Camp was set for 18 to 22 May 2026, in person in Chicago, with fully paid flights and housing.

The February 2026 posting described mock trading sessions, trading games and education courses on managing and executing a trading strategy, for students who wanted to learn about options market making. Participants in the May 2026 camp would be considered for future full-time roles.

The February 2026 posting asked for an expected graduation date between December 2026 and December 2027, and the same unrestricted US work authorisation as the junior roles. The May 2025 Boot Camp, posted in October 2024 and set for 19 to 23 May 2025, asked for graduation between December 2025 and December 2026. Both windows started the December after the camp and ran for a year.

In early September 2026 Valkyrie held info sessions at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Pennsylvania, with details on Handshake. In mid-September 2026 it announced campus visits to the University of Michigan, Emory University and Georgia Tech.