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9 Thoughtful Questions To Ask During Your Next Job Interview

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9 Thoughtful Questions To Ask During Your Next Job Interview
Questions to ask in job interview

It’s a relatively easy question that can catch you off-guard when you’re interviewing for a job: “Do you have any questions?” In most situations, you should.  

Asking a recruiter or hiring manager questions when you’re interviewing for a job makes you seem prepared and enthusiastic about a position. Plus, it can help you glean useful information that will allow you to make an informed decision about a job.

Job interviews are a two-way street, meaning you’re also interviewing the company to make sure it’s a fit for you, explains Danny Roberts, Senior Technical Recruiter at Codecademy. “A lot of people go into interviews and are so eager and solely focused on proving themselves that they forget to do the homework to figure out if it’s actually a place they really want to be,” he says.

Asking the right types of questions — not just fluffy throwaway ones — can give you insight into the company that you may not get from a recruiter alone. (After all, it’s a recruiter’s job to paint a positive picture of the company so that you want to work there.)

Here are some sample questions you can ask the next time you’re interviewing for a job.

What are your company values? Can you give me a couple of examples of how you see that carried out in your organization?

If you ask a vague question about the “company culture,” there’s a good chance a recruiter or hiring manager will tell you about the company perks or the popular Slack channels. Framing your question around company “values” and asking for specific examples will give you an idea of whether or not a company practices what it preaches, Danny says.  

How does your company manage remote operations?

When you’re interviewing for a fully remote position, it’s important to understand what kind of policies and expectations the employer has for your virtual workplace. “A company that is managing remote operations well is setting boundaries and is very clear about onboarding,” Danny says. For example, are there no-meeting days? Do you have set working hours? Will you get a stipend to outfit your WFH setup?

“A lot of people are getting burned out because they’re at organizations with poor remote boundaries, and it’s leaving people permanently on a hamster wheel,” Danny says.

What’s the average tenure of employees at this company?

This question can potentially reveal turnover, which is the rate at which people join and leave the company, Danny says. If there’s high turnover (meaning people typically don’t last long), that could hint at the instability of the company, managerial issues, or a lack of work-life balance. If the answer gives you pause, don’t be afraid to ask a follow-up question about why they think this is.

Does your company promote internally often, and is there a defined career ladder?

A career ladder is a formal process at an organization that allows people to advance and progress in their roles. Ideally, you want a recruiter to be able to provide recent examples of impactful internal promotion, Danny says. The answer to this question will tell you how serious an organization is about developing its talent.

If you could wave a magic wand and greatly improve a process, strategy, or execution, what would that be and why?

While a recruiter probably won’t spill all the tea about the pain points within the company, this question can highlight areas where the organization needs to grow. The question is kind of like a filter that will help you identify if it’s a match in terms of values, leadership, lifestyle, and work-life balance. “It may also help candidates consider blind spots to think about through onboarding, should they join,” Danny says.

What brought you here? Is there anything you’re working on that you’re particularly excited about?

Asking about a recruiter or hiring manager’s personal experience or path to the company might elicit a more genuine response than asking a broad question about the company, Danny says. “You can get personal with a recruiter and ask what gets them excited,” he says. You’ll get a glimpse into people’s morale, or how they feel about the work they’re doing.

What are key traits your organization looks for in leadership hiring?

Regardless of your level, you should get a general sense of the style of leadership at an organization, including its potential strengths, weaknesses, and pitfalls at an organizational level, Danny says.

Can you share a little bit about the financial situation with the company?

“There’s a certain degree of challenge and chaos at every startup — that’s to be expected,” Danny says. But in some cases, you might be compelled to ask about the company’s financial health, for example, if you’re applying for a high-level role or the company was recently in the news.

Someone should be able to communicate a “clearly developed strategy and roadmap” for the company, Danny says. If you hear mixed messages or shifting narratives, that could be a sign that there’s a lot of sugar-coating going on, he says. All the more reason to do some research on the company ahead of time.

