Every July, a few days after the John Locke Institute publishes its shortlist, a second email arrives for some of the shortlisted students: an invitation to an online interview. It is the part of the competition that nobody prepares for, because almost nobody writes about it. This guide sets out what the Institute has said, what entrants have reported, and how we brief our own shortlisted students. Last checked against the official competition page: September 27, 2026.
What the Institute says about the interview
The official competition page contains one sentence on the subject: "As one of several measures to protect the academic integrity of the Global Essay Prize, some candidates will be invited to participate in an online interview." Two things follow from that wording. The interview is an integrity measure, not an extra round of judging, and it is selective: "some candidates", not all.
The same page describes the other integrity measures. Every entrant names an academic referee, usually a teacher, and the Institute emails referees to "verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the contestants." The AI policy sits alongside: large language models may be used "for research support and as a thought partner", but heavy reliance will be judged unfavourably and the Institute reserves the right to make case-by-case judgements.
So the interview is one of three checks, with the referee email and the AI assessment, that sit between the shortlist in July and the confirmation of awards in the autumn.
Who gets invited
The Institute does not publish its selection method. From the invitations we have seen described by entrants on forums such as The Student Room and Reddit since the 2023 cycle, and from the wording "some candidates", the reasonable reading is this:
Invitations go to shortlisted entrants: , not to the whole field. The shortlist is the pool from which prizes and commendations are drawn, so it is the pool worth verifying.
Not being invited is not a signal: Most shortlisted students are never interviewed and go on to receive commendations and prizes without one.
Being invited is not an accusation: A sample of essays is checked as a matter of routine; a strong essay by a young author is, if anything, more likely to be sampled, because it is the kind of essay whose authorship is worth confirming.
We tell every shortlisted family in July to expect the possibility and to treat an invitation as good news: it means the essay is under serious consideration.
What the interview is like
Entrants describe a short video call with one or two people from the Institute, conducted in English, focused entirely on the essay the student submitted. The reported questions cluster into four kinds:
Why this question: How the student chose the category and the prompt, and what they read first.
How the argument was built: The thesis in the student's own words, the structure, and the strongest objection they considered.
The sources: What a particular cited work argues, where the student found it, and why it was used at that point in the essay.
The process: Who read drafts, what feedback was given, what changed between drafts, and whether any tools were used.
None of that is difficult for a student who wrote the essay. All of it is very difficult for a student who did not, which is the point. The interview is not a viva on the subject; nobody is asked to defend Kant's ethics in general. It is a conversation about one document that the student knows better than anyone in the room.
What the interview is not
It is not a test of English fluency for non-native speakers, and it is not a presentation. Students do not prepare slides or a speech. It is not scored against the essay criteria; the essay has already been read and ranked by that point. And it is not, as far as any entrant has reported, adversarial in tone.
It is also not the "English test" that some third-party sites describe. The official competition page does not mention any language test, and none of the entrants who have described their interviews mention one. If you see that claim, check it against the Institute's own page before acting on it.
How to prepare, in an afternoon
Because the interview is about your own essay, preparation is short and specific. We ask our students to do the following in the week after the shortlist email, whether or not an invitation has arrived:
Reread the essay twice: , once for the argument and once for the sources. It was submitted six weeks earlier and details fade.
Reconstruct the argument aloud without notes: Thesis, three main moves, the objection, the reply, in under two minutes. If you cannot, practise until you can.
Reopen every source you cited: For each one, be able to say what it argues, which part you used, and why. If you cited a work from a secondary summary, read the original section now.
Prepare an honest account of the help you had: Teacher and tutor feedback on drafts is normal and permitted, and there is no reason to hide it. Say who read it, what they said, and what you changed. If you used an AI tool for research or as a thought partner, say so plainly and describe how; the Institute's own policy allows it. What the interview is designed to catch is authorship, not assistance.
Check the practical side: A quiet room, a stable connection, a copy of the essay open beside you, and your reading list to hand.
Students on our John Locke Essay Competition prep programmes do a mock version of this conversation with their mentor before submission, because the discipline of explaining an argument aloud improves the essay as well as the interview.
What happens afterwards
Nothing is announced individually. The interview feeds into the confirmation of the shortlist and the award tiers, which the Institute publishes in the autumn ahead of the academic conference and awards dinner (October 2 to 4 in London for the 2026 cycle). Entrants who are interviewed receive their results on the same timetable as everyone else.
Frequently asked questions
Does everyone who is shortlisted get an interview?
No. The official wording is "some candidates will be invited", and most shortlisted entrants report never being interviewed. Selection appears to be a sample of the shortlist rather than a response to any concern about a particular essay.
Can you fail the John Locke interview?
The Institute does not describe outcomes, but the purpose is to confirm that the essay is the student's own work. A student who wrote their essay and can talk about it has nothing to fail. An essay that the student cannot explain, or that was substantially written by someone else, is the case the process exists to identify.
Is it a problem that a tutor or teacher helped with my essay?
No. Feedback on drafts from teachers, tutors or parents is a normal part of academic writing and is not prohibited. The distinction the Institute draws is between help with your writing and someone else writing it. Be straightforward about who read your drafts and what changed as a result.
I used ChatGPT for research. Should I say so?
Yes. The competition rules permit AI "for research support and as a thought partner", and an honest description of how you used it is far better than a denial that a follow-up question could undo. What the rules warn against is writing that reads as generated, which is a judging matter, not an interview one.
When do interviews happen?
Between the shortlist notification (July 7 in the 2026 cycle) and the confirmation of awards ahead of the autumn conference. Invitations arrive by email to the address used at registration, so check that inbox, including spam, through July and August.
More John Locke guides
The complete guide to the John Locke Essay Competition covers the rules, categories, judging and prizes in one place. Our John Locke Essay Competition prep page compares all four programmes and carries the 2026 results. For dates, see the deadline and timeline page for 2027; for the standard the judges apply, read our analysis of the seven published winning essays; and for each subject, the category question pages set out every 2026 question with reading lists.