Here we study the dynamics of many-body quantum systems using the time-dependent quantum Monte Carlo method where the evolution is described by ensembles of particles and guide waves. The exponential time scaling inherent to the quantum many-body problem is reduced to polynomial-time computation by solving concurrently a set of coupled Schrodinger equations for the guide waves in physical space and a set of first-order equations for the Monte Carlo walkers. We use effective potentials to account for the local and nonlocal quantum correlations in time-varying fields, where for fermionic states an exchange "hole" is introduced explicitly through screened Coulomb potentials. The walker distributions for the ground states of para- and ortho-helium reproduce well the statistical properties, such as the electron-pair density function, of the real atoms. Our predictions for the dipole response and the ionization of an atom exposed to strong ultrashort optical pulse are in good agreement with the exact results.