Free practice questions for the King's College London (KCL) medicine interview, with the interview format taken from the university's own admissions pages.
King's makes no offers without an interview and shortlists holistically on GCSEs, predicted or achieved grades, the wider application and the UCAT, with exam results and UCAT described as the most important factors. King's has not republished its interview format for 2027 entry. Its last published guidance described an online MMI of seven stations, each run by a different member of staff asking one question, with the final decision based on interview performance. Check your invitation for the format and timings you will sit.
Original MedicHut practice questions. Real interviews may differ.
You are asked at the start of a station to explain, in under a minute, why you want to study medicine.
1. Give the one-minute answer you would give.
2. What makes your reason specific to you rather than generic?
3. How would you keep this answer concise under time pressure in a real MMI station?
Follow-up: The interviewer says, 'that's what everyone says, tell me something different.' How do you respond?
Medicine requires at least five years of study followed by further years of postgraduate training.
1. What keeps your motivation steady across such a long pathway?
2. What is your plan if you find one stage of training far harder than you expected?
3. How would you check that your motivation is realistic rather than idealistic?
Follow-up: A doctor you shadow tells you they regret their choice of career. How does this affect your thinking?
In a timed medicine interview practice station, you may be asked a direct motivation question with little time to prepare.
1. How would you structure an answer if you only had thirty seconds to think first?
2. What is the risk of giving a rehearsed-sounding answer under time pressure?
3. How would you make a short answer still sound genuine?
Some applicants are drawn to medicine through a personal experience of illness or healthcare, others through academic interest in science.
1. Which is closer to your own route into applying, and why?
2. What are the risks of relying only on a personal experience as your sole motivation?
3. What are the risks of relying only on academic interest in science?
Follow-up: How would you answer if an interviewer suggested your reasons sounded more suited to a research career than clinical medicine?
You are asked why you chose to apply to medicine rather than a related course such as biomedical science or nursing.
1. What is your honest answer?
2. What specifically about direct patient care appeals to you compared with these alternatives?
3. How would you respond if you later found you preferred research to clinical practice?
Follow-up: Imagine you are offered a place on biomedical science as an insurance choice. What would you say to a family member who asks why you didn't just apply for that instead?
King's is based in central London, with placements across a large number of NHS trusts and hospitals.
1. What have you found out about the range of clinical placements linked to King's?
2. Why does placement variety in a large city appeal to you, or not?
3. What practical challenges might studying and training across multiple London sites bring?
Follow-up: If your placement required an hour's commute each way, how would you manage your workload?
King's medicine FAQs state that personal statements should show a clear understanding of the reality of working in medicine.
1. What have you read about King's course that shows you understand this reality?
2. How does King's course structure reflect the realities of clinical practice?
3. What part of the course still feels unclear to you, and how would you find out more?
Follow-up: If you discovered King's taught a topic very differently from how you expected, how would you adjust?
You are comparing King's with another London medical school you have also applied to.
1. What specific features of King's would you mention if asked why you chose it?
2. How did you check that this information was accurate and current?
3. What would be the hardest adjustment for you personally if you started at King's?
Follow-up: If you were offered places at both, what single piece of information would most influence your choice?
King's is a large medical school with a big yearly cohort of students.
1. What do you see as the advantages of training within a large cohort?
2. What might be the challenges of a large cohort, and how would you manage them?
3. How would you go about building a support network in your first term?
Follow-up: A new coursemate tells you they feel lost in such a large year group. What would you suggest?
King's FAQs mention wanting applicants to show shadowing or voluntary work in a healthcare setting.
1. Describe a specific moment from your experience that taught you something about the reality of medical work.
2. What surprised you most about this reality compared with your expectations beforehand?
3. How has this shaped what you want to ask about King's course?
Follow-up: What would you have done if your planned work experience placement had fallen through?
During work experience or volunteering, you may have observed a moment of good or poor communication between staff and a patient.
1. Describe one specific example you observed.
2. What made the communication effective or ineffective?
3. What would you personally do differently if you were in that situation?
Follow-up: How would you check, in the moment, whether your own explanation to a patient had actually been understood?
Reflect on a period of paid work, voluntary work or caring responsibility, inside or outside healthcare.
1. What transferable skill did this give you that is relevant to medicine?
2. Give a specific example of using this skill under pressure.
3. What would you still need to develop before starting clinical training?
Follow-up: If this experience had gone badly rather than well, what would you have learned instead?
