Free Interview Resources
Free practice questions, preparation advice, and expert insights for Psychological and Behavioural Sciences interviews at Cambridge.
Real Psychological and Behavioural Sciences interview questions in the style Cambridge asks. Try answering each one aloud before you reveal the hint.
How can you design an experiment to see if something is addictive?
Problem-Solving
Hint
Define addiction operationally before choosing your measure and control group.
How could you design an experiment to see if babies can recognise faces, or if faces are special compared to other objects?
Problem-Solving
Hint
Think about a dependent measure that works before babies can speak, such as looking time or habituation.
You are given a short study extract with graphs of the results. What was the experiment trying to find out, why do the results look like they do, and what criticisms do you have?
Problem-Solving
Hint
Move from aim to method to result to limitation, rather than starting with a conclusion.
Draw a graph of learning against time or stage of life.
Problem-Solving
Hint
State what you mean by learning and whether you expect linear, plateauing or declining change.
How many monkeys would you use in a behavioural experiment, and why?
Problem-Solving
Hint
Balance statistical power, animal welfare, feasibility and what effect size you expect.
Supervision-style interviews with problem-solving and academic discussion, often with two interviewers.
Cambridge interviews usually happen at your first-choice college. Most applicants have two interviews, with some subjects requiring a third at the pooled college. Cambridge interviews tend to involve two interviewers and may include a written assessment or pre-interview task sent on the day.
Interview Invitation
Late Nov
Arrival to Interview
Early Dec
Technical Question
Mid Dec
Decision
Early Jan
Interview Invitation
Late Nov
Arrival to Interview
Early Dec
Technical Question
Mid Dec
Decision
Early Jan
How would you test the difference between butter and 'Utterly Butterly'?
entryHint
Start by defining the difference you are testing: taste, texture, behaviour, memory or preference.
How would you design an experiment to test if a smartphone app reduces anxiety?
midHint
Compare an intervention group with an appropriate control and decide whether self-report alone is enough.
Explain what it means to be conscious.
hardHint
Separate subjective experience from measurable behavioural or neural indicators.
Can we think without language?
midHint
Consider infants, animals, visual imagery and problem-solving before deciding what counts as thought.
To what extent is human behaviour genetically determined?
midHint
Avoid a nature-versus-nurture binary and discuss gene-environment interaction.
What factors influence language acquisition in children?
entryHint
Group influences into biological readiness, social input and learning environment.
What factors influence obedience to authority?
entryHint
Move beyond one famous study and consider situation, identity, culture and perceived legitimacy.
How would you conceptualise an emotion?
hardHint
Decide whether emotion is best described by physiology, appraisal, behaviour, feeling or social function.
Why do you want to study Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Cambridge?
entryHint
Use a specific academic reason tied to PBS breadth, not just a general interest in helping people.
What is it about Psychological and Behavioural Sciences that most excites you?
entryHint
Anchor the answer in one question you have pursued through reading or study.
Summarise a book mentioned in your personal statement and give your opinion of it.
midHint
Do not just summarise; identify the central claim, evidence and one limitation or unresolved question.
Why did you talk about this topic in your personal statement?
midHint
Explain what question the topic raised for you and how your thinking changed after reading more.
Can a thermostat think?
midHint
Define 'think' before deciding whether responsiveness, representation or consciousness is required.
Prove that all swans are white.
hardHint
Notice the problem of induction and what kind of evidence could falsify a universal claim.
Why might a four-year-old's painting of 'a tiger amongst tulips' not look like a tiger even if the child studied a tiger at the zoo and was satisfied with the result?
midHint
Consider perception, memory, motor control, symbolic representation and developmental stage.
If a psychologically ill person commits a crime, are they a criminal?
hardHint
Separate legal responsibility, moral responsibility, diagnosis and public safety.
If you had to give human rights to one of chimpanzees, dogs or elephants, which would you choose?
hardHint
Choose criteria first, such as sentience, autonomy, social complexity or capacity to suffer.
12+ weeks
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4-6 weeks
1-2 weeks
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Useful course overview for applicants who need to articulate the breadth of PBS.
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Further Reading
by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Recommended by Cambridge PBS; useful for developmental cognitive neuroscience and adolescent brain development.
by Edward Bullmore
Recommended by Cambridge PBS; links mental health, neuroscience, immunology and evidence-based argument.
by Antonio Damasio
Recommended by Cambridge PBS; useful for consciousness, selfhood and brain-behaviour debates.
by Daniel Kahneman
Recommended by Cambridge PBS; supports discussion of judgement, bias, decision-making and experimental evidence.
by Oliver Sacks
Recommended by Cambridge PBS; offers accessible case-based routes into neuropsychology and clinical reasoning.
by University of Cambridge
Primary source for 2027 entry requirements, course outline, College availability and applicant statistics.
by Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Tripos, University of Cambridge
Useful for interview style, subject preparation, personal statement advice and reading recommendations.
by University of Cambridge
Primary source for interview dates, format, pre-interview tasks and what interviews assess.
by University of Cambridge
Primary source for College-level assessment requirements that affect PBS applicants at specific Colleges.
by University of Cambridge
Primary source for 2025 PBS applications, offers, acceptances and success rate.