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Home / Information for applicants / What to expect in your subject / Computer Science & joint schools

Computer Science & joint schools interviews

Thank you for applying to Oxford to study Computer Science or Computer Science & Philosophy.

Congratulations on being shortlisted for Oxford interviews in CS and CS&P. Each CS and CS&P candidate at Hertford will have one online interview in Computer Science lasting around 40 minutes, with CS&P candidates having one additional interview in Philosophy of approximately the same duration.

Each candidate will also be interviewed in at least one other college as part of the admissions process. Most first and second college interviews will take place on Monday 11 December, Tuesday 12 December and some on Wednesday 13 December. Note, admissions are centrally coordinated by the Department of Computer Science and we take into account your collective performance at the interviews (as well as your application as a whole). As part of this centralised process, a few candidates may also be asked to attend additional interviews, and these will take place on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 December.

Computer Science interviews

For the Computer Science interviews, you will be interviewed by two members of our team. We will ask you maths and computer science related questions which will build on concepts that you know but are designed to reach unfamiliar contexts in order to assess your ability to think independently. So, it is natural that for some questions you will most likely not know the answer directly. When this is the case, we would love to hear your approach to the problem and to discuss it together, even if it is not a definite answer or does not lead to a solution.
WATCH A DEMONSTRATION INTERVIEW

Philosophy interviews (for CS&P candidates)

Before your Philosophy interview, you will be given a reading exercise consisting of four or five short questions. These may concern puzzles (e.g. apparent paradoxes), arguments (e.g. asking you to assess whether the logic is correct), or imaginary scenarios to think about (e.g. raising some moral issue). Sometimes there will be a right answer, but mostly we prefer to choose problems to which a number of different approaches may be equally reasonable. This pre-reading is not a ‘test’, and we won’t be giving a mark to your responses to the questions. Rather, its point is to introduce you to topics which we can then discuss in the interview, thus enabling us to cover much more in the limited time available.

The interview will focus mainly on the pre-reading topics, though we might also invite you to discuss something on your personal statement. What we’re looking for is the ability to understand a problem, think carefully and logically about it, explain your thoughts, and respond intelligently to considerations for and against. Whatever view you take, we will raise objections, so don’t take this as a sign that you have made a mistake! Be prepared to argue in defence of your position, but also willing to change position if your realise that it has become indefensible.

Logistics and technology

For Computer Science interviews, the University recommends that you have access to a Miro whiteboard (www.miro.com) and a touchscreen device and stylus to write out scientific/mathematical notation in addition to the device you use to access Microsoft Teams. Take a look at our Online Interviews Technology page to find out more and watch an introductory video. If you have any questions or concerns about the technology set-up, you should email undergraduate.admissions@hertford.ox.ac.uk and we’ll work with you to find alternatives. If you cannot use Miro for whatever reason, that is perfectly fine, you can just use a dark pen and white paper to display your working up to the camera when needed.

Meet some of our interviewing tutors

Dr Andreas Galanis
Tutorial Fellow in Computer Science
Professor Peter Millican
Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy
Professor Carissa Véliz
Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy

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