A Cambridge professor has published mock interview questions online in an effort to help prospective students with the infamously daunting interview process.

The questions have been posted on the website I-Want-To-Study-Engineering.org by Prof. Richard Prager from the Department of Engineering. His new site states that it aims to “help you compete for engineering places at top universities”, and is free to access. The questions are designed for students hoping to study engineering, mathematics and physics. The website allows users to login and track their progress, as well as suggesting suitable problems based on past performance.

Prof. Prager, a fellow of Queens’ College, said: “Some schools are more experienced than others at preparing their pupils for competitive engineering entrance interviews”. He hopes that his website will “level the playing field by providing a collection of technical interview questions that everyone can use for practice.”

The questions are based on topics as diverse as goats, pirates, and bungee jumping. 

One challenging example questions reads:

“I have two identical pint glasses. One contains half a pint of orange juice and the other contains half a pint of apple juice. I have a small, calibrated measuring spoon. I take 20 ml from the orange glass, put it in the apple glass and stir well to ensure thorough mixing. I then take 20 ml of the apple/orange mixture, put it in the orange glass and mix it in. Is there more apple in the orange or orange in the apple? Or is there the same amount of orange in the apple juice glass as there is apple in the orange juice glass?”

Prof. Prager commented that, “The exercises on the website are designed to inspire and challenge students. We hope that this will encourage them to consider studying engineering at university.

"By developing their problem-solving skills we can also help them to turn that ambition into a reality."