The invitation arrives with a link, a deadline and no interviewer. You record answers to questions you have not seen, to a camera that will not react to anything you say, and it is over in half an hour. Most applicants prepare for it last and worry about it most.
This guide covers that stage only. The tests around it, numerical and logical reasoning, situational judgement and the game-based ones, are in actuarial online tests: what to expect.
What a recorded interview is
A question appears, as text or as a short video of a recruiter. A preparation clock runs, then a recording clock, and when it ends your answer is submitted whether you have finished the sentence or not.
Criteria Corp's own candidate page, read on 2026-09-10, puts it plainly: an asynchronous interview "has you answer a series of questions over video in your own time and in your own space", and the "interviewer's questions are pre-recorded".
HireVue's candidate walkthrough, read the same day, shows the clocks from the inside: a prep time countdown, a 3 second countdown when recording starts, a response time countdown, a "Done Answering" button if you finish early, and a recording that "will automatically submit after the allotted response time has run out".
Employers use it for volume and for sameness. HireVue's help centre makes the second case: everyone gets the same paper, because "All candidates applying for the same position receive identical interview questions", each given the same time to prepare. Aon's UK graduate programme page, read on 2026-09-10, makes the first: after the video stage "you will be placed on a short list", because "We cannot guarantee places at assessment centres for all candidates due to the volume of strong applicants."
It sits early, which is why it decides so much: stage three of six at Aon, stage three of four at LCP, stage two of four at WTW. Lloyd's published key dates, read on 2026-09-10, ran January 2026 applications to a February strengths assessment, video interviews in March, then an assessment centre in March and April.
The providers, and what each format is
| Provider | The format, from the provider's own pages, read on 2026-09-10 |
|---|---|
| HireVue | An OnDemand interview is "the kind you do without another person at the other end". Three generic practice questions first, which you can "redo as many times as you need" and which "are never uploaded or submitted to anyone". Most assessments carry "between five and eight questions" and run under 20 to 30 minutes, though the candidate FAQ says "set aside 45 minutes". |
| Criteria Corp | An "asynchronous interview", also called one-way or on-demand. A prepare limit then a record limit, "indicated at the beginning of each question". One practice question you "can repeat as many times as you'd like". The recording "can only be reviewed by the selected hiring team at the organization". |
Employers seldom name the provider, which is why so much of what circulates about these stages is folklore. WTW is an exception: its early careers application process page, read on 2026-09-10, lists "Record a video interview" as stage two and says, "We use HireVue Assessments at WTW".
Even a named provider does not fix your format: the employer configures it. HireVue's documentation for the recruiters who build these interviews, read on 2026-09-10, lists what is set per question: "How long the candidate can take to reply", "Whether the candidate can re-record their answer", and "How much think time the candidate is allowed". No list can tell you your own timings; the invitation can, and so can the screens before question one, which HireVue says "indicate how many attempts you will have".
Who marks it is a separate question, and worth being exact about. Both providers sell scoring as an add-on. Criteria's async video interview page offers reviewers who "score responses independently or enable AI scoring using structured rubrics"; HireVue's candidate FAQ says "not all Hirevue interviews have an assessment added". So whether anything automated touches your answer depends on what the employer bought and switched on, and neither publishes a recipe you could game. Some employers just tell you: LCP's graduate programme page, read on 2026-09-10, calls stage three a "short, one-way interview" and adds, "These are reviewed by colleagues in the relevant department, rather than AI."
Treat any pairing list, this one included, as decaying: Barnett Waddingham is named in plenty of guides, and on 2026-09-10 its early careers page redirects to Howden, under "Barnett Waddingham is now Howden."
The one thing that changes your answer
Everything you know about competency answers still applies. One thing changes: you are talking to a lens with a clock, and nobody will follow up. In a live interview a slow start is survivable, because the interviewer hears where you are going and asks the question that gets you there. Recorded, there is no rescue: thirty seconds of warm-up, then a story, and the point at 0:58 may not be in the file at all.
So the first sentence carries the answer. Not the context, not the set-up, the answer.
Take "why actuarial work?". The warm-up version starts "So, I've always enjoyed maths, and at university I did a few modules that..." The front-loaded version starts "Because I want technical work to end in a decision somebody acts on, and pricing is where that happens fastest." Then the evidence, then the result. Same content, and only the second survives being cut off.
There is no face to read either, so signpost for yourself: "There were two problems, and the second was the expensive one" tells the reviewer the shape of the next forty seconds.