You spent time observing a multidisciplinary team, such as on a ward or in a GP surgery.
1. Describe one example of effective teamwork you saw.
2. What was the doctor's specific role within that team?
3. What did you learn about where a doctor's responsibility ends and another professional's begins?
Follow-up: If you saw two professionals disagree about a patient's care in front of you, what would you expect to happen next?
Think about an experience where you had to process a large amount of unfamiliar information quickly, for example during work shadowing or a placement induction.
1. What was the situation and how did you approach it?
2. What method did you use to prioritise what mattered most?
3. Why is this kind of fast information processing relevant to medicine?
Follow-up: If you had misunderstood one key piece of information in that moment, what would you have wanted to happen?
Short, timed interview stations can be stressful for candidates who need time to think.
1. How do you usually perform when you have very little time to prepare an answer?
2. What specific strategy helps you stay calm under this kind of time pressure?
3. What would you do if you froze during a short MMI station?
Honesty about your own limitations is important in medical training.
1. What do you see as your biggest current limitation as a future medical student?
2. Give a specific example of when this limitation has affected you.
3. What concrete steps are you taking to address it?
Follow-up: If a tutor pointed out this same limitation in front of your group, how would you feel and respond?
Doctors are expected to keep working to a high standard even when tired or under pressure.
1. Describe a time you kept your standards up despite tiredness or stress.
2. What specifically helped you do this?
3. What would you do if you noticed your standards slipping?
Follow-up: A colleague suggests you are being too hard on yourself about small mistakes. How would you respond?
You receive critical feedback on a piece of work you were proud of.
1. How would you react in the moment?
2. What would you do with the feedback afterwards?
3. Why does the ability to accept feedback matter for a future doctor?
Follow-up: Imagine the feedback turns out to be based on a misunderstanding. How would you raise this without seeming defensive?
Some medicine interview practice stations involve interpreting numbers or responding to an unexpected task.
1. How do you usually respond when faced with an unexpected task?
2. What helps you think clearly when put on the spot?
3. How would you recover if you made an early mistake in your answer?
You are part of a university open day group helping to answer questions from prospective students, and one team member keeps giving inaccurate information.
1. How would you address this during the event?
2. How would you raise it with them afterwards?
3. What does this situation teach you about team responsibility in healthcare?
Follow-up: The team member says you are being overly critical. How would you respond?
You are leading a small revision group and two members strongly disagree about how to split topics.
1. How would you manage this disagreement?
2. What would guide your decision if the group cannot agree?
3. Why is this kind of mediation relevant to working in a clinical team?
Follow-up: One member later tells you privately they felt unheard. How would you respond?
You are chosen to represent your group in presenting project results, though you did not contribute the most content.
1. How would you prepare so the presentation reflects the whole group's work fairly?
2. How would you share credit appropriately afterwards?
3. What makes someone a good team representative rather than just a confident speaker?
Follow-up: A teacher praises you individually afterwards in front of the group. What would you say?
During a group task, you notice the group heading towards a decision you believe is wrong.
1. How would you raise your concern?
2. What would you do if the group disagreed with you after hearing it?
3. Why does raising concerns like this matter in a clinical team?
Follow-up: If time ran out before the disagreement was resolved, what would you prioritise doing next?
You are organising a small team event and a key part of your plan falls through at the last minute.
1. What would your immediate priorities be?
2. How would you communicate the problem to your team?
3. What personal qualities help a leader stay effective under sudden pressure?
Follow-up: A team member suggests cancelling everything rather than adapting the plan. How do you respond?
You are asked to explain, without medical jargon, why taking antibiotics exactly as prescribed matters, even once someone feels better.
1. Give your explanation as you would to a patient with no scientific background.
2. What questions might this patient ask next?
3. How would you check they had understood?
Follow-up: The patient says, 'I'll just keep the leftover tablets for next time.' How would you respond?
You must explain, in plain language, the difference between a routine blood test and a more invasive procedure, to a nervous patient.
1. Give a clear, reassuring explanation.
2. What tone and approach would help reduce their anxiety?
3. Why does plain language matter as much as medical accuracy here?
Follow-up: The patient says they read online that blood tests are often wrong. How would you respond?
A prospective student at an open day asks you why doctors sometimes seem rushed with patients.
