Tower Research Capital hires quantitative traders and researchers as interns and graduates for its trading teams. Many trader candidates take a written test first, then technical video interviews with members of a trading team, and the last round takes place in person at a Tower office. This guide covers each stage of the interview process and how to prepare.
- Written test
Many trader candidates report a test before the interviews, on probability, coding and maths. In London, research candidates take it in person at Tower’s office. - Video interviews
The first interviews are technical video calls with members of the trading team, on probability, statistics and your own projects. - Final round
The last round is in person at a Tower office, with several interviews like the video rounds. - One team at a time
Tower’s trading teams work independently, and candidates for research and developer roles describe processes that differ from team to team.
Practice
Our Full Math Test trains the mental maths in Tower’s test, and our Probability Betting Game trains quick probability and expected value. Below are the Tower questions in our question bank:
Table of Contents
Tower Research Capital 2027 internships and graduate roles
Tower runs its trading through independent teams on a shared platform, and its campus postings are for those teams. Each office group has its own postings:
- New York and Chicago
Tower posted the Quantitative Trader/Researcher Intern for summer 2027 and a Quantitative Trader/Researcher role for 2027 graduates on 5 July 2026. The internship is for bachelor’s, master’s and PhD students in computer science, maths, physics, electrical engineering or a related field; the graduate role asks for 0 to 2 years of experience. - PhD students in New York
A separate Quantitative Trader Intern posting for PhD students, also posted on 5 July 2026, offers either 4 to 6 months or a 10-week summer. - London
Tower posted TACTIC, its new rotational internship for summer 2027, and a six-month graduate programme for 2027 graduates on 1 September 2026. The graduate programme is run by one trading team and asks for a master’s or PhD. - Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney
One Quantitative Researcher internship posting covers all four offices, and you select the offices you would like on the form. You choose between 3 to 6 months and 8 to 10 weeks. Despite the research title, the work is designing trading algorithms, as in the US trader internship. A version for PhD students and postdocs went up at the same time, around 1 September 2026. - India (Gift City)
Tower listed a Junior Execution Trader role and a Junior Execution Trader Intern in July and August 2026, and an intern role supervising its automated trading during Asian market hours from September 2026.
None of the 2027 campus postings states a deadline.
TACTIC, the London internship
TACTIC stands for Trading, Algorithmic Computing, & Theory Internship Class, and summer 2027 is its first class. It starts with two weeks of structured learning with the other interns, after which you rotate across two trading teams, with a mentor in each, working on high- or mid-frequency trading algorithms.
- Who can apply
The posting is aimed at penultimate-year students, though one line also mentions final-year students, and Tower’s internships page lists TACTIC for 2028 graduates. If you graduate in 2027, the six-month London graduate programme is the role written for you. - Skills
The posting asks for a strong background in Python and/or C++ and a quantitative degree such as maths, statistics, physics, computer science or financial engineering.
What changed this cycle
- US internship
The title changed from Quantitative Trader Intern to Quantitative Trader/Researcher Intern, Chicago was added next to New York, and the weekly pay range went up from $3,000-5,000 to $3,500-5,700. - London
TACTIC is new for 2027. - Timing
The US trader internship went up in early July again: the 2025 and 2026 internships were listed in early July 2024 and 2025.
Tower’s current openings are listed on our Tower Research Capital company page.
What Tower Research pays
The US internship posting states: “Anticipated New York and Chicago weekly base salary range $3,500-5,700.” It also lists housing, free breakfast and lunch, and mentors from your own university.
- PhD interns in New York
The posting gives the same weekly range, without a housing line. - Graduates in New York and Chicago
The posting states an annual base salary range of $150,000 – $250,000, plus a discretionary bonus, the same range as in the 2025 posting. - London, Asia and Gift City
The postings give no figure.
The candidate profile
- Degree level
Tower recruits interns at every degree level, from undergraduates to PhDs. - Finance
Tower’s internships page answers “Not necessarily” to the question whether you need to know finance; many of its quants come from maths, physics, computer science or engineering. - Coding
The US posting asks for an object-oriented language, with C++ and Python preferred, and working knowledge of Linux. Teaching assistant experience and maths or programming olympiads count in your favour. - Projects
Tower’s article on quant internships singles out candidates who can point to something they shipped, such as a backtester or an analytics tool.
