230+ Free Medicine Interview Questions 2023

If you’re applying for medical school in 2024, you’ll definitely need to practice some mock medicine interview questions. As such, we’ve compiled an organised list of medical school interview questions to help you in your preparation. You can use these in your solo preparation, or with a friend or medicine interview tutor. It’s useful to prepare your answers to common medicine interview questions in advance to ensure you’re well prepared for your medicine MMI or panel interview.

Motivation for Medicine Interview Questions

1. Why do you want to study medicine?
2. Why do you want to do medicine and not nursing?
3. Why do you want to study at this university?
4. What do you know about the curriculum at this university?
5. What will you do if you don’t get a place in medical school this year?
6. Tell me about yourself.
7. What do you think is the hardest thing about being a doctor?
8. Medicine is a very competitive course. As such, can you explain why we should offer you a place?
9. What specialty do you see yourself pursuing?
10. How have you prepared yourself for a career in medicine?
11. What’s your biggest motive for pursuing a career in medicine?
12. Who is your biggest role model?
13. What’s a doctor’s role in society?
14. What do you like about the way the course is structured at this university?
15. Is it important to do wider reading in order to be a good doctor?
16. Can you tell us about any wider reading you’ve done in relation to medicine?

Skills and Qualities Medicine Interview Questions

A list of medicine interview questions focussing on skills and qualities, to be used for medical school interviews in 2023-2024.

1. What are 3 essential qualities of a doctor?
2. Discuss a time when you worked well within a team.
3. Discuss a time when you displayed empathy.
4. What does empathy mean to you, and why is it important in medicine?
5. What’s the difference between empathy and sympathy?Which attributes help doctors to take good histories from patients?
6. Which key attributes help build trust in a doctor-patient relationship?
7. Discuss a time when you handled a stressful situation.
8. What is your biggest strength? What is your biggest weakness?
9. Would you say you are a good communicator?
10. What makes a good team?
11. Discuss a time you faced adversity and how you dealt with it.
12. What would you change about yourself?
13. Are there any societies you want to join once you start university?
14. Discuss a time when you demonstrated leadership skills.
15. Tell me about a time you failed.
16. How do you manage your time?
17. Do all doctors have to be leaders, or can they also be followers?
18. What are your interests outside of medicine?
19. How do hobbies play an important role in your life?
20. Tell me about a time you showed resilience.
21. What’s something you’re working on improving about yourself?
22. Why is emotional intelligence important for doctors?
23. What’s an achievement you’re proud of?
24. What’s something that’s unique about you?
25. What are essential qualities needed for breaking bad news to a patient?
26. Would you say you’re an organised person? How is organisation relevant to a career in medicine?
27. Give an example of a time you realised you made a mistake and how you handled it.
28. What advice would you give to someone newly put into a position of responsibility?
29. Why is it important to recognise your mistakes?
30. How should a doctor handle a patient who is shouting at them?
31. Tell me about a time you were under significant pressure and managed to handle this.
32. How do you handle conflict?
33. Can you describe a time in your life when taking initiative helped you to achieve your goals?
34. How would you handle having to work closely with someone you don’t get along with?
35. Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?
36. Can you be a good doctor without getting high GCSE and A level grades?
37. One of your colleagues on placement seems to be taking all of the learning opportunities. How would you handle this situation?
38. What are three of your best qualities?
39. You have a group project due in one week, and the other 3 group members have not yet started on any of the work. How would you handle this?
40. What’s the best way to prevent burnout?

Preparing for medical school interviews in 2023? Check out our 2-day MMI and Medicine Interview Course and one-to-one university-specific interview tutoring. MedicHut has over 100 tutors from universities across the UK. We’ll definitely have the right tutor for you, or your money back.

NHS Hot Topics Interview Questions

A list of medicine interview questions focussing on NHS hot topics in 2023.

