The 2026-27 NCERT Flamingo edition retains Class 12 English Chapter 7 The Interview as a two-part chapter. This page hosts the official Class 12 English Chapter 7 The Interview NCERT Book PDF for the current 2026-27 syllabus, downloadable as a single chapter file along with the chapter's structure, named persons and recommended companion resources.
- CBSE Weightage: 6 to 8 marks (typically one 6-mark long answer plus a short answer).
- CUET (UG) Weightage: 1 to 2 inference items in the English passage section.
- File format: Single-chapter PDF, the official NCERT Flamingo Class 12 file
lefl107.pdffor The Interview (2026-27 Reprint).
Class 12 English Chapter 7 The Interview NCERT Book PDF
The official NCERT chapter PDF carries both parts of The Interview as printed in the 2026-27 Flamingo edition. Part I is Christopher Silvester's essay; Part II is Mukund Padmanabhan's interview with Umberto Eco. The PDF includes the chapter's sidebar "Think as you read" questions, the back-of-chapter exercises (Understanding the Text, Talking about the Text, Noticing Discourse Linkers and Signallers, Writing, Things to Do), and the About the Unit summary.
Source authority: Cross-referenced against NCERT Flamingo (2026-27 edition), CBSE sample papers 2024-26, and Christopher Silvester's The Penguin Book of Interviews (1993) Introduction, the source text for Part I.
Student Pulse (Sample of 11,400 Class 12 English Core students preparing for 2026 Boards):
- 71% ranked The Interview among the three Flamingo Prose chapters they most want a quick revision sheet for.
- 86% said the Umberto Eco extract is what they find hardest to recall on exam day, more so than Silvester's essay.
- 63% told us they prefer a PDF + on-page summary combination for last-week revision, which is exactly the format of this page's NCERT Book.
Source: Collegedunia 2026 Class 12 English Core readiness survey, n=11,400.
The Interview Video Chapter Walkthrough
Source: Magnet Brains on YouTube
What's in the NCERT Chapter PDF
| Page (approx.) | Section | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | About the author | Christopher Silvester (born 1959); studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge; reporter for Private Eye for ten years. |
| 1 to 3 | Part I (essay) | Silvester's introduction to The Penguin Book of Interviews with sidebar "Think as you read" questions Q1 to Q5. |
| 3 | Part II opening | "I am a professor who writes novels on Sundays" - Umberto Eco; introductory paragraph on Eco's profile. |
| 3 to 7 | Part II (interview) | Verbatim conversation between Mukund Padmanabhan and Umberto Eco: identity, time, style, success. |
| 7 | Understanding the text | 5 long-answer questions on Eco's interview. |
| 7 to 8 | Talking about the text | 3 discussion questions on interviews as a form. |
| 8 | Noticing discourse linkers | Worked-through analysis of linkers and signallers in the Eco transcript. |
| 9 | Writing | Task: write a short report of the Eco interview. |
| 9 | Things to do | Activity: conduct your own interview. |
| 9 to 10 | About the Unit | Theme, sub-theme, comprehension, talking, writing, things-to-do summary. |
About The Interview Chapter
The Interview is one of the longer pieces in the Flamingo Prose section and the only chapter built out of two completely separate types of writing. Part I is a critical essay; Part II is a journalistic interview transcript. The two parts together ask the same question from different angles: what is the interview, and what does it actually look like when done well?
Christopher Silvester (born 1959) studied history at Peterhouse, Cambridge, before becoming a reporter for the British satirical magazine Private Eye. He later wrote features for Vanity Fair. His best-known work is the editing of The Penguin Book of Interviews: An Anthology from 1859 to the Present Day (1993), the book whose introduction is reproduced as Part I of the chapter.
Mukund Padmanabhan is a senior Indian journalist with The Hindu, later Editor of The Hindu BusinessLine. Umberto Eco (1932 to 2016) was an Italian semiotician, professor at the University of Bologna, and best-selling novelist whose 1980 novel The Name of the Rose sold between 10 and 15 million copies worldwide.
How to Use the NCERT Chapter PDF
- First read. Open the PDF and read both parts straight through, ignoring the sidebar questions on the first pass. Get the flow of Silvester's argument and the rhythm of the Padmanabhan-Eco conversation.
- Second read. Re-read with a pencil. Underline every named writer Silvester quotes (Naipaul, Carroll, Kipling, Wells, Bellow, Brian). Underline every concept Eco uses (interstices, narrative academic style, professor-on-weekdays).
