John Locke Competition Intelligence
Students ages 13 to 18 worldwide, entering individually in one of 10 subject categories.
One evidence-based essay answering an official question. Confirm the current word limit and formatting rules before drafting.
The 2026 regular deadline was May 31, with paid extensions through June 21. The next cycle must be rechecked.
Register first, choose one prompt, build the reading and citation base, revise hard, and submit through the official portal.
Best for students who already enjoy sustained argument. A rushed résumé entry will not produce a competitive essay.
Cycle facts last checked July 2026. Verify the current official competition page before acting.
Categories
Intellectual frameworks, ethical reasoning, philosophy of mind.
Power, institutions, elections, political theory.
Markets, monetary theory, distribution, growth.
Historical judgment, causation, methodology.
Cognition, motivation, social identity, mental health.
Religion, ethics, the philosophy of belief.
Jurisprudence, sentencing, the rule of law.
New 2026Policy design, regulation, public goods.
New 2026Statecraft, trade, conflict, global institutions.
New 2026Philosophy of science, AI, the ethics of technology.
Six 2026 Prompts Worth Reading Twice
A snapshot of the most generative prompts across the 30 in the 2026 set. Click into the relevant category for the full decoded analysis.
Should we fear a cashless society?
If legislators and judges all accepted the philosophical theory of determinism, what would be the effect on criminal sentencing?
Is mental illness over-diagnosed now, or just better recognised?
Should we be polite to ChatGPT?
Is it ever wrong to do the right thing for the wrong reasons?
'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' Is it? Does it?
2025 First-Prize Winners
The full archive of 179 winners across 2019–2025 lives in Winners.
| Category | Name | School | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economics | Emma Luo | Scarsdale High School | United States of America |
| Economics | Second Prize: Vivian Zhang | William G. Enloe High School United States of America | unknown |
| History | Aniha Vashisht | Delhi Public School | India |
| Junior | Charlie Johnson | The Hutchins School | Australia |
| Law | Matthew Wong | Sherborne School | United Kingdom |
| Philosophy | Alvin Zhang | Raffles Institution | Singapore |
| Politics | Nelli Morozova | Exupery International School | Latvia |
| Psychology | Xinmo Chen | Beijing Academy | China |
| Theology | Timothy Hobbs | Eltham College | United Kingdom |
Read the Winning Essays
12 archived first-prize essays, with PDFs where available and links to the original John Locke Institute pages. Browse the corpus →