1. Should vaccination be mandatory in the UK?
2. What do you know about upcoming changes to medical schools and qualifying as a doctor in the UK?
3. What do you think about privatising the NHS?
4. What do you think about the changes surrounding organ donation laws?
5. What changes will Brexit impose on the NHS?
6. Should abortion be illegal in the UK?
7. Should cadavers be banned from use in medical school education?
8. What do you know about antibiotic resistance?
9. What do you know about evidence-based medicine?
10. What do you know about the Medical Licensing Assessment?
11. Do you think the NHS will survive?
12. What do you know about the 7-Day NHS?
13. What do you know about inequalities within the NHS, with regards to patients and staff?
14. How does an ageing population impact the NHS?
15. Tell me about recent medical news you’ve read.
16. Tell me about a recent discovery in medicine that you’ve read about.
17. How would you help the NHS save money?
18. What are current challenges GPs are facing in primary care?
19. What do you know about regulations surrounding aesthetic medicine?
20. What do you know about the postcode lottery?
21. Is it safe for doctors to strike? What are your thoughts on this?
22. What important changes do you think need to be made in the NHS to ensure its survival?
23. What do you know about the ongoing junior doctor strikes?
24. Is it ethical for consultants and junior doctors to have joint strikes?
25. How do you think Lucy Letby was able to commit the crimes that she did?
26. Is there a role for artificial intelligence in medicine?
27. What can be done to reduce antibiotic resistance in the UK?
28. What are your thoughts on anti-vaxxers?
29. If you were the health secretary, how would you handle the NHS budget?
30. What is the biggest issue that the NHS is currently facing?
31. Is it important for doctors to know the sex of a patient?
32. Should prescriptions be free for certain groups?
33. In your opinion, what’s the biggest medical development in the last century?
34. What are three problems the NHS is facing right now?
35. Should non-essential treatments be funded by the NHS? How would you define which treatments are essential?
36. Should emergency care be free for non-British patients visiting the UK?
37. What are the core values of the NHS, and are these still being upheld today?
38. Which parts of the NHS could do with increased funding?
39. How can we increase funding for the NHS?
40. What are current limitations of general practice?
41. What is health equity and how does this come into play?
42. How can we improve job retention in the NHS?
43. What do you know about the recruitment of overseas doctors to work in the NHS?
44. What do you think about the medicine apprenticeship schemes?
45. What do you think the future of medicine looks like?
46. How should we deal with the shortage of beds in hospitals?
47. How has general practice changed in the last 10 years?
48. What problems do you think will exist in the NHS in 10 years’ time?
49. Why are antibiotics only available as prescription medicine? What do you think of countries that sell antibiotics over the counter?

Preparing for medical school interviews in 2023? Check out our 2-day MMI and Medicine Interview Course online and in Manchester, Central London, Birmingham, and Newcastle.

Medical Ethics Interview Questions

A list of medicine interview questions focussing on medical ethics, to be used for medical school interviews in 2023-2024.

