Emmanuel Macron
After graduating, Macron worked as a financial inspector at the Ministry of Economy before joining Rothschild & Cie bank as an investment banker.
Politically, he was a member of the Socialist Party for three years, before becoming an independent politician in 2009.
The 39-year-old's first roles came under Francois Hollande as a member of his personal staff and later as a minister of economy, industry, and digital affairs under the government of Manuel Valls
Macron is unabashedly centrist in his outlook
Unlike several of his opponents on the left and right, Macron has avoided making pronouncements against Muslim dress codes and is a fierce defender of an open immigration system.
His sober brand of politics, youthful looks, and the implosion of competitor Francois Fillon's campaign have seen him rise to about 27 percent in the polls - enough to secure him a place in the second round
Marine Le Pen
The youngest daughter of far-right stalwart Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine was born in 1968 and followed in her father's ideological footsteps by joining FN at 18.
In the following decades, she practised law while increasing her standing in FN, contesting several regional elections along the way.
She picked up several minor political roles in regional and municipal councils in her early 30s, and her most significant as a member of the European Parliament in 2009.
Her biggest break came after her father stepped down as FN leader in 2010, after which she took over the reins of the party.
In the followings years, Le Pen sought to shed the party's far-right image, distancing herself and the party from her father's Holocaust denial and racist outbursts, eventually expelling him from the party in 2015, making the FN more palatable to French conservatives and a coming generation that had little recollection of far-right rule under the Nazis.
However, while the language has changed, the issues remain largely intact, with Islam, the EU and immigration dominating her platform.
On France's large Muslim minority, Le Pen has been unequivocal
"We do not want to live under the rule or threat of Islamic fundamentalism," she told supporters, further condemning the hijab, prayer rooms in workplaces, the construction of mosques and pork-free options in school lunches.
On the EU, Le Pen has threatened to withdraw France from the eurozone and hold a referendum on the country's continued membership of the bloc.
Unlike her competitors, Le Pen seems unperturbed by a corruption scandal or questions over her ties to Putin's Russia
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