Actuarial interviews usually combine several types of question. You may be asked about your experience, why you want the career and the firm, technical ideas, current developments and how you would behave in a situation.
The important part is recognising what the question is asking for. A strong competency answer needs evidence from something you have done; a technical answer needs clear reasoning; a motivation answer needs reasons that are specific to you and the role.
What kinds of question come up?
| Kind | Sounds like | What a good answer should show |
|---|---|---|
| Competency | "Tell us about a time you spotted a mistake nobody else noticed." | A named behaviour, evidenced from your own past, with a result |
| Motivational | "Why actuarial? Why us? Why this practice area?" | Reasons specific to you that survive one follow-up |
| Technical | "Why is £100 in ten years worth less than £100 today?" | Intuition, explained in plain words |
| Commercial | "What is happening in this market right now?" | That you have researched the market and can discuss it |
| Strengths | "What kind of task makes you lose track of time?" | Something you do well and enjoy, answered quickly and honestly |
The balance varies by employer. Some interviews are heavily focused on competencies and motivation, while others include more technical reasoning or live numerical questions. Check the employer's own process and recent candidate information, but prepare across all five categories.
Competency: how do you use STAR properly?
STAR is Situation, Task, Action, Result. One or two sentences of context, one on what needed doing, the bulk on what you did (first person singular), then the result.
A common weakness is spending too long on the context and not enough time on what you personally did and what happened as a result. Finish with the outcome, a number where you have one, and a line on what you took from it.
Two questions worth rehearsing:
- "Describe a time you spotted an error nobody else had noticed." Name the checking habit that caught it, say what you did even though flagging it was awkward, give the outcome, and close with what you changed afterwards.
- "Tell us about a deadline you nearly missed." A strong answer usually shows that you recognised the risk, prioritised the work and communicated early rather than simply working longer hours at the last minute.
Your examples do not need to come from work. WTW's recruiters say university projects, part-time jobs, volunteering and sports teams all count. Build a bank of six to eight stories, map each to the competencies the employer names, and practise delivering each in 90–120 seconds. That length also suits a recorded video interview, where each answer has a fixed time slot.
Motivational: why actuarial, and why us?
A good answer should explain why the combination of work appeals to you personally. That might include quantitative problem-solving, long-term financial risk, professional qualification, communication, client work or the particular practice area.
Support the reasons with something you have actually done or researched rather than relying on "I like maths and problem-solving", which is true of every numerate career.
Prepare the harder version too: "why train as an actuary rather than go into data science?" It is the same material and a much better test of whether you mean it.
For "why us", name checkable specifics: the practice areas the office serves, a recent deal, something the firm published. A specific that is wrong is worse than none. And get the name right. Lloyd's of London is an insurance market; Lloyds Banking Group is a bank.
Motivational: why this practice area?
Name one current development, date it, and connect it to the work you would do. The table below shows the type of thing to know rather than the figure to quote, because the figures move.
| Practice area | What the answer needs |
|---|---|
| Pensions | Understand buy-ins and buy-outs and know one current development affecting DB schemes |
| General insurance | Know what Lloyd's is and be able to discuss one current pricing, claims or market-cycle development |
| Life insurance | Understand the bulk annuity market and know one recent development or result |
| Investments | Understand LDI and be able to explain the significance of a current rates or market development |
Attach the year and the source to any figure you quote, and check it shortly before the interview. The practice-area courses and the members' interview cheatsheets carry current figures and are dated deliberately.
Technical: how much maths do they expect?
Graduate technical questions are often designed to test whether you can reason through a basic actuarial idea and explain it clearly. These examples are illustrative rather than a list to memorise.
- "Explain to a non-mathematician why £100 in ten years is worth less than £100 today." £100 today can be put to work, so by the ten-year mark it has grown into more than £100. A promise of £100 in ten years is therefore worth only the smaller amount you would set aside today to grow into it, and prices rise over ten years too. No "discount rate", no "present value": if you can only answer with the vocabulary, you have not answered.
- "Roughly how would you price one-year term assurance for a healthy 30-year-old?" Probability of dying in the year times the sum assured, with the mortality number stated as an assumption. Discount it slightly, because the premium arrives up front and any claim is paid later in the year. Then load expenses and a margin for risk and profit.
- "What is a reserve?" In life insurance, a simplified reserve can be thought of as the present value of future policy benefits and expenses less future premiums, under chosen assumptions. General insurance reserving means something different, so say which context you are answering in. The follow-up is usually about the assumptions, so name them before you are asked.
- "Claims came in above the reserves held. What went wrong?" Reserves are assumptions and claims are experience, so the gap is wherever experience beat the assumptions. Then two or three named examples: claims inflation ran hotter than assumed, mortality or claim frequency was worse than the tables, the data was incomplete, a one-off event landed.
Strengths: can you prepare?
Partly. Lloyd's runs a strengths-based process throughout, and Aviva's video stage is strengths-based. The working definition is narrow: a strength is something you do well and enjoy doing. Questions come fast and scenario-shaped: what kind of task makes you lose track of time; what would a friend say you are the person to call for.
A rehearsed STAR story hurts here, because the format rewards speed and honesty. What you can do is the self-audit beforehand: list what you genuinely do well and enjoy, with one example each, and learn the firm's values so you can describe your strengths in their vocabulary. Try to answer consistently across stages rather than adopting a different persona for an online assessment and a live interview.
What happens at an assessment centre?
Several exercises and several assessors. These are the 2026-cycle formats, so check each firm's own page for the current one.
| Employer | The day, as documented |
|---|---|
| LCP | In person with your chosen department: two interviews plus a group exercise, with feedback afterwards |
| Hymans Robertson | Individual rather than group: a one-hour interview with two actuaries, a supervised numerical and written assessment of about an hour and a half, and an office tour with a current graduate |
| Lloyd's of London | Candidate briefing, then a group exercise, a 1:1 strengths-based interview and an analysis exercise, with current graduates around on the day |
| Mercer | Linked tasks: a presentation prepared in advance, an individual case-study and document-analysis task, then a final interview where the assessment-centre observations are fed back |
Four things to prepare for.
- The group exercise. One good point plus one deliberate act of inclusion, bringing in a quiet member or watching the clock, is worth more than dominating the table.
- The written exercise is the most job-realistic thing on the day. Explaining a technical result to a trustee in plain English is what is being looked at, and jargon works against you.
- A supervised numerical test may cover similar ground to the online one. That is one reason to sit your own online tests from the start.
- Treat informal parts of the day professionally as well. You may meet current graduates and other members of the team outside the formally assessed exercises.
What should you ask them?
Prepare two or three questions that genuinely help you understand the role.
Good areas include:
- what graduates work on in their first year;
- how rotations or team allocation work;
- what distinguishes strong performers;
- study support, including funded attempts, study days and what happens after a failed sitting;
- current challenges facing the team;
- how the role differs from similar teams elsewhere.
Keep salary ranges for the recruiter conversation rather than the technical round.
Want to practise?
The Become an Actuary course covers interview preparation alongside the rest of the recruitment process. Members can also use the practice-area interview cheatsheets, and mock interviews are available separately if you want feedback on your own answers.
Explore interview preparation → · View interview cheatsheets →