1. You’re a medical student on the bus home and you overhear two other medical students loudly discussing a patient. What would you do?
2. Tell me about a case you’ve read about with ethical implications.
3. Should doctors have permission to accept gifts from patients?
4. Should doctors have permission to treat family members? What are the ethical implications of this?
5. What is the difference between consent and confidentiality?
6. Doctors can sometimes feel desensitised to death. What do you think about this?
7. Are doctors allowed to prescribe medicine for themselves?
8. Why do doctors need to be tested for HIV prior to starting work?
9. Is it okay to talk about a patient case on social media?
10. Should medical students help with junior doctor jobs on wards?
11. What are your thoughts on ‘self-inflicted’ illnesses and their treatment in the NHS?
12. Should pregnant women be offered screening tests for genetic conditions during pregnancy?
13. Is it ethical to know the sex of a baby before it’s born?
14. You’re a medical student on the wards and you see a patient crawling to the bathroom. What would you do?
15. You’re a medical student on placement. You see a patient who requests an abortion, and the doctor refuses due to his personal beliefs. What are your thoughts on this?
16. You’re a doctor working in a GP practice. A 14-year-old patient attends alone asking for contraception. What would you do?
17. A patient in the emergency department is demanding to be seen immediately for their foot pain. What are the important considerations?
18. If a doctor comes across a collapsed patient in public, should they respond to them?
19. You’re a medical student on placement and one of the doctors smells like alcohol. What would you do?
20. You’re a medical student on placement and you witness the doctor shouting at her nursing colleague. What would you do?
21. You’re a new junior doctor and accidentally prescribed the wrong dose of a medication. It was a small error and likely made no difference to the patient, who seems fine many hours after the dose. How would you handle this situation?
22. Should UK doctors be allowed to volunteer abroad? How should this be regulated and what are ethical implications of short-term work in foreign nations?
23. You’re a junior doctor working a very busy shift. One of your colleagues tells you that he’s heading home a couple of hours early as he needs to attend a birthday party, but not to tell anyone. You know that you’ll be short staffed when he leaves. What are the important considerations in this scenario?
24. You’re a senior medical student on placement. The junior doctor you’ve been assigned to shadow has explained that she doesn’t have much time to teach you because of short staffing. She’s asked you to carry out blood tests on all of her patients to help her with her jobs. What are the important considerations in this scenario?
25. Is it ethical for a doctor to advertise their private services to their NHS patients who would like quicker appointments?
26. You’re a medical student and a patient you saw on placement has sent you a friend request on social media. How do you handle this, and what are the ethical implications?
27. Why might a doctor refuse to treat a patient, and is this ever ethical?
28. Is it ethical for a doctor treating a prisoner to inquire about their crime(s)?
29. Can doctors go abroad to provide healthcare? How is this monitored?
30. Is it appropriate for a doctor to start a relationship with a patient they’ve cared for?
31. Patients often disclose private information to their doctors, especially when relevant to their care. Should a doctor inform anyone if their patient is using illegal drugs?
32. What do you know about gender inequalities in medicine?
33. Should a doctor treat a UK visitor who does not legally have access to free healthcare?
34. Is it important to disclose to a patient’s family members the details of how they died?
35. How much information should patients receive about their medical condition and treatment options?
36. Should patients have access to their healthcare records?
37. Are there any ethical implications of a doctor being in a relationship with their supervisor?
38. Your friend at medical school has come across confidential past paper questions and is using them to prepare for the upcoming exams. How would you handle this situation?
39. Your friend was reported for making some inappropriate comments during placement. You were with the friend at the time and know that they made these comments. He wants you to deny this to help him avoid repercussions. How would you handle this?
40. What are the 4 pillars of medical ethics and what role do they play in patient care?
41. Can you think of a scenario you’ve encountered in which the pillars of medical ethics were relevant?
42. What are important things for doctors to remember outside of the work place?
43. Do doctors have a duty to tend to the injured or sick in public places outside of work?
44. What qualifications should the leaders of the NHS have?
45. Is it ethical to offer faster appointments in private practice than in the NHS?
46. Is it a doctor’s role to notify the partner of an HIV-positive patient?
47. Is all information a patient provides confidential? What does this mean?
48. You’re on work experience in A&E and see a young boy with a wrist injury. His mom discloses to you that she thinks he was purposely hurt by bullies in school. How would you respond to this situation?
49. Some people book very regular GP appointments. Should there be a limit on how many GP appointments a patient is able to take?
50. When can confidentiality be broken, if ever?
51. Is it ethical to treat colleagues?
52. Should smokers receive treatment for respiratory conditions like COPD?
53. Who should make healthcare decisions about someone in a coma? What are the important factors to consider?
54. Who should make healthcare decisions about elderly patients? What are the important factors to consider?
55. Who should make healthcare decisions about psychiatric inpatients? What are the important factors to consider?
56. Can we discharge a patient who does not have a home to go back to? What are the important factors to consider?
57. What should a doctor do if they suspect their patient may be selling pain medication that they’re ordering on prescription?
58. Should patients be able to choose the doctor that treats them?

Work Experience and Medicine Knowledge Interview Questions

A list of medicine interview questions focussing on work experience and knowledge of medicine.

1. Tell me about your medicine work experience.
2. What was an important case you saw during work experience?
3. Can you think of an ethical dilemma you encountered during your work experience?
4. Do you think virtual medicine work experience is enough when applying to medical school? Please explain your reasoning.
5. From your work experience, what did you notice about roles of different healthcare professionals in patient care?
6. Did you see anything in your work experience that you would have done differently had you been the doctor? Why?
7. How did you manage to obtain your work experience?
8. Is there any additional work experience you wish you could have done?
9. From your work experience, what would you say the most crucial skill is for doctors to have?
10. Did you encounter any difficult patients in your work experience?
11. What would you say the main differences you noticed were between primary and secondary or tertiary care?
12. Was there anything that really impressed you about a doctor during your work experience?
13. Why do some universities reject overseas work experience?
14. Why is it important to gain work experience before applying to medical school?
15. If you were in charge of deciding who gets a kidney transplant between a list of patients, what factors would you consider?
16. How did you take initiative during your work experience?
17. What was the most important thing you learned during your work experience?
18. What did you gain from your work experience?
19. What social factors are important to consider before discharging a patient?
20. How does an emergency department ensure the most urgent cases are seen first?
21. Many people complain of struggles to get GP appointments. What are other ways people can see a doctor?
22. Do you think it’s common for doctors to have to go to court? Why or why not?
23. Do you think people can learn medicine from medical television shows?
24. What are the pros and cons of medical television shows?
25. What are the pros and cons of having medical information readily available on the internet?
26. If there could be one change to our healthcare system that has the greatest impact on the health of the population, what would it be?

