Generic Viva Questions

I found some useful information for PhD students and researchers in general from the SIGCSE Doctoral Consortium. These are excerpts from a compilation by Dr. Marian Petre, March 1999.

• How did you come to research this topic in this manner?
• What are the main achievements of your research?
• What has your thesis has contributed to our knowledge in this field?
• What are the major theoretical strands in this area: what are the crucial ideas, and who are the main contributors?
• What are the main issues (matters of debate or dispute) in this area?
• Where is your thesis 'placed' in terms of the existing theory and debate? How would the major researchers react to your ideas?
• Whom do you think will be most interested in this work?
• Why did you choose the particular research methodology that you used?
• What were the crucial research decisions that you made?
• If you were doing this research again, would you consider using any other research methodology?
• What do you see as the next steps in this research?
• What was the most interesting finding in your results?
• Isn't this all obvious?
• Were you surprised by any of your results (if so: why, and what was surprising)?
• What advice would you give a new student entering this area?
• What is your plan for publication?
• What haven't I asked you that I should have, and what would your answer have been