Overview of the Tower Research interview process
Every candidate applies online. Many trader candidates then take a written test; after that come technical video interviews with members of a trading team, and a final round at a Tower office. The usual pattern is:
- Online application
You apply online with a short form. - Written test
It mixes probability, coding and maths, and London research candidates take it at the office. - Video interviews
You have technical interviews with members of the trading team. - Final round
You have several more interviews in person at a Tower office.
The number of rounds varies. Trader candidates have reported two video interviews (a New York intern candidate, October 2025) and five video rounds (2024), and a research candidate counted ten rounds in total.
How long it takes
- After applying
Expect to wait. US trader intern applicants reported weeks without news in August 2026, and London applicants in October 2026. - First interviews
For the US summer 2027 internship, posted in July 2026, a candidate had a first interview in August 2026. - Between rounds
Once you are in the process, rounds can follow quickly: a research intern candidate had one or two days between rounds, while the decision after the final round took longer for another.
Apply early and keep your other applications going.
Stage 1: Tower Research online application
The form is short.
- United States
The form asks for your university, majors, preferred programming languages, US work authorisation and sponsorship, and whether you already hold an offer and its decision deadline. - London
The form asks whether you need a visa for London and whether you have other offers, final-stage interviews or deadlines, and the CV is optional. - Asia
You select your preferred offices among Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Sydney, and answer work-pass questions for each country.
Tower also meets students at career fairs and information sessions, and its internships page lets you sign up for news of its next campus visit. Its Limestone trading team runs a one-day data challenge for teams of two, which Tower uses for recruiting, at IIT Bombay and, since spring 2026, at MIT.
Stage 2: the Tower Research written test
Many trader candidates report a written test before the interviews, but its format differs between reports, and some trader candidates describe only interviews.
- Online test with mental maths
A trader candidate reported in September 2026 an online test of probability, coding and mental maths. - Test with machine learning
A Quantitative Trader/Researcher candidate reported in August 2026 a 75-minute test of probability, statistics and machine learning questions, ending with a data task: clean a dataset and predict a variable. - On-site coding test
A trader intern candidate reported in April 2026 a 2-hour coding test at the office, followed by an interview with a team member.
The test in London
In London, candidates take the test in person at Tower’s office, on Tower’s computers. The London reports come from quantitative research candidates.
- Length
Two candidates, in October 2025 and September 2026, describe a 2-hour test. - Content
It mixes Python coding with maths and probability. A candidate reported in July 2026 five questions: Python basics, a LeetCode medium problem, a pandas task, a multivariable calculus question and a probability question. - Platform
A candidate reported in October 2026 a proctored HackerRank test, taken in person, followed by video interviews and an on-site day.
In France, a research candidate reported a two-hour on-site test in June 2026, followed by two technical interviews. HackerRank is the only test platform that Tower candidates name, in reports from research, developer and machine learning candidates.
Practice
Our Full Math Test trains mental maths against the clock.
Our interview question bank has probability questions and programming questions to train for the rest of the test.
Stage 3: Tower Research video interviews
The first interviews are technical video calls with members of the trading team, often researchers.
- Probability and statistics
Every trader report includes probability, in the test or the interviews. Candidates also report statistics, linear regression and machine learning. - Your projects
Expect questions on your CV, your projects and any earlier internship. - Market making
A trader candidate reported market making questions in September 2026. - Team lead
After two technical interviews with researchers, a trader candidate had a conversation with the team lead in September 2026 about their background, motivation, research experience and how they approach problems. - Example question
A US trader intern candidate was asked in October 2025 whether Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm still gives the right answer if a path’s length is the bitwise XOR of its edge weights instead of their sum.
The interviews can also include puzzles: a US trader intern candidate reported “algorithmic flavored puzzles” in October 2025.
Stage 4: Tower Research final round
The last round takes place in person at a Tower office.