Preparing for medical school interviews in 2023? Check out our 2-day MMI and Medicine Interview Course online and in Central London, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle.

COVID-19 Interview Questions

1. How has COVID-19 impacted the NHS?
2. Do you think the UK’s approach to handling the pandemic was successful?
3. Do you think lockdown was an effective measure for reducing transmission rates of COVID-19?
4. How has the pandemic affected you?
5. Would you take the COVID-19 vaccine, and why?
6. Is it ethical to enforce mask-wearing?
7. Should we still be wearing masks in public places with reduced social distancing or in hospitals?
8. How could we have increased uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine?
9. Why did some people not want to take the COVID-19 vaccine?
10. Is it ethical to charge for COVID-19 tests in order to travel?
11. Is it ethical to need a ‘travel passport’, i.e. proof of vaccination?
12. Why were some countries better at handling the pandemic than others?
13. Many women gave birth alone during the pandemic. Was it ethical to put restrictions on bringing in birthing partners?
14. Many lives were lost during the pandemic, with family only visiting their relatives via phone or video calls. Was it ethical to ban visiting dying patients?
15. What was the impact of the pandemic on doctors working during this time?
16. Who was most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic?
17. Do you think the UK would be prepared to handle another pandemic?
18. How did social factors play a part in the impact of the pandemic on different groups of people?
19. Are certain groups of people more or less likely to take up the COVID-19 vaccine?
20. What were the impacts of COVID-19 on medical education?
21. What was the most important lesson you learned from the COVID-19 pandemic?
22. How did COVID-19 impact your decision to pursue medicine?
23. Did some people benefit from the pandemic? Please explain.
24. How did the pandemic impact the public’s perception of the medical profession?
25. What was the best decision that the UK government made in its handling of the pandemic?
26. What was the worst decision that was made in the UK’s handling of the pandemic?

Roleplay and Breaking Bad News Medicine Interview Scenarios and Questions

1. Your friend has asked you to help him tie his shoelaces, as he has never done so before. Without the use of any actions, please explain to him how to tie his shoelaces.
2. Please tell a patient that his X-ray results have come back and his ankle has sustained a fracture.
3. Your friend is ill and asked you to sign their name on the class register today. Please talk to this friend.
4. You’re a medical student and have an important presentation in 15 minutes. As you’re about to leave, your flatmate tells you that she’s upset due to a bereavement. Please talk to your flatmate.
5. You’re a medical student on placement and a patient has asked to speak to you about the poor treatment of her family member who visited. She is distraught that the family member was not able to stay outside of visiting hours and was not offered a hospital dinner. Please speak to this patient about her concerns.
6. You’re a junior doctor working in general practice. You’ve been asked to contact patients with high BMIs about lifestyle and weight loss advice. One particular patient is 56, has a sedentary lifestyle, mainly eats takeaways due to long working hours, and has a BMI of 41. Please speak to this patient about weight management.

Abstract Medicine Interview Questions

1. Please describe this image to the interviewer without showing it to them.
2. If you could meet one individual from history, who would it be and why?
3. If you had the chance to direct a play, what would it be about?
4. If you had to pack for a 10-day camping trip without access to any of the outside world, what 20 items would be essential for you to take?
5. How would you measure the weight of a mountain?
6. How would you like a candle without a match or lighter?
7. What’s your favourite organ and why?
8. Why is a human nose in the centre of its face?
9. What’s the biggest advantage humans have over other animals?
10. What’s your favourite animal and why?
11. What colour describes the medical profession and why?
12. What new medical advancement do you think will exist in the next 50 years? How would this come about?

Preparing for medical school interviews in 2023? Check out our 2-day MMI and Medicine Interview Course and one-to-one university-specific interview tutoring. MedicHut has over 100 tutors from universities across the UK. We’ll definitely have the right tutor for you, or your money back.