Do you have a timeline for the next steps?

Avoid getting ghosted by a recruiter or hiring manager and ask for details on the timeline and next steps at the end of your interview. For example, will there be a technical interview? At what stage will they want to see your portfolio? The more transparent they are about the next steps, the more relaxed you can feel about your status.

Want more job-search advice? Here are some tips for tackling job interview nerves, plus what to put on your LinkedIn profile to get noticed. And if you decide to take a new job, here’s how to make connections and bond with your team when you’re fully remote. For even more tools, resources, and support, check out our Career Center.

Catalog Home | Codecademy

If you’re not sure where to begin or what to learn next, this is a great place to start. Check out our top coding courses, Skill Paths, and Career Paths.

Solo Climb

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Solo Climb

German climber Jost Kobusch has been attempting to be the first person to scale Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, alone in winter, without supplemental oxygen.

Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this short video of his climb.

If you like, try writing from Kobusch’s point of view: How fearful or brave do you feel? What led you to this moment? Why did you journey alone? What other thoughts fill your mind as you strive to reach the summit?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more about Kobusch’s mountaineering adventure.

Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Word of the Day: mettlesome

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Word of the Day: mettlesome

The word mettlesome has appeared in one article on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Feb. 10 in “In Beijing, Britain’s Skeleton Team Resets, With Confidence” by Jonathan Abrams:

Not everyone lasts.

“We’re quite brutal and quite cutthroat,” Williams said. “You have to get results. Otherwise, you’ll be kicked off. There’s not enough funding just to keep you on if you’re just not performing and maybe that mentality really drives the athlete continuously.”

Pairing mettlesome athletes with cutting-edge technology is “the nucleus of what’s driven the program over the last 20 years,” Holdcroft said.

Can you correctly use the word mettlesome in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how mettlesome can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

Vocabulary in Context: Forest Skating

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Vocabulary in Context: Forest Skating

“This is an actual childhood dream come true: to be able to skate anywhere you want,” said Michelle Reid, who drove with her husband, Lee Larson, for about two hours from Kingston, Ontario, to celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary at Icelynd, which became Ottawa’s sixth ice-trail network when it opened this January. “It’s travel by skate through a forest, instead of circles on a rink.”

Chris Neil, a defenseman in the National Hockey League for 17 years, began cutting down trees last autumn to a patch of forest into Icelynd.

How Important Are College Rankings to You?

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How Important Are College Rankings to You?

Do college rankings matter to you or to the people you know? Should they?

Every year U.S. News & World Report ranks the best colleges and universities in the country. This year, Columbia University rose to No. 2 from No. 3, tied with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and surpassed only by Princeton.

But colleges self-report the data that the publication uses to make the rankings, such as the amount of money a school raises and spends. And there is little, if any, independent monitoring. Even so, millions of high school students and their parents rely on these annual rankings as a way to determine which schools to apply to. Should they?

In “U.S. News Ranked Columbia No. 2, but a Math Professor Has His Doubts,” Anemona Hartocollis reports on the debate over the value and accuracy of these rankings.

Everyone knows that students buff their résumés when applying to college. But a math professor is accusing Columbia University of buffing its own résumé — or worse — to climb the all-important U.S. News & World Report rankings of best universities.

Michael Thaddeus, who specializes in algebraic geometry at Columbia, has challenged the university’s No. 2 ranking this year with a statistical analysis that found that key supporting data was “inaccurate, dubious or highly misleading.”

In a 21-page blistering critique on his website, Dr. Thaddeus is not only challenging the rating but redoubling the debate over whether college rankings — used by millions of prospective college students and their parents — are valuable or even accurate.

Columbia said it stood by its data. Officials said there was no accepted industry standard for the data that goes into college rankings — every rankings project does it differently — and they strove to meet the technical requirements as set by U.S. News. But, they said, the university was not necessarily defending the process.

