Learning by building: Inside Optiver’s Software Engineering Internship Many internships promise “real impact.” Few actually deliver it. During their first weeks at Optiver, software engineering interns are introduced to the systems, teams, and problems they’ll be contributing to. They quickly begin building, with some shipping a lightweight release as early as week 2 or 3. Across our global offices, interns spend their time doing what engineers actually do: designing systems, writing production code, learning from each other’s work, and shipping releases on applications that directly impact our trading and research stacks. It’s not a shadowing experience, and it’s not a simulated exercise. Interns are embedded into teams, trusted with real responsibility, and supported by experienced engineers who treat learning as a shared process. From Austin to Chicago, Amsterdam to Sydney and beyond, the internship experience is grounded in a strong education culture where learning happens fast. A global program, one shared philosophy While the technical challenges and markets differ by location, interns across regions are given the same opportunity to contribute to production systems and learn how quantitative development applies to real trading challenges. Interns work closely with engineers, quantitative researchers, and traders, asking questions freely, receiving fast feedback, and iterating quickly. The expectation isn’t that interns arrive knowing everything, but that they’re curious, thoughtful, and willing to engage deeply with complex problems. To understand how this plays out in practice, we spoke with interns across our global offices about what they built and how they grew. What does it really mean to be a software engineer intern at Optiver? What stands out most about the internship is the scope of the work. Intern projects are built around real engineering needs, often tied directly to trading performance, system reliability, or research infrastructure. In Austin, Jerry worked with the D1 Execution Production Environment team to build an application that allows auto-traders to be tested within a framework that closely represents realistic conditions. His work made feature development and debugging significantly easier across teams, ultimately improving trading uptime. “It was really gratifying to see my contributions make a tangible impact so quickly,” Jerry says. “The feedback loops were fast, and I could see how the work fit into the bigger picture.” “Seeing my changes go live was a huge moment. It made the scale and responsibility of the role very real.” In Chicago, Khloe joined the Automated Trading Systems team, where she built a system to prioritize financial instruments with the highest opportunity for trading on FPGA hardware. Her work went into production toward the end of her internship, contributing to improved trading success rates and laying the groundwork for future research. “Seeing my changes go live was a huge moment,” she shares. “It made the scale and responsibility of the role very real.” In Amsterdam, Ciprian developed a simulator tool that mirrors Optiver’s datacenter network, allowing teams to test tools before deploying them to physical hardware. The project helped prevent incidents before they could occur and attracted interest from multiple teams across the firm. “It wasn’t just an exercise,” Ciprian explains. “People across different teams were invested in seeing the project take shape because it solved a real problem for the business while teaching real skills.” In Sydney, Madison worked on the Korea market-facing team, developing an alerting framework that enables traders and researchers to create custom validations within pricing models. She owned the project end-to-end, from design through deployment, identifying past incidents the framework would have prevented. “I had full ownership, but also constant support. Throughout the project, I had weekly check-ins with my mentor, who provided the guidance I needed so I could continue working autonomously,” Madison says. “Those sessions were instrumental in helping me improve rapidly over the course of the internship.” In Shanghai, Victor contributed to Optiver’s globalization strategy by enabling support for a new raw market data format in a back-testing application. His work required collaboration across teams and offices, and ultimately became part of a system that directly supports trading decisions. “What made this project particularly rewarding was the collaboration it required,” Victor says. “I worked closely with colleagues across different teams and offices, which gave me exposure to diverse perspectives and approaches. Seeing my work integrated into a system that directly supports trading gave me a strong sense of impact, even as an intern.” “My mentor gave me the autonomy to generate ideas, work directly with traders, and make independent decisions about what to implement.” In Mumbai, Harshit worked on improving firm-wide