- Third read. Attempt the sidebar questions in Part I and the back-of-chapter exercises in Part II without looking at solutions. Then check your answers against the Class 12 English The Interview NCERT Solutions.
- Final revision. Move to the topic-wise Notes and the night-before Handwritten Notes.
Companion Resources for The Interview
- The Interview Class 12 English NCERT Solutions — step-by-step answers to every back-question.
- The Interview Class 12 English Notes — topic-by-topic revision with key quotes.
- The Interview Class 12 English Handwritten Notes — fast last-day visual revision.
NCERT Book PDF for Class 12 English Flamingo: All Chapters
Quick links to the official NCERT chapter PDFs for every Flamingo chapter.
| Chapter | Resource |
|---|---|
| Chapter 1 | The Last Lesson |
| Chapter 2 | Lost Spring |
| Chapter 3 | Deep Water |
| Chapter 4 | The Rattrap |
| Chapter 5 | Indigo |
| Chapter 6 | Poets and Pancakes |
| Chapter 7 | The Interview (this page) |
| Chapter 8 | Going Places |
| Poetry Ch 1 | My Mother at Sixty-Six |
| Poetry Ch 2 | Keeping Quiet |
| Poetry Ch 3 | A Thing of Beauty |
| Poetry Ch 4 | A Roadside Stand |
| Poetry Ch 5 | Aunt Jennifer's Tigers |
The Interview Class 12 English NCERT Book FAQs
Ques. Where can I download the Class 12 English Chapter 7 The Interview NCERT Book PDF?
Ans. The free official NCERT chapter PDF for The Interview is on this page. It is the 2026-27 Reprint of the Flamingo Class 12 English Core textbook, covering both Part I (Silvester's essay) and Part II (Padmanabhan's interview with Umberto Eco), all back-of-chapter exercises and the About-the-Unit summary.
Ques. Is the chapter PDF aligned with the 2026-27 NCERT syllabus?
Ans. Yes. The PDF is the 2026-27 NCERT Flamingo Reprint. The Interview is retained in full with no content changes from the previous edition.
Ques. How many pages is the Class 12 English The Interview NCERT chapter?
Ans. The chapter is 10 pages long in the printed NCERT textbook: 9 pages of text (about 3 pages for Part I and 6 pages for Part II) plus 1 page of back-of-chapter exercises and About the Unit.
Ques. Who is the author of The Interview chapter?
Ans. Part I is by Christopher Silvester (born 1959), drawn from his introduction to The Penguin Book of Interviews (1993). Part II is a verbatim interview with Italian novelist Umberto Eco, conducted by Mukund Padmanabhan of The Hindu.
Ques. What is the back-of-chapter exercise structure for The Interview?
Ans. The chapter has four exercise sections: (1) Understanding the Text (5 long-answer questions on Eco's interview); (2) Talking about the Text (3 discussion questions); (3) Noticing Discourse Linkers and Signallers (a worked analysis); (4) Writing (a short-report task on the Eco interview); plus (5) Things to Do (conduct your own interview).
Ques. Are the back-of-chapter exercises in the PDF graded?
Ans. No, the NCERT PDF only prints the questions. Step-by-step graded model answers for every question are available on the Class 12 English The Interview NCERT Solutions page.
Ques. Is there a Hindi-medium version of the chapter PDF?
Ans. Class 12 English Core is a single-language paper, so the Flamingo textbook prints the chapter in English only. Companion notes in regional languages are not part of the official NCERT chapter PDF.
Ques. How does The Interview connect to other Flamingo chapters?
Ans. The Interview shares the Flamingo book's interest in voice and self-presentation with Lost Spring (Ch 2), Indigo (Ch 5) and Poets and Pancakes (Ch 6). It is the only Flamingo chapter built out of two different prose forms (essay plus transcript) and is therefore unique in genre.
Ques. Can I use this PDF for CUET (UG) preparation?
Ans. Yes. CUET English draws inference and vocabulary items from Class 12 Flamingo passages. The Interview's named writers, Eco's coined word interstices, and its quotable phrases ("professor who writes novels on Sundays") all appear in CUET-style inference questions.
Ques. How big is the PDF download file?
Ans. The chapter PDF is roughly 200 KB. It is a single-chapter file, lighter than the full Flamingo textbook download, so it is faster to open on a phone or low-bandwidth connection.
Comments