The dispute has seized the education world, and university officials are in the awkward position of trying to defend themselves against the sleuthing of one of their own tenured faculty, while not alienating him or his colleagues.

Students, read the entire article and then tell us:

  • How will you determine where you want to go to college? To what degree do qualities such as academic rigor, fields of study, total cost, social life, athletics, size, location and reputation weigh in your decision? Which characteristics are most important to you?

  • Will the rankings by U.S. News & World Report or another publication factor into your decision making? Are these rankings helpful in any way? Why or why not?

  • In a 2012 Opinion piece, Joe Nocera wrote, “U.S. News likes to claim that it uses rigorous methodology, but, honestly, it’s just a list put together by magazine editors. The whole exercise is a little silly. Or rather, it would be if it weren’t so pernicious.” And in the article you just read, Ms. Hartocollis wrote, “Critics of the rankings say that the criteria that go into them — such as class size and instructional spending — can be manipulated, and that the very act of rating schools has produced conformism in the race to the top.” Do you agree with these critics that the annual rankings are not only unreliable but harmful, too? Why or why not?

  • With so many colleges and universities from which to choose, how can students and their parents sort through all the information? Is there a better alterative to the rankings by U.S. News & World Report to help prospective students find the best schools for them? If yes, what might it be?

Word of the Day: in absentia

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Word of the Day: in absentia

The term in absentia has appeared in 29 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 14 in “Dolly Parton Bows Out of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nomination” by Joe Coscarelli:

Dolly Parton does not feel rock ’n’ roll enough for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The country singer, known for crossover hits like “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You” and “9 to 5,” said on Monday that she wished to be removed from consideration for the annual honor after earning her first nomination in February.

… Other artists have balked at inclusion in the club before: John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, thumbed his nose at the band’s induction in 2006, with the band opting not to show. In 2012, when Guns ’n Roses made it, Axl Rose said he would decline to participate and asked that he not be inducted in absentia. Both acts were inducted anyway.

Can you correctly use the term in absentia in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how in absentia can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

What To Do If A Job Posting Doesn’t Disclose The Salary

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What To Do If A Job Posting Doesn’t Disclose The Salary
How to ask what salary is during job interview

When you’re reading tech job descriptions, it’s easy to get distracted by shiny perks, like the option to work remotely or unlimited vacation days. But there’s often a very important detail that you may not see in a listing: the salary range.

“It’s not very common for companies to post compensation at all,” says Danny Roberts, Senior Technical Recruiter at Codecademy. This is changing, as states and cities across the U.S. implement salary transparency laws aimed at closing gender and racial wage gaps.

In New York City, for example, employers are required to give a minimum and maximum wage range in every job listing starting in May. Colorado-based employers are required to include compensation in job postings, and notify employees of promotional opportunities. And employers in other states, like Washington and Connecticut, are mandated to provide salary information if a prospective employee asks.

So, how do you ask about the salary in a job interview? Here’s what you need to know, according to a recruiter, plus lines that you can use to start the conversation.

When and how to ask about salary

The “right time” to ask the big salary question is as soon as you feel comfortable. Asking early in the process is wise, because you don’t want to waste your time if the recruiter’s entertaining a position that pays below your baseline salary requirement.

You can even broach the subject at the end of your first call with a recruiter, Danny says. “A lot of people are afraid to ask because they don’t want to come across as being overly focused on compensation at that stage,” he says. “Part of it is framing it in your mind that it’s okay to ask.”

Approach the question with curiosity, Danny suggests. For example, you can say: “I don’t know if this is the right time to talk about this, but are you able to share compensation bands for this role or what your goals are?” Compensation or salary “bands,” are clearly defined pay ranges that are determined by data, and a good sign that the company has equitable compensation practices.

Or, another way to phrase this is: “What is the salary range budgeted for this position?” Basically, you want to open the door for the recruiter to fill in salary information, Danny says.

