Guides · Updated 3 November 2026

Oxford Physics Interview: Format, Questions and Prep (2026)

Oxford Physics interviews are virtual and focus almost entirely on solving mathematics and physics problems out loud. According to the University of Oxford Department of Physics, shortlisted applicants normally have two interviews at their first college and one interview at a randomly assigned second college, each marked out of 10. The Engineering and Science Admissions Test (ESAT) replaces the PAT and is the primary shortlisting criterion used to select around 500 candidates (around 2.5 per place).

Oxford Physics Admissions: ESAT and Shortlisting

AdmitMock is an AI mock interview app for Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, UCL and US college alumni interviews: an AI interviewer asks the questions out loud, follows up, and shows you what to fix.

Every applicant for Physics or Physics and Philosophy at Oxford must sit the Engineering and Science Admissions Test (ESAT) between 12 and 16 October 2026. The two-hour ESAT replaces the previously used Physics Aptitude Test (PAT), and its syllabus and difficulty level differ from the PAT. However, the Department of Physics states that past PAT resources remain useful when preparing for Oxford interviews.

ESAT registration opens on 1 June 2026 (3pm UK time) and the test booking window runs from 20 July to 28 September 2026 (6pm UK time). All Oxford Physics and Physics and Philosophy applicants must take three modules: Mathematics I, Mathematics II, and Physics.

Oxford Physics receives typically 8 to 10 applicants per place and shortlists around 2.5 candidates per place (around 500 in total). The primary shortlisting criterion is your ESAT score, interpreted alongside contextual data.

How the Virtual Interview Format and Scoring Work

All Oxford Physics interviews are virtual. You can check the broader schedule in our guide to Oxford interview dates. While the Department of Physics coordinates shortlisting and college allocation, the interviews are conducted by college tutors.

After shortlisting, the department may reallocate candidates from over-subscribed to under-subscribed colleges so the ratio of interviewed candidates to places is equalised across colleges. Every shortlisted candidate is also assigned a second college at random.

Your interviews follow a two-college sequence:

- First college interviews: You receive two interview marks out of 10 from your first college. Normally, you have two separate interviews, each marked out of 10. Some colleges hold one long interview or three short interviews and combine the marks into two scores out of 10. Some colleges run separate mathematics and physics interviews, while others combine both subjects in each interview.

- Second college interview: After first college interviews finish, your randomly assigned second college conducts one additional (third) interview, also marked out of 10. If your first college cannot offer you a place, your second college has first refusal.

At the end of the interview process, the department calculates a numerical total score for each candidate from their ESAT score and interview scores, moderated by contextual information. Tutors use this score to place candidates into three bands: Band A (around the top 100 candidates), Band B (around the next 200 candidates), and Band C (candidates ranked below Band B).

Slightly over 200 offers are made each year. By our calculation from the Department of Physics figures, roughly 40% of the around 500 shortlisted candidates receive an offer. Final decisions are made at a joint meeting of all college physics tutors, where any decision not to offer a place to a Band A candidate, or to offer a place to a Band C candidate, must be justified. Because the department coordinates decisions across all colleges, you can receive an offer from any college, including one that did not interview you, or an open pool offer from the department with your college determined in August. Read more about January decisions in our guide to Oxford offers day.

How Physics and Philosophy Interviews Differ

If you apply for the joint school of Physics and Philosophy, the Department of Physics assesses your suitability to study physics in the same way as single honours applicants, with five key differences in the process:

• Targeted college reallocation: Because many colleges do not offer Physics and Philosophy, any reallocation or second-college assignment is restricted to colleges that offer the joint course.
• Additional philosophy interviews: Your first college gives you one or more interviews in Philosophy alongside your physics interviews. Your second college may also conduct further philosophy interviews.
• Physics banding ignores philosophy scores: After interviews, the Department of Physics bands Physics and Philosophy candidates into Bands A, B, and C as if they were straight Physics candidates, ignoring the philosophy interview marks at that stage.
• Option for straight Physics: You will be asked whether you also wish to be considered for straight Physics. Candidates acceptable on physics grounds are offered Physics and Philosophy if acceptable for the joint course, or straight Physics if they opted in and cannot be offered the joint course.
• No open offers: Open pool offers are not made in Physics and Philosophy.

What Tutors Look For and Official Sample Questions

Oxford Physics interviews are purely academic. Tutors assess whether candidates can apply basic principles to unfamiliar situations, formulate problems mathematically, and extract physical consequences from solutions. While there is no formal interview syllabus, knowledge of the entrance test syllabus material is assumed. Tutors may also ask about specific physics or mathematics topics mentioned in your personal statement, rather than wider non-academic interests. For comparison with sister subjects, see our guides to the Oxford Maths interview and the Oxford and Cambridge Engineering interview.

