TL;DR
The Mutilated Chessboard: A canonical quantitative trading interview question at foundation difficulty. Commonly asked at Jane Street, SIG, Optiver.
By Valenke Exam Prep Team·Last updated 2026-06-01
foundationClever Arguments
The Mutilated Chessboard
Asked at: Jane Street, SIG, Optiver
Problem
A standard 8×8 chessboard has two diagonally opposite corners removed, leaving 62 squares. Can you tile the remaining board perfectly with 31 dominoes (each covering exactly 2 adjacent squares)?
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