Don’t forget this follow-up question

It’s equally important to ask a recruiter or hiring manager how the company determines compensation for roles, Danny says.

“There should be a clear process for coming to compensation, because a lot of companies — especially a lot of startups — just make up or throw out numbers,” Danny says. “Then you suddenly end up with teams across different levels with wildly different compensation that makes no sense and that’s not equitable.”

For example, you could ask: “How does your organization determine compensation for roles?” or “Can you tell me more about how this company ensures that it follows equitable hiring practices?” The recruiter might answer by explaining that salaries are based on market data, competency, and the region where you live, for example. But they should definitely say something — if the recruiter dodges the question or can’t speak to it, that could be a red flag that the company doesn’t have consistent, unbiased hiring practices, Danny says.

Another response that a recruiter might give? They may flip the question back to you and ask what your compensation goal is. This is a tricky scenario, because you don’t want the recruiter to lowball you because you provided a lower salary range than they’ve actually budgeted for the role.

If you’re in the early interview phases you could say, “I don’t know enough about the role and responsibilities to be able to provide a salary range at this time. Can you tell me more about total compensation and what that would look like?” That way, recruiters can share more about the entire compensation package, including paid time off and healthcare benefits.

Of course, you shouldn’t be so coy that you never share what you’d like to make. “It’s a delicate dance where both of you are trying to develop trust in each other,” Danny says.

When it’s time to provide your salary requirements, it’s a good idea to give a range that’s higher than your actual baseline. You can phrase it like this: “Everything that I’m interviewing for falls between $X and $X.” Ariel Lopez, a former tech recruiter and career coach in Atlanta, says this specific framing helps because it points to market data to determine your worth and hints that you’re looking at other companies.

Keep in mind that if a recruiter really thinks you’re the right candidate, but you’re outside of the salary band for a role, there’s still room for negotiation. “We have levers that we can pull to help close the gap,” Danny says.

Ultimately, asking about salary is just step one of the negotiation process. Although talking about money might feel awkward or uncomfortable, it’s important to know your worth and be prepared to advocate for yourself. Do a little research on sites like Glassdoor and Levels, to see what people typically make in similar positions. And when the time comes to weigh a job offer, here’s a negotiation script that you can use.

Want more tips for navigating the job market in tech? Check out our Career Center for courses, portfolio projects, and interview advice.

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Digest #160: Neurodiversity Celebration Week

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Digest #160: Neurodiversity Celebration Week

By Megan Sumeracki

This week, March 21-27, 2022, is Neurodiversity Celebration Week. Siena Castellon founded Neurodiversity Celebration in 2018. In Siena’s words, the week was founded because “I wanted to change the way learning differences are perceived. As a teenager who is autistic and has ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia, my experience has been that people often focus on the challenges of neurological diversity. I wanted to change the narrative and create a balanced view which focuses equally on our talents and strengths.”

In honor of this week, we’ve rounded up our resources and resources by others all about supporting and celebrating neurodiversity.

1) Neurodiversity Celebration Week Founded by Siena Castellon, @NCWeek

The resources on this website seem endless. You can sign up for specific neurodiversity celebration week events (they have 24 events this year) or just browse their static resources. They have resources for:

2) Digest #48: Tools for Neurodivergent Brains

This digest was created by Alyssa DeYesso, and we published it on our blog in 2017. At the time, Alyssa was a student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell studying Psychology, Disability, and Education.

3) Digest #153: Neurodiversity in Education

This digest was created by Carolina Kueper-Tetzel of the LEarning Scientists and Chiara Horlin, an Assistant professor at the University of Glasgow and expert in neurodiversity and education. She also co-founded The NeuroDiversity Network featured in the digest.

4) Digest #156: Learning (More) About Neurodiversity

In this digest that I (Megan) created, I cover a lot of resources to help readers understand neurodiversity. My favorite was resource 5, which was a compilation of TEDx Talks with individuals sharing their own stories.