Oxford publishes sample interview questions directly from college tutors. You can browse examples across other degrees in our collection of Oxford interview questions by subject.

In Physics, Professor Jeffrey Tseng (St Edmund Hall) shares this problem: 'A ball, initially at rest, is pushed upwards by a constant force for a certain amount of time. Sketch the velocity of the ball as a function of time, from start to when it hits the ground.'

Professor Tseng explains that this question opens a guided discussion. Tutors want to see how you respond to guidance and self-correct through rigorous thinking rather than guessing. If a student gets the initial sketch right straight away, the tutor moves on to extensions such as satellites, orbits, weightlessness, or dark matter. Here is how to walk through Professor Tseng's problem:

- Phase 1 (0 to t1, upward push): While the constant upward force F acts alongside downward weight mg, the net upward force is F - mg (assuming F > mg). Upward acceleration a1 = (F/m) - g is constant and positive. Starting from rest at v = 0, the velocity-time graph is a straight line with positive gradient a1, reaching peak upward velocity v1 = a1 * t1 at time t1.

- Phase 2 (t1 to t2, free flight to apex): At t1, the pushing force stops and only gravity acts. The acceleration immediately changes to -g. The velocity remains positive but decreases linearly with gradient -g until it crosses the time axis (v = 0) at the apex at time t2.

- Phase 3 (t2 to t3, falling back to the ground): From the apex at t2, the ball accelerates downwards under gravity with the same constant gradient -g, so the straight line continues below the time axis with negative velocity.

- Checking the area under the graph: Because total vertical displacement from the ground back to the ground is zero, the positive triangular area above the time axis (from 0 to t2) must equal the magnitude of the negative triangular area below the time axis (from t2 to impact at t3).

For Physics and Philosophy applicants, Professor Ian Phillips (St Anne's College) shares an official Philosophy question: 'What exactly do you think is involved in blaming someone?'

Professor Phillips notes that tutors are not looking for prior philosophical knowledge or a single right answer. If you propose a simple definition, such as 'for A to blame B, A must think B did something wrong', the tutor will ask you to test it with a counter-example where we think someone did wrong without blaming them, where we blame an inanimate object like a faulty printer, or where we examine whether blame requires an emotional attitude like anger or resentment.

Practice Oxford Physics Interview Questions and Worked Solutions

The four problems below are questions in the Oxford Physics and Physics and Philosophy interview style, written by our team with step-by-step worked derivations so you can practise setting up equations, sketching graphs, and handling follow-up extensions.

Problem 1 (Mechanics and Energy, written by our team): A small block of mass m rests at the top of a fixed, frictionless hemisphere of radius R. It is given an infinitesimally small nudge so that it slides down the surface. At what vertical distance below the top of the hemisphere does the block lose contact with the surface?

Worked solution written by our team:

- Step 1 (Radial equation of motion): Measure the angle theta from the top vertical. Resolving forces radially inwards towards the centre of the hemisphere gives mg * cos(theta) - N = m * v^2 / R, where N is the normal reaction force.

- Step 2 (Conservation of energy): A vertical drop of h = R * (1 - cos(theta)) converts gravitational potential energy into kinetic energy, so mgh = (1/2)mv^2, which gives v^2 = 2gR * (1 - cos(theta)).

- Step 3 (Condition for losing contact): Substitute v^2 into the radial force equation to get N = mg * cos(theta) - 2mg * (1 - cos(theta)) = mg * (3 * cos(theta) - 2). The block leaves the surface when N = 0, giving cos(theta) = 2/3 and a vertical drop h = R * (1 - 2/3) = R / 3.

Problem 2 (Mathematical Sketching for Physics, written by our team): Sketch the curve y(x) = x * exp(-x^2) for all real values of x, finding the exact coordinates of its stationary points and points of inflection.

Worked solution written by our team:

- Step 1 (Symmetry and asymptotic limits): Because y(-x) = -y(x), the function is odd and passes through the origin (0, 0). As x approaches plus or minus infinity, the Gaussian factor exp(-x^2) dominates the linear factor x, so y(x) approaches 0 from above for x > 0 and from below for x < 0.

- Step 2 (First derivative and stationary points): Differentiating by the product rule gives dy/dx = (1 - 2x^2) * exp(-x^2). Setting dy/dx = 0 yields stationary points at x = 1 / sqrt(2) with maximum value y = (1 / sqrt(2)) * e^(-1/2), and at x = -1 / sqrt(2) with minimum value y = -(1 / sqrt(2)) * e^(-1/2).

- Step 3 (Second derivative and inflection points): Differentiating again gives d^2y/dx^2 = 2x * (2x^2 - 3) * exp(-x^2). Setting d^2y/dx^2 = 0 gives three points of inflection at x = 0, x = sqrt(3/2), and x = -sqrt(3/2).

