(Bloomberg) -- Citadel and its market-making affiliate selected less than 0.3% of applicants for its latest internship program in Sydney, underscoring the competition for a slot at Ken Griffin’s financial powerhouse. 

The 10 interns at the hedge fund firm and Citadel Securities LLC include informatics and math Olympians, and a chess champion. Applications grew 36% from last year, when the companies expanded the global program to include Australia. 

Read more: Citadel Vets 69,000 Intern Applicants to Find Next Math Geniuses

Candidates were selected from schools including the University of New South Wales and University of Melbourne and have backgrounds in areas such as statistics, data science and engineering. The students will start Monday and work in trading, quantitative research and engineering departments during their 10-week stint. 

“We’ve seen a really strong pipeline of candidates,” said Rob Dolton, Asia-Pacific head of options at Citadel Securities. The market maker opened its Sydney office in 2016 and now employs more than 70 people there. 

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