5) Podcast Episode 59 – Neurodiversity in Education

In this episode, Carolina interviews Dr. Chiara Horlin. Chiara provides a definition of neurodiversity and talks about challenges in education and ways to overcome them. In conversation with Chiara, it becomes clear that we need to embrace neurodiversity as a real opportunity in education that will enhance learning for all, but it is also important to acknowledge challenges that neurodivergent students and neurodivergent teachers may face and how we all can be allies.

What’s Going On in This Graph? | March 30, 2022

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What’s Going On in This Graph? | March 30, 2022

Special Announcement for March: The American Statistical Association is now running its annual This is Statistics Spring Contest. Students can showcase their statistical literacy and journalism skills by submitting their clear and compelling headlines for New York Times graphs in March’s four weekly challenges. To learn more, visit This Is Statistics.

This word cloud was produced by The New York Times using survey data collected by Morning Consult in mid-February. About 2,200 people were asked to name specific products and services whose higher prices have stood out to them over the past year. Shown here are only the items that received seven or more responses.

On Wednesday, March 30, we will moderate your responses live online. By Friday morning, April 1, we will provide the “Reveal” — the graph’s free online link, additional questions, shout outs for student headlines and Stat Nuggets.

1. After looking closely at the graph above (or at this full-size image), answer these four questions:

  • What do you notice?

  • What do you wonder?

The questions are intended to build on one another, so try to answer them in order.

2. Next, join the conversation online by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box. (Teachers of students younger than 13 are welcome to post their students’ responses.)

3. Below the response box, there is an option to click on “Email me when my comment is published.” This sends the link to your response which you can share with your teacher.

4. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button to address that student directly.

On Wednesday, March 30, teachers from our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.

5. By Friday morning, April 1, we will reveal more information about the graph, including a free link to the article that includes this graph, at the bottom of this post. We encourage you to post additional comments based on the article, possibly using statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets.

We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!

More?

• See all graphs in this series or collections of 60 of our favorite graphs, 28 graphs that teach about inequality and 24 graphs about climate change.

• View our archives that link to all past releases, organized by topic, graph type and Stat Nugget.

• Learn more about the notice and wonder teaching strategy from this 5-minute video and how and why other teachers are using this strategy from our on-demand webinar.

• Sign up for our free weekly Learning Network newsletter so you never miss a graph. Graphs are always released by the Friday before the Wednesday live-moderation to give teachers time to plan ahead.

• Go to the American Statistical Association K-12 website, which includes teacher statistics resources, Census in the Schools student-generated data, professional development opportunities, and more.

Students 13 and older in the United States and the Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Our 13th Annual Summer Reading Contest

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Our 13th Annual Summer Reading Contest

This announcement is available as a one-page PDF to hang on your class bulletin board.

Every year since 2010, The Learning Network has invited teenagers around the world to add The New York Times to their summer reading lists. So far, more than 80,000 have done so.

If you are looking for ways to offer students more “voice and choice,” we hope our open-ended contest can help. Every week, we ask participants to choose something in The Times that has piqued their interest, and then tell us why. At the end of the week, judges from the Times newsroom pick their favorite responses, and we publish them. It’s that simple.

Though our goals include some that appear on many educators’ lists — helping students become more aware of the world and their place in it; learning how to navigate sophisticated nonfiction; and practicing writing for an audience — we also hope that students will realize that reading the newspaper can be fun. As you’ll see in the guidelines below, students can choose anything that was published on NYTimes.com in 2022. The subject matter isn’t important; we just care about why they chose it.

Any 11- to 19-year-old anywhere in the world is invited to join us, if you are in middle or high school, or if you graduated from high school in 2022 and haven’t yet started college.