Problem 3 (Circuits and Differential Equations, written by our team): Two identical uncharged capacitors, each of capacitance C, are connected in series with a resistor of resistance R and a battery of constant EMF V0. At time t = 0, the switch is closed. Find the current I(t) in the circuit as a function of time, and determine the total energy dissipated as heat in the resistor after a very long time.

Worked solution written by our team:

- Step 1 (Equivalent capacitance and loop equation): Two identical capacitors C in series have equivalent capacitance C_eq = C / 2. By Kirchhoff's loop rule, when charge q has flowed onto each capacitor, V0 = I * R + q / C_eq = I * R + 2q / C.

- Step 2 (Differential equation for current): Differentiating with respect to time using dq/dt = I gives 0 = R * (dI/dt) + (2 / C) * I, so dI/dt = -2I / (RC). Since the capacitors are initially uncharged, I(0) = V0 / R, which integrates to I(t) = (V0 / R) * exp(-2t / (RC)).

- Step 3 (Energy balance as t approaches infinity): The final charge is Q = C_eq * V0 = C * V0 / 2. The battery does total work W = Q * V0 = (1/2) * C * V0^2, while the capacitors store U = (1/2) * C_eq * V0^2 = (1/4) * C * V0^2, leaving E_heat = W - U = (1/4) * C * V0^2 dissipated in the resistor.

Problem 4 (Physics and Philosophy Bridge Question, written by our team): Suppose two physical theories make the exact same predictions for every possible observation and experiment, but describe completely different underlying realities. Do we have any rational grounds to prefer one theory over the other?

Worked solution written by our team:

- Step 1 (Define empirical equivalence): State clearly that if Theory A and Theory B entail the exact same observational consequences for every possible experiment, no empirical test can ever distinguish between them.

- Step 2 (Compare empiricist and realist responses): An empiricist argues that theories are only instruments for organising observations, so there is no deeper fact to choose between them. A scientific realist argues that we can invoke theoretical virtues such as ontological parsimony (Occam's razor) or mathematical unification.

- Step 3 (Test the criterion): Question whether simplicity is an epistemic guide to truth (why must nature be simple?) or merely a pragmatic convenience for human calculation.

How to Prepare for Your Online Oxford Physics Interview: Study Plan

Below is a structured study schedule written by our team to help you cover the assumed entrance test syllabus and practise thinking out loud before your virtual interviews:

- Stage 1 (Mechanics and PAT Spoken Drills): Review Newton's laws, work-energy conservation, momentum, and circular motion. Because the Department of Physics advises that past PAT resources remain useful for interview prep, solve multi-step mechanics problems out loud while drawing free-body diagrams on camera.

- Stage 2 (Calculus and Curve Sketching): Practise differentiating and integrating products, quotients, exponentials, and trigonometric functions. Sketch unfamiliar composite functions by stating the domain, intercepts, odd or even symmetry, limits at infinity, and stationary points out loud before drawing.

- Stage 3 (Electricity, Circuits, and Fields): Revise electric and magnetic fields, Coulomb's law, and DC circuits with resistors and capacitors. Practise setting up loop equations and checking limiting cases at t = 0 and as t approaches infinity.

- Stage 4 (Waves, Optics, and Thermal Physics): Review wave superposition, standing waves, refractive index, and the ideal gas law. Check the physical dimensions and units on both sides of every final expression you derive.

- Stage 5 (Personal Statement Audit): Re-read your UCAS personal statement line by line. For every physics or maths topic you mentioned, write down one core principle and equation you can explain clearly. If applying for Physics and Philosophy, practise proposing a definition of a familiar concept and testing it against counter-examples.

- Stage 6 (Virtual Mocks and Setup Check): Sit mock sessions online, practising how you respond to hints rather than guessing. Before your interview, check your camera, microphone, and paper or digital writing visibility, then rest.

Practise your interview out loud on AdmitMock.

Practice question

A solid metal sphere and a hollow thin-walled metal cylinder of the same mass M and radius R are released from rest at the top of an inclined plane and roll down without slipping. Which reaches the bottom first?

Example written by our team. The applicant is invented. 'Since both objects roll without slipping and have the same mass M and radius R, they lose the same gravitational potential energy Mgh over a vertical drop h, which splits into translational kinetic energy (1/2)Mv^2 and rotational kinetic energy (1/2)I*omega^2. All the mass of the hollow cylinder sits at the maximum distance R from its axis, so its moment of inertia is larger than the solid sphere's. A larger fraction of the cylinder's energy goes into rotation, so the solid sphere reaches a higher linear speed at every point and wins the race.'

The candidate immediately identifies energy conservation as the cleanest route before getting bogged down in torque equations, compares the mass distribution qualitatively to rank the moments of inertia, and links that physical intuition directly to linear velocity.

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