In this blog, I would like to share my Ph.D. physics interview experience with the Ph.D. aspiring candidates. I am giving a brief description about my academic achievements and the qualified National examination and its rank on the basis of which I got shortlisted in the Ph.D. interviews at various institute. How they begin the interview and proceed further?

I have cleared GATE-2021 with AIR-52 (Qualified gate 3 times) and on the basis of which I have applied to the various institute in India. First of all, you should be very clear about the research field in which you would like to pursue your work?

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Selected Students (Batch 2023)

Suman Pal

Alankar Singh

Vishnu

Uttara Jagadeesan

Sai SreeLakshmi

Sudhir Upadhyaya

Soumya Jyoti

Ridhika Chhabra

Prembrata Manna

Pooja

Paul boro

Gaurav pant

Dipali gupta

Bhupendra Yadav

Azhar Naseem

Aman Kumbhakar

• IISc Bangalore

In IISc Interview, they have shortlisted the top 100 Gate rankers and they will give you the choice to attend interviews in either theoretical or experimental physics or you can opt for both. So, I opt for both.

As my interview starts the first question was that Give a brief Introduction.

Second is what have you prepared?

Then they come to the physics part. There were some basic questions from quantum mechanics like from Simple harmonic oscillator problem and some solid state physics problem from topics like X-ray diffraction and superconductivity.

They create new problems i.e. the one which among which you never came across. They are checking your approach. The interview duration was around 20 minutes.

• Interview Experience at Various IITs

There are certain ways in which your interview will be conducted. Suppose you choose Condensed matter physics at a particular IIT. Now in most of the IIT’s like Roorkee and Ropar they have the interview panel from that field only. So they are going to ask questions from Condensed Matter physics only. The interview duration was around 20 minutes.

At IIT Guwahati, they asked me questions from Condensed matter physics, Statistical physics, Quantum Mechanics and one or two questions from classical mechanics. The interview duration was 30 minutes.

At IIT Hyderabad there were very few (3-4) positions on the basis of GATE. They take most of the students who have qualified JRF exam. They also asked me to draw the curve. Some question from statistical physics and some from quantum mechanics.

At IIT BHU, the interview duration was about 15 minutes. They are always going to ask you questions from X-ray diffraction in condensed matter physics.

• Written & Interview Procedure

Few of the IIT’s like IIT Kanpur and IIT Bombay, they take your interview once you qualify the written test. I have given the written test for both the institutes. The written test time duration for IIT-Bombay and IIT-Kanpur was 1 hour and 1 hour 30 minutes. The cutoff for IIT Bombay was quite high.


IIT-BOMBAY-2021-Entrance-Exam


This year IIT Madras they have not taken any written test, but although they asked oral questions and they also have prepared few slides where they ask me to solve the problem on my rough sheet and send them. They ask problem from core subjects like Electromagnetism, Quantum Mechanics and Classical mechanics. This interview duration was around 45 minutes.

• Interview Experience at various Research Institutes

- JNCSAR

At JNCASR, I have applied in the CPMU department where both chemistry and physics students work. The number of seats is not higher. They take from 5-8 students in physics.

They started the interview by asking me what you prepared in condensed matter physics. I tell them superconductivity and they ask me questions from superconductivity. The interview duration was about 20 minutes.

- IISER Bhopal

They started the interview by asking me to introduce and then they ask some questions from my project and then they ask more questions from Condensed matter physics and correlate it with Quantum mechanics. Interview duration was 20 minutes.

- TIFR Hyderabad

It is one of the best interviews that I faced so far. My interview was around 1 hour and 15 minutes. They are professional and decent. They started the interview in the same as the other institutes have done.

To Know more about the questions asked in each interview you can contact me on +91 8447053310 or 8921060139

They correlate my project with electromagnetism and ask me very basic questions. Then they ask me some questions from statistical mechanics and then condensed matter physics. After that they ask me to draw a plot and then they ask me to solve the integration and also they have given me the problem of complex numbers.

Furthermore they have asked some everyday life questions also.

- BARC-HBNI Mumbai

The interview was good. They started the interview from Statistical physics conceptual questions and then they go towards the electromagnetism. Then they go towards the condensed matter physics and one or two questions from nuclear physics. The interview duration was around 30 minutes.

- IISER TVM

They basically ask questions from my project and some basic questions from quantum mechanics also. The interview duration was around 20 minutes.

All the best to the Ph.D. aspiring candidates.