1. How would you answer honestly but sensitively?
2. What wider pressures on the NHS might you mention?
3. How would you reassure them this would not stop you caring about patients?
Follow-up: The student asks if this makes you reconsider medicine as a career. How would you answer?
You are asked to summarise, in three plain sentences, how to manage a minor burn at home.
1. Give your three-sentence summary.
2. What is the risk of oversimplifying medical advice like this?
3. How would you make clear when someone should seek further help?
Follow-up: The person says, 'so I definitely don't need to see anyone then?' How would you clarify your answer?
A medical student overhears two staff discussing a patient's case by name in a hospital lift, where other visitors can hear.
1. What is the ethical concern here?
2. What should the student do, if anything?
3. Why does confidentiality matter even in brief, informal moments?
Follow-up: One of the staff members is someone the student needs a reference from. Does this change what the student should do?
An adult patient with full mental capacity refuses a treatment that doctors believe would clearly help them.
1. What ethical principle protects the patient's right to refuse?
2. What should the healthcare team do if they strongly disagree with the decision?
3. Are there any circumstances where a competent adult's refusal could be overridden?
Follow-up: The patient's family asks staff to persuade the patient to change their mind. How should staff respond?
The NHS has a fixed budget and must choose between funding one very expensive treatment that helps a few patients, or several cheaper treatments that help many.
1. What are the competing ethical principles in this decision?
2. Who should be involved in making such decisions?
3. Is this kind of choice ever ethically straightforward?
Follow-up: A media campaign pressures the NHS to fund the expensive treatment. How should this affect the decision?
A 17-year-old wants a medical procedure that is otherwise permitted for their age group, but their parents strongly object.
1. What are the key ethical and legal issues to consider?
2. How would a doctor assess whether the 17-year-old can make this decision themselves?
3. What should happen if the young person and parents cannot agree?
Follow-up: The parents threaten to complain about any doctor who proceeds without their consent. How should this be handled?
A medical student makes a small error while shadowing which has no effect on patient care, and no one else noticed.
1. Should the student mention it to anyone, and why?
2. What ethical principle is most relevant here?
3. How might this situation differ if the error had been more serious?
Follow-up: A fellow student advises them just to let it go since no harm was done. How should they respond?
A patient declines a standard treatment for religious reasons, and the treating doctor is unfamiliar with the belief involved.
1. What ethical principle should guide the doctor's response?
2. How should the doctor balance respect for belief with clinical responsibility?
3. What support might the doctor seek in this situation?
Follow-up: A colleague suggests simply not mentioning alternative treatments to avoid the disagreement. Is this acceptable?
The NHS frequently reports long waiting times for both emergency and routine care.
1. What do you understand to be some of the causes of these waiting times?
2. What trade-offs are involved in trying to reduce them?
3. How might this affect a newly qualified doctor's daily work?
Follow-up: A patient tells you they went private because of the wait. How would you feel hearing this as a future NHS doctor?
Social care pressures are closely linked to hospital capacity, especially for older patients.
1. Why do pressures in social care affect hospitals directly?
2. What impact might this have on a ward you are working on?
3. What is the role of a doctor in a problem partly caused by issues outside the health service?
Follow-up: A patient is medically fit to leave hospital but has nowhere safe to go. What would you want to happen next for them?
Artificial intelligence tools are increasingly used to help interpret medical scans and test results.
1. What benefits might this bring to patients and doctors?
2. What concerns should be considered before relying on such tools?
3. How might the role of a doctor change as these tools become more common?
Follow-up: A patient asks whether a computer or a doctor made the decision about their scan result. How would you answer?
Staff retention and burnout within the NHS medical workforce are frequently discussed.
1. Why do you think staff wellbeing affects the quality of patient care?
2. What could be done to support new doctors in their first years of practice?
3. What personal strategies might help you look after your own wellbeing in a demanding career?
Follow-up: If you noticed a colleague showing signs of burnout, what would you do?
Health inequalities mean people in different areas of a city like London can have very different health outcomes.
1. What factors do you think drive health inequalities within a single city?
2. What role, if any, can an individual doctor play in addressing this?
3. What are the limits of what a doctor working in a hospital or GP surgery can achieve alone?
Follow-up: A patient says it is unfair that people in wealthier areas seem to get seen faster. How would you respond?
The following is an illustrative figure. A trial of a new blood pressure medicine finds that out of 180 patients given the drug, 126 showed meaningful improvement, compared with 54 out of 180 given a placebo.