Every Friday starting on June 10, we’ll post a fresh version of this question: “What got your attention in The Times this week?” We will link to each week’s version here. Here is an example from last summer. How you respond to this question will depend on your age:

  • Students ages 13 to 19 in the United States and Britain — and ages 16 to 19 elsewhere in the world — can submit by posting a comment on the post itself. Watch the GIF above to see how to do that.

  • If you are a teacher, parent or guardian of a student or child who is ages 11 to 12 in the United States and Britain — or ages 11 to 15 elsewhere in the world — then you should submit an entry on the student’s behalf using the form embedded at the bottom of each week’s post.

All entries from the comments section and the form will be judged together.

_________

Here’s how the contest works:

1. Every Friday beginning on June 10, we will publish a post asking the same question: “What got your attention in The Times this week?” That’s where you should post an answer any time until the following Friday at 9 a.m. Eastern, when we will close that post to comment and open a new one that asks the same question. On Aug. 12 we’ll post our final question of the summer, open until 9 a.m. on Aug. 19.

You can always find the proper link to the place to post at the top of this page, updated each week. You can also always find it on our home page.

To see how this works, visit this post from July 2021 and check out the student comments that were submitted at that time.

2. You can choose anything you like that was published in the print paper or on NYTimes.com in 2022, including articles, Op-Eds, videos, graphics, photos and podcasts. To see the variety of topics winners have written about over the years, read this column.

3. You can participate as often as every week, but we allow only one submission per person per week.

4. Responses must be 1,500 characters or fewer. We have a contest rubric as well as a guide for students that details four simple ways to make your response stand out.

5. Any teenager anywhere in the world is invited to join us, if you are in middle or high school, or if you graduated from high school in 2022 and haven’t started college yet. See above, How to Submit, for more details.

6. Make sure to provide us with the complete URL or headline. For example, “A Man Found 15,000 Bees in His Car After Grocery Shopping” or https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/01/us/bees-car-new-mexico.html.

7. Every Tuesday during the contest, starting June 28 and ending Aug. 30, we will publish the previous week’s winner or winners in a separate post you can find here. We will also celebrate the winners on Twitter and Facebook.

8. The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter this contest. (Teenagers who live in the same household as a Times employee are also ineligible.)

We have many resources to help students practice for this contest before summer begins. They include:

  • Webinars: Teachers, to learn more about this contest and how you can teach with it, watch this free on-demand webinar from 2020. And, to get ideas for supporting your students’ independent reading and writing, watch this on-demand webinar from 2021.

  • Our Rubric: This is the rubric our judges will use to judge this contest. We’re looking for writing that includes personal connections, critical thinking, references to the source material, and voice and style.

This contest has been running more or less the same way for years, but please write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com if your question is not addressed below.

Q. What kinds of responses are you looking for?

A. The subject matter isn’t important; neither is whether you loved or hated it. What we care about is what you have to say about why you picked it.

If you don’t believe us, scroll through the work of previous winners. They have written on weighty topics like the coronavirus pandemic, racism, Alzheimer’s disease and the dangers of vaping, but they have also written on handbags, hummingbirds, power naps, junk food, Beyoncé, Disney shows, running and bagels.

Whatever the subject, you’ll see that the best responses year after year make personal connections to the news and discuss the broader questions and ideas that the topic raises. We have even created a guide that outlines four simple things you can do to make your responses more powerful. We will use this rubric to judge entries.

So whether you were moved by an article, enlightened by an essay, bowled over by a photo, irked by an editorial or inspired by a video, simply find something in The Times that genuinely interests you and tell us why, as honestly and originally as you can.

Q. Who will be judging my work?

A. The Learning Network staff, a team of as-yet-to-be-named New York Times journalists, and some educators from across the country.

Q. What is the “prize”?

A. The prize for winning any of our contests is having your work published on The Learning Network.

Q. When should I check to see if my submission won?

A. Every Tuesday from June 28 and ending Aug. 30, we will publish the previous week’s winner or winners in a separate article that you can find here. We will also celebrate the winners on Twitter and Facebook.

