Medium · Probability & Combinatorics · Multiple choice · ~6 min · #61

Best of Three or Win by Two?

Real interview · Susquehanna (SIG), Optiver

You win each point independently with probability $0.6$ . Would you rather play a best of three points, or play until someone is ahead by two points?

Hints · 0 of 2 shown

Worked solution

Give the problem an honest attempt first, then reveal the full explanation.

Reported in interviews

Susquehanna (SIG)Glassdoor interview question
OptiverGlassdoor interview question
Reported as a tennis game at 30-30, which is the win-by-two case (answer 9/13).

Candidate-reported and unverified; the firm may phrase it differently or no longer ask it. The wording here is our own paraphrase, and the solution was written and checked independently of any answers posted at the source.

Concepts

Markov chainsConditioning on pairs

Relevant for

Quant TraderDesk Quant