Free practice for the Maven Securities math test
A Maven-style numerical screen: 40 five-choice questions in 6 minutes, with −2 for every wrong answer. Candidates report a bar of about 34 correct; it is not an official cutoff. Arithmetic, fractions, percentages and powers at nine seconds a question. Free, with no signup. The set is fixed: same questions, same order, every time.
40 questions · 6 minutes · multiple choice
+1 per correct answer, −2 per wrong answer, skips are free. Arithmetic, fractions, percentages and powers in a 5-choice format. Candidate-reported practice benchmark: ~34 correct on a reported 40Q / 6-minute format (not an official cutoff). Format and scoring may vary by region, role and recruiting cycle.
What this test is
Maven Securities, the London-based proprietary trading firm, uses a short numerical test in trading hiring. It is commonly reported as 40 questions in 6 minutes with five answer choices each, covering addition and subtraction, two-digit multiplication, fractions, percentages (both directions), decimal arithmetic, and powers or largest-value comparisons. Public prep sources also mention a 50-question open-answer variant. Because the format varies, train the underlying skills rather than memorise one layout.
| Length | 40 questions · 6 minutes (9 seconds per question) |
|---|---|
| Format | Multiple choice (5 options) |
| Scoring | +1 correct · −2 wrong · 0 skipped |
| Practice benchmark | Candidate-reported practice benchmark: ~34 correct on a reported 40Q / 6-minute format (not an official cutoff). Format and scoring may vary by region, role and recruiting cycle. |
| Content | Add/subtract · 2-digit multiply · fractions · percentages · decimals · powers |
Where the six allowed mistakes go
A 34/40 bar leaves room for six errors, and they go quickly. Most candidates lose two or three questions to timeouts at the end, one or two to fraction near-misses, and one to a reversed percentage read too fast. That uses up the allowance without a single hard question. The fix is full-length timed runs until your pace leaves time for the final five questions.
Two drills to prioritise
- Reversed percentages. "12 is what percent of 80?" needs to be as fast as the forward direction. One trick is to rescale to 100 (12/80 = 15/100) instead of dividing decimals under pressure.
- Fraction addition with unlike denominators. The classic distractor adds numerators straight across; another shifts the numerator by one. Knowing the traps helps, and so does instant common-denominator recall for the small denominators (up to 12) these tests use.
Related practice
The full list is on the free tests page.
Questions
What is the Maven Securities math test?
Maven Securities screens trading candidates with a timed numerical test, commonly reported as 40 five-choice questions in 6 minutes covering arithmetic, fractions, percentages and powers. Wrong answers are penalised and the reported bar is around 34 correct. Public prep sources also describe a 50-question open-answer variant, so the exact format varies by role and cycle.
How hard is 34 out of 40?
It allows six misses in total, including questions you run out of time for. At 9 seconds per question, most attempts that fall short run out of time on the last ten questions. Pacing practice matters more than harder math.
What makes the 5-choice format different?
A fifth option cuts blind-guess odds to 20%. With a −2 penalty, a guess has expected value 0.2×(+1) + 0.8×(−2) = −1.4, the worst guessing math of any major firm format. The distractors also sit close to the right answer (off-by-one numerators, misplaced decimals), so an answer that only "looks about right" is often wrong.
What should I drill for the percentages section?
Both directions. Maven-style sets often reverse percentage questions: "12 is what percent of 80" instead of "what is 15% of 80". If you only practise the forward direction, the reversed form costs 5+ seconds each time. Drill fraction↔decimal↔percent conversions until they're instant both ways.
Is this the real Maven test?
No. It is an independent practice reconstruction based on public descriptions. It trains the same skills and timing, but the questions are not Maven's. TradeMind is not affiliated with Maven Securities.
TradeMind is an independent training tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Maven Securities or any other firm mentioned. This simulator is a reconstruction based on publicly available descriptions of trading-firm numerical tests, for practice only. Question content is procedurally generated and does not reproduce actual test material; live assessment formats, question types, and difficulty levels may evolve over time.