How to prepare for a PhD interview

Programmes ask for opposite things: a talk on your past research, a pitch for the proposed project, or a summary of a paper they send you. Before you prepare anything, find these six answers, and write back politely to ask about any that are missing:

• Is a presentation required, and on what — your past work, the proposed project, or a supplied paper?
• How many minutes, how many slides, and any format rules?
• When are the slides due, if at all?
• Who is on the panel — the professor who'd hire you, or a committee that isn't hiring you?
• Online or in person? If in person and you'd need a visa, ask for a remote option in writing, in advance.
• How long is the whole interview, and is there a written exercise?

European PhD interviews come in roughly four shapes, and each one scores different things:

• The professor hires you directly (common in Germany outside structured programmes, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, much of Belgium and UK direct entry). One or two rounds of 30–60 minutes, often with only a few days' notice. The person asking is the person deciding, and they know your subfield — project detail carries this one.
• Two gates: a scored panel, then a matching week (EMBL, DKFZ, MDC Berlin, the IMPRS network). Passing the panel is not a position. At DKFZ, offers go to candidates who are successfully matched with a group — so list enough group preferences, or you can pass the panel and still get nothing (and wrongly think you failed).
• One scored committee interview (UK doctoral training partnerships, FWO in Belgium). 20–30 minutes, standard questions, a scoring grid. Your future supervisor may have to leave the room.
• Australia: the interview is close to a formality; the separate scholarship ranking is the real contest.

In panels and committees, the people scoring you often don't work in your subfield. Answer to be understood, not to impress specialists who aren't in the room.

If you prepare nothing else, prepare these, out loud:

• 1. Why do you want to do a PhD? "Passion" can't be checked. A reason that works: you've contributed to projects, but never followed one from start to finish — and you want to own one. Then name the problem you want to own, and what you did that led you to it.
• 2. Why this project, this group, this country? Name one specific problem, tie it to something you actually did, and to something this group published. It's the professor paragraph of your cover letter, said out loud.
• 3. What was your own contribution — what was yours, and what was your supervisor's? This is where most of our students lose marks. Master's projects are usually assigned; the panel wants to hear your thinking, not your protocol.
• 4. "Here's the project — how would you continue it?" It's a design exercise, not a quiz. Prepare three sentences: what you'd measure first, what you'd expect to see, and what would tell you you're wrong.
• 5. Your own work in two minutes, clear enough for someone outside your field.

These come from interview material that institutions such as EMBL, the Francis Crick Institute, Max Planck, Karolinska, TU Delft and UK doctoral programmes publish, and from questions candidates have reported being asked:

• Motivation and fit: Tell us about yourself. What makes you the right applicant for this project? What would you contribute to the group? In two or three sentences, why is this work important?
• Your own research: Describe your Master's thesis and the most relevant results. Why did you choose that method rather than another? What went wrong, and what did you do about it? If you repeated it, what would you change?
• Their project: What are the open questions in this field? Describe a recent paper you enjoyed and how you'd follow it up. If they sent you a paper: summarise it — what would you have done differently?
• Scientific reasoning: How would you approach a problem you've never seen before? What are the assumptions and limits of a method you rely on? How would you design a study to test a given claim?
• Independence: What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are you looking for in a supervisor? If you got negative results for six months, what would you do? Have you supervised or taught anyone?
• Career: What will you do after the PhD? When could you start?

For your own research, answer in order — what you did, how, what you found out — then say which part of the thinking was yours. For "weaknesses" and "teamwork", answer with something that actually happened, not an adjective.

A past-research talk is usually 10–15 minutes, about one slide per minute plus an "about me" slide: who you are · the problem and your key question · how you split it into two or three smaller questions, and which part was yours · the method as a picture with arrows · one results slide per question (the question on top, the answer as the title, one figure, the takeaway) · key takeaways · how it connects to their group · thank you. Put references on the slide they support, not on a reference slide. A proposed-project pitch is about five minutes: the problem, why it matters, how you'd approach it, and what would tell you you're right or wrong. The hard rule is time: never go over, not even by ten seconds. Rehearse with a timer and in front of a friend who asks questions.

Reasoning questions test how you think, not what you've memorised, and interviewers can tell when you're bluffing. Pause for about three seconds before answering — it reads as thinking. When you don't know, use three beats: "Let me think about that for a moment." / "I haven't used that method, but I'd like to learn it." / "What I have worked with instead is —". And if you have a gap on your CV, one plain sentence naming what you did ("Since 2024 I've worked as a research scientist at…") beats an apology.

Day 1: re-read your letter, CV, the advert and the professor's paper you cited; write your three sentences on how you'd continue their project. Day 2: rehearse the five questions aloud — never from a script, because reading from the screen is one of the classic ways to lose. On the day: test the link, camera, mic and light, confirm the time zone, and keep your CV and the advert on a second screen as reference. Arrive with questions of your own, some specific to the project and some like these: Which of your current students could I speak to? What do the first six months look like? How is the lab structured, and how much do people collaborate? What do you expect of your students? One money rule: never raise pay yourself. In Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark a PhD is often a salaried job, so if they bring it up, answer plainly — our resource on how PhD funding in Germany works helps.