Five kinds of question, and a sixty second shape
HireVue's candidate FAQ names three types it commonly serves: "Situational judgement questions", "Scenario-based simulations" and "Past behavior questions". Actuarial employers add two, because Aon says its video stage is "designed to learn more about you (including what interests you about the role) and your level of knowledge of Aon and our industry", and Lloyd's ran strengths first.
- Motivation. Why this firm, this practice area, now. Answer with a decision you made, not an adjective about yourself.
- Competency. A time you did something. Finish it: weak recorded answers stop before the outcome, because the clock got there first.
- Situational judgement. What you would do, who you would tell, what you would check.
- Strengths. What you are good at and enjoy. Have four ready with an example each: you cannot invent one under a countdown.
- Commercial awareness. One fact about the firm or the market that you understand beats three you half remember.
A budget that fits all five: the answer in the first ten seconds, one named example to forty, the result to fifty-five, then stop. If you are given three minutes, do not spend three minutes: ninety seconds and a clean ending is better, and a reviewer working through two hundred of these notices the one that finished.
For the wording employers use, see actuarial interview questions. To practise delivering rather than reading, the free interview question generator draws one question at a time and shows what a good answer contains only after you have answered.
The setup a marker notices
None of this wins the role. All of it can quietly cost you.
- Plain background, light in front. Criteria asks for "a background that is plain (a door or wall works best) in a well-lit and quiet environment". HireVue adds the bit people get wrong: light your face, and close the blinds behind you.
- Laptop, not phone. Criteria's guidance is that "we generally recommend using a laptop or desktop computer, rather than a phone or tablet", and on a stack of books it puts the camera at eye level rather than under your chin. HireVue suggests dragging your own video window "near the top center of your screen", so that looking at it looks like looking at the camera.
- Not on the campus wifi. Criteria warns off "public networks such as Universities or Libraries" and workplace networks, "as firewall restrictions are often in place". HireVue asks for at least 350 Kbps up and down, and warns about "unexpected battery outages", so plug in.
- Phone in another room. Silent is not enough: vibrate on a desk is audible, and it will land mid answer.
- Dress as you would in the office. Criteria's rule: "it is better to be slightly more formal than informal".
When you fumble a sentence, do not sigh or start again: say it again cleanly and carry on. Editing is not on offer: HireVue's help centre states that "Once you've submitted a response to an interview question, you cannot return to that specific question", and only the hiring company can authorise a new attempt. If the connection dies, both providers say the original link resumes you where you stopped.
Rehearsal that works, and what to stop after two takes
The practice questions are free, unlimited and unseen, and most people skip them. HireVue's practice FAQ, read on 2026-09-10, says there are three generic ones and "There's no limit", and that you can watch your practice answers back, which the real interview will not let you do. Use them on the room, the light and the sound, not on the answers, which you prepare separately and earlier.
- Bank six to eight stories across the five types, as bullet points rather than a script. A script read aloud is obvious, and it collapses when the question is worded differently.
- Record two on your phone and watch each back once, the first ten seconds hardest: that is where a warm-up hides.
- Stop after the second take. The first fixes structure, the second fixes pace, and every take after that sands the human off it.
- Sit one practice question in the real room at the real time of day, so the light you meet is the light you tested.
If you want someone to hear the answers first, that is what a mock interview is for: a live session with an actuary, where the value is the follow-up question a recording cannot ask.
What happens to the recording
You will not get a copy. HireVue's help centre, read on 2026-09-10, says that after your interview "you will not have direct access to review your recording through the HireVue platform", and sends access requests to the hiring company.
The employer, not the provider, decides how long it is kept. HireVue's FAQ says data is stored "based on the retention period (for the amount of time) chosen by the company that you're interviewing with", and that deletion requests go to the employer, "as they're the controllers of interview data".
You have rights over any automated part of the decision. The Information Commissioner's Office guidance for jobseekers on automated recruitment decisions, published 31 March 2026 and read on 2026-09-10, says that where decisions are made without a real person involved you have the right to "A fair outcome", to "Know if ADM is being used", and to "Challenge a decision and ask for a 'human review'".
Which makes three fair questions for a recruiter, in one short email, before you record:
- Is any part of this stage scored automatically, and is there a human review?
- How long is the recording kept, and who inside the firm sees it?
- Can I have an adjustment? WTW asks anyone who might "foresee any barriers" to email its candidate helpdesk, and LCP's graduate FAQs ask you to say so "before you complete any assessments".
What to do next
Open the invitation and write down three things: how many questions, how long you get for each, and whether re-recording is allowed. That is your format, and it beats every list on the internet including this one.
Then draw five questions on the free generator, record two on your phone tonight, and watch only the first ten seconds of each. If the answer is not in there, fix that first.