- Trader candidates
A candidate reported in September 2026 several in-person rounds at the office, similar to the video rounds before them. - Research candidates
A research candidate reported in October 2026 four back-to-back interviews on site after three one-to-one calls. - After the final round
A research intern candidate heard back quickly after each round, but waited longer for the decision after the final one.
Tower hires interns with a full-time role in mind: a US research intern candidate was asked in 2025 whether they could graduate after the internship, and Tower’s internships page features six former interns who returned full time.
Tower Research in India
Tower hires in Gurugram and Gift City, and Indian students meet it mostly through campus drives and competitions.
- Gift City trading roles
The 2027 intern role supervises Tower’s automated trading during Asian market hours, assesses live trading for risk and compliance, and works morning and evening shifts. The posting asks for 0 to 2 years in trading or trade support, with SQL, Python and Linux preferred. - Campus tests
A candidate in India for a research and development internship described a 1.5 to 2-hour online test with a coding section of medium competitive programming questions. - Campus interviews
The same candidate had three rounds mixing probability, puzzles, computer architecture and some competitive programming, written as pseudocode. Computer architecture and systems questions also appear in another report from India.
How to prepare for Tower Research
Tower’s own article for prospective employees recommends going deep in your track with strong fundamentals in probability, statistics, algorithms and coding. The reports point the same way:
- Probability
It comes up in every trader report, so work through probability and expected value questions until you can solve them out loud. - Statistics and machine learning
Revise linear regression, regularisation and the basics of machine learning: candidates were asked about L1 and L2 regularisation and linear regression. - Coding
Practise Python, including pandas, and standard algorithm problems; the US posting prefers C++ and Python. - Mental maths
One trader candidate’s test included mental maths. - Your projects
Be ready to explain your projects in detail, and if you have built something such as a backtester, put it on your CV.
Our interview question bank has probability and statistics questions and programming questions for each part, and our Interview Questions Trainer puts them against a timer.
For the statistics and machine learning questions, our Machine Learning course has lessons on linear regression, regularization with ridge, lasso and elastic net, random forests and gradient boosting, and one on Python for machine learning with NumPy and pandas.
Practice
Our Full Math Test trains fast arithmetic and our Probability Betting Game trains quick probability and expected value.
FAQ
Who founded Tower Research Capital?
Mark Gorton founded Tower Research Capital in 1998 and has been its Chairman since 2019. Albert An has been Chief Executive Officer since 2019.
What is Tower Research TACTIC?
TACTIC (Trading, Algorithmic Computing, & Theory Internship Class) is Tower’s rotational trading internship in London, launched for summer 2027. It starts with two weeks of structured learning with the other interns, after which you rotate across two trading teams.
Where does Tower Research hire interns?
For 2027, Tower’s trader and researcher internships are in New York and Chicago, London (TACTIC), and Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney, with trading intern roles in Gift City in India.
When does Tower Research open its internships?
For summer 2027, the US internships went up on 5 July 2026, and the London and Asian internships around 1 September 2026. None of the postings states a deadline.
How much do Tower Research interns make?
The US trader internship posting states a weekly base salary range of $3,500-5,700 in New York and Chicago, with housing. The London and Asian postings give no figure.
What is the salary of a quantitative trader at Tower Research?
For 2027 graduates in New York and Chicago, the posting states an annual base salary range of $150,000 – $250,000, plus a discretionary bonus. The London graduate programme’s posting gives no figure.
Do you need to know finance to work at Tower Research?
Not necessarily: Tower’s internships page answers the question this way, and many of its quants come from maths, physics, computer science or engineering.
Does Tower Research only hire PhDs?
No. Tower hires at bachelor’s, master’s and PhD level, and recruits interns at every degree level.
Is the Tower Research online assessment on HackerRank?
HackerRank is the only platform Tower candidates name: research candidates in London took a proctored HackerRank test in person at the office, and developer and machine learning candidates also report HackerRank tests.
How long does the Tower Research process take?
It varies. Many applicants wait weeks before hearing anything, but once you are in the process, rounds can follow within days.