1. Calculate the percentage improvement rate in each group.
2. What does this difference suggest, and what further information would you want before drawing conclusions?
3. Why is a placebo-controlled design useful here?
Follow-up: If the study only included 15 patients in each group, would you trust the result as much? Why or why not?
You read that antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria evolve to survive drugs that once killed them.
1. What basic process allows this kind of evolutionary change to happen in bacteria?
2. Why does incomplete use of antibiotics contribute to this problem?
3. Why is understanding this process useful background for a future doctor, even outside microbiology?
Follow-up: How would you explain antibiotic resistance to a worried patient in under a minute?
A new medicine is approved for general use after going through several stages of clinical testing.
1. What do you understand about why medicines go through multiple testing phases before approval?
2. Why might a treatment that works well in a trial behave differently in everyday use?
3. What role might doctors play in reporting problems with medicines after approval?
Follow-up: A patient tells you they do not trust 'newly approved' medicines. How would you respond?
Medical science is often taught as settled fact, but understanding changes as new evidence emerges.
1. Can you think of an example where medical understanding has changed over time?
2. Why is it important for a doctor to accept that medical knowledge can change?
3. How would you keep your own knowledge up to date throughout your career?
Follow-up: How would you explain to a patient that advice they received years ago has since changed?
The following is an illustrative figure. A GP practice sees 50 patients a day. Records show 15 wait under 10 minutes, 20 wait between 10 and 20 minutes, and 15 wait over 20 minutes.
1. What percentage of patients wait over 20 minutes?
2. What further information would help you judge whether this waiting pattern is a problem?
3. Suggest one practical change the practice could test to reduce long waits.
Follow-up: If the practice could only change one thing, what would you recommend and why?
The following is an illustrative figure. Over five years, a hospital's emergency department attendances rose from 70,000 to 91,000 per year, while the number of emergency doctors rose from 40 to 44.
1. Calculate the percentage increase in attendances and in doctor numbers over the five years.
2. What might this mismatch mean for staff and patients?
3. What other data would help explain the reasons behind the rise in attendances?
Follow-up: If attendances for minor injuries made up most of the rise, what might this suggest about possible solutions?
You are given a short logical puzzle at an MMI station: four patients are waiting, and you are told patient A must be seen before patient C, patient B must be seen before patient D, and patient D must be seen last.
1. List the possible orders in which the patients could be seen.
2. Explain your reasoning process.
3. Why might the ability to reason through constraints like this be useful in medicine?
Follow-up: A fifth patient arrives who must be seen before B. How does this change the possible orders?
The following is an illustrative figure. A screening test correctly identifies 92 out of 100 people who have a condition, but also incorrectly flags 8 out of 100 people who do not have it.
1. In a group of 1,000 people where 40 actually have the condition, roughly how many would you expect the test to flag in total?
2. What problem does this illustrate about screening tests in a low-prevalence population?
3. Why is this relevant to decisions about offering a test widely?
Follow-up: How would you explain this result to a worried person who has just tested positive?
Think of a time you changed your opinion about something significant after new information or an experience.
1. What was your original view and what changed it?
2. How did you handle the process of changing your mind?
3. Why is this kind of flexibility useful for a doctor?
Follow-up: How would you respond if changing your mind meant admitting you had previously given someone incorrect advice?
Reflect on your preparation for a medicine interview, including any timed practice stations you have attempted.
1. What has this preparation taught you about your own strengths?
2. What has it taught you about areas you still need to develop?
3. How will you continue this kind of reflection once you are a medical student?
Consider a time you received disappointing results or an outcome that did not match your effort.
1. How did you respond at the time?
2. What did you learn about managing disappointment?
3. How might this learning help you cope with setbacks during medical training?
Follow-up: How would you distinguish between a setback you should push through and one that signals you need to change your approach?
KCL uses this format for medicine: Online MMI (last published format). There are 7 stations. Interviews are held online.
Interview timing for KCL: Confirmed in your interview invitation. Always check the university's own admissions pages for this year's dates.
KCL assesses: Motivation for medicine, Communication, Ethical reasoning, Teamwork, Insight and reflection.
No. They are 50 original MedicHut practice questions, written to match KCL's published interview format. Universities do not share their real questions, so your interview may differ.
Yes. Every question is free to practise, with no sign-up needed. You can make a free account to save your notes.
KCL medical school guide: entry requirements and interview advice
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