Q. How do I participate in this contest if I don’t have a digital subscription to The Times?

A. NYTimes.com has a digital subscription system in which readers have free access to five articles each month. If you exceed that limit, you will be asked to become a digital subscriber.

However, all Learning Network posts for students, as well as all Times articles linked from them, are accessible without a digital subscription. So if you use any of the articles we have linked to on our site, they will not count as part of the five-article limit.

And, each time we pose our question — “What interested you most in The Times this week?” — we will link to about 25 recent articles that you can choose from if you don’t have your own subscription.

You can also find copies of The New York Times at most public libraries, and some even allow you to access NYTimes.com with your library card.

And remember: You can use anything published anytime in 2022. This post, “21 Things Teenagers Can Do With a New York Times Subscription,” can help you find everything from breaking news to advice for “smarter living” to fun diversions you probably never knew The Times offered.

Q. How do I prove to my teacher that I participated?

A. If you are 13 to 19 in the United States and Britain — or 16 to 19 elsewhere in the world — and are submitting your response by posting a comment, make sure to check the box that asks if you would like to be emailed when your comment is published. If you do so, the system will send you a link to your comment, which you can use to show your teacher, your parents, your friends or anyone else you’d like to impress. (Please note that you will not get an email until the comment has been approved, which may take longer over weekends.)

If you are younger and an adult is submitting your response via the embedded form, the adult submitting on your behalf will automatically get an email thanking you for participating.

Another method? Some teachers ask students to keep a Google Doc of all their submissions, while others instruct students to take screenshots of their comments before they hit “submit.”

Q. How can teachers, librarians and parents use this challenge?

A. Through the years, adults have told us over and over that participating in this contest has made students both more aware of and more interested in what’s going on in the world. Many see it as a low-stakes way to help teenagers start building a news-reading habit. And at a time when a global pandemic is threatening us all, and an “infodemic”— the spread of misinformation, lies and rumors about the coronavirus — is contributing to the danger, keeping up with reliable news is especially important.

If that’s not reason enough to assign it to students, our contest is also an easy way to add more nonfiction to your students’ reading lists — and to encourage teenagers to make their own choices about what to read, as anything published in The Times in 2022 is fair game.

Participating also meets the recommendations given in this joint statement on independent reading issued by the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Canadian Children’s Book Center.

And for some teachers, assigning the contest over the summer helps them to quickly get to know their new students when school starts. In our related webinar, Karen Gold, English department chair at The Governor’s Academy in Byfield, Mass., details how she uses the contest in this way.

But maybe the most compelling reason to assign this contest is what students themselves say about it. At the end of the summer of 2020, many teenagers told us that the weekly reading and writing helped them through a difficult time. For instance, a participant named Ava wrote:

This year’s summer reading contest has helped me learn not only about the world around me, but about myself. After seeing other students’ responses on race, the teenage experience, and the coronavirus, I felt a little less alone about my complicated feelings during this tumultuous year. After all, there has never been a time in my life during which it’s been easier to fall into social isolation. However, because the articles I chose to write about were those that I could easily relate to and express my opinion on, I found comfort in my weekly submissions.

In 2017, Emma Weber, a student from London, posted that, thanks to the contest, “I feel grounded in my views and understand what’s going on in the world. It’s amazing what a change 1,500 characters a week make.” In 2020 we invited Emma to help judge the entries, and here is what she had to say after Week 10:

I know firsthand that the Summer Reading Contest has the ability to change the way one engages in the news — I went from passively reading to actively thinking and questioning. The more you reflect on what is going on in the world and what interests you about it, the more you will understand your place within it. I urge all those who enjoyed participating this summer to continue reading, reflecting and writing.

Thank you for making this contest a hit year after year, and please spread the word that it’s back for its 13th season.

Good luck!

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