Oxford Physics interview

The Oxford Physics interview is a purely academic, tutorial-style conversation. You work through unfamiliar maths and physics problems out loud, while tutors watch how you think, how you use their hints and how you check your answers. Shortlisted candidates usually have three interviews of 20 to 30 minutes on Microsoft Teams: two at their first college and one at a second, randomly assigned college. For 2027 entry they run from 9 to 15 December 2026.

Key facts

What happens in the interview

Oxford describes Physics interviews as "purely academic". Nearly all the time goes on maths and physics problems you won't have seen before, talked through aloud. Tutors may also ask about something in your personal statement. Some colleges test maths and physics in separate interviews, while others mix them in both.

Tutors run it like a mini-tutorial:

• They give a hint when you're stuck, and watch whether you can take it and run with it.
• They push back with questions and ask why.
• They check limits, special cases and units.
• They change a condition ("now add air resistance").
• If you get something straight away, they move on.

It's normal not to finish every problem.

You'll sketch and work on paper or a shared whiteboard, so have paper and a pen beside you. You may be asked to hold your working up to the camera.

What tutors look for

The Physics department's published selection criteria:

• Motivation: a real interest in physics and a strong desire to learn it.
• Mathematical ability: expressing physical ideas using mathematics.
• Reasoning: analysing and solving problems with logical and critical approaches, and running with a hint.
• Physical intuition: seeing how one part of a physical system connects with another, and predicting what will happen.
• Communication: giving precise explanations, both orally and numerically.

How the interview is marked

Oxford Physics tutors mark each interview out of 10. In the department's words, a mark of 6 broadly corresponds to "acceptable" and 7 to "good", and an average interview mark of 8 or higher will likely result in an offer. In the 2025 round, offer-holders averaged 7.95, and about 1% of interviews are scored 10.

Interview marks are combined with your admissions test score and contextual information, and no single interview decides the outcome. Plenty of people who get offers had an interview that didn't go as well as they'd hoped. It's very hard to judge your own interview.

Example questions

These are questions Oxford has published, in the form Toby asks them. Tutors set their own questions, so yours will differ.

Ball pushed upwards

Published by Oxford: sample interview questions

A ball, initially at rest on the ground, is pushed upwards by a constant force for a certain time and then let go. Sketch the ball's velocity as a function of time, from the start until it hits the ground, taking upwards as positive. Talk through each stage as you draw it.

• Why tutors ask it: it shows whether you can turn Newton's second law into the shape of a graph, and read physical meaning from its gradient and area.
• A hint a tutor might give: "Once the hand lets go, which forces are left, and what does that make the acceleration?"
• A strong answer splits the motion into stages, finds the constant acceleration in each, and keeps the velocity continuous at the moment of release.
• A common slip is thinking the ball stops, or starts falling, as soon as the push ends.

Sketching sin x over x

Published by Oxford Physics: mock interview pack

Sketch the graph of y = sin x / x, for both positive and negative x. Talk through your thinking as you build it up.

• Why tutors ask it: it shows whether you can build a sketch from a limit, zeros, symmetry and an envelope, rather than plotting points.
• A hint a tutor might give: "For a small angle in radians, sin x is very nearly x. So what does the fraction come close to near the origin?"
• A strong answer works out what happens at x = 0 before drawing anything, then uses symmetry, the zeros and the curves y = ±1/x to get the shape quickly.
• A common slip is saying the graph is zero or infinite at x = 0.

Banana up a mountain

Published by Oxford Physics: mock interview pack

How high up a mountain could I go having eaten a banana? First, roughly how much energy is in a banana, in joules? Talk through your estimates as you go.

• Why tutors ask it: it shows whether you can turn a vague everyday question into a clean energy estimate, choose sensible numbers and sense-check the answer.
• A hint a tutor might give: "Have you ever looked at the energy on a food label? What units does it use?"
• A strong answer says what it's assuming, questions whether the body turns all of that energy into climbing, and checks the result against a real walk up a real hill.
• A common slip is missing the factor of 1,000 between food Calories and calories.

Practise with Toby

Toby is an AI interviewer that runs practice interviews by voice. The Oxford Physics interview is built from Oxford's own guidance and follows the real format:

• First college: physics. Problems on forces, energy and motion, usually with a sketch or two.
• First college: maths. Maths-led problems: graphs, calculus, series and estimates.
• Second college. One more interview on anything maths or physics, often a harder problem.

It draws on 30 problems, each with hints and follow-ups. Seven are questions Oxford has published, and the rest were written to the same style and level, with every result independently re-derived.

Toby puts the problem on screen, gives you time to think and asks you to talk it through. He gives a hint only when you're stuck, asks why, and changes a condition to see if your reasoning holds. Like a real tutor, he doesn't praise every answer.

You can add your personal statement so Toby can ask about it, and choose a 10, 20 or 30-minute interview. Your prep page has the format, the department's criteria and practice problems with hints and worked solutions. Afterwards, your debrief gives you a mark out of 10 on the department's scale, a score against each criterion, notes on every question and the full transcript. A practice mark is a guide, not a prediction.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Last checked October 2026.

• University of Oxford: Interviews
• University of Oxford: Sample interview questions
• Oxford Physics: How to apply
• Oxford Physics: Interviews
• Oxford Physics: Mock interview pack
• Oxford Physics: Admissions report, December 2025 (hosted by St Hilda's College)

Related interviews

• Oxford Mathematics interview
• Oxford Engineering Science interview
• Cambridge Natural Sciences interview

All Oxford and Cambridge interviews·University admissions

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