50 CST Interview Questions 2027 with a Model-Answer Structure

These 50 Core Surgical Training (CST) interview questions follow the shape of the interview NHS England published for the 2026 round: a three-minute presentation with two minutes of questions, two five-minute portfolio questions, one five-minute management scenario and two five-minute clinical scenarios. Each group below carries the answer structure the panel scores on its 0 to 6 scale, and the domains it marks. The questions are ours, written to the published format; the format, timings and domains are NHS England's.

Reviewed and updated 10 September 2026. The 2027 CST interview pages are not yet published, so the station format is the 2026 position.

Key takeaways

• The CST interview asks seven scored things in 30 minutes: a presentation, questions on it, two portfolio questions, one management scenario and two clinical scenarios.
• Management answers are marked on probity and awareness of safety and ethics, judgement under pressure and prioritisation, and communication.
• Clinical answers are marked on clinical skills and knowledge, judgement under pressure and prioritisation, and communication.
• Every item is scored 0 to 6, where 3 is "satisfactory" and 6 is "outstanding", so a safe, complete answer inside five minutes is the floor and structure is what lifts it.
• The management and clinical questions are given live with no reading time, so the opening structure has to be automatic.
• The 50 questions below are free; the coresurgeryinterview bank holds 299 with model answers and AI-marked spoken practice for £97.

How is a CST interview answer scored?

A CST interview answer is scored by each panel member on a 0 to 6 scale for each item, with the descriptors published by NHS England: 0 no evidence, 1 very poor, 2 weak, 3 satisfactory, 4 good, 5 excellent, 6 outstanding. The scores feed a station total that carries 45% of the selection score for each station.

A model-answer structure is the fixed order of moves that lets you answer any question in a group inside five minutes, so that the panel hears safety, judgement and communication in every answer without you having to think about the order.

What questions follow the CST presentation?

The questions after the CST presentation probe the three points you made and are marked under "questioning", so the answer structure is: restate the point, give the specific example, say what it changed, and connect it to core training. Two minutes allows about three questions.

1. You said you led that change. What did the other team members actually do?
2. What would you do differently if you ran that project again?
3. What is the difference between a leader and a manager in your example?
4. How did you know the change you describe was sustained?
5. Which of your three points is the weakest, and why did you include it?
6. How will that experience help you as a core trainee on a night shift?
7. What did you learn about yourself from that situation?
8. Who disagreed with you, and how did you handle it?

In practice the panel is checking that the presentation was yours. Answers that add detail the presentation did not have score higher than answers that repeat it.

What portfolio questions are asked at the CST interview?

CST portfolio questions are chosen by the assessors from the domains on your index sheet, so the structure is: what the item was, what your role was, what changed or was measured, what you learned, and what you would do next. Five minutes is long, so each move gets about a minute.

1. Talk me through the audit you claimed in the quality improvement domain. What was the standard and what changed?
2. You closed the loop. What did the second cycle show, and who owns it now?
3. What is your contribution to the paper you are first author on?
4. What is the main limitation of that study?
5. Tell me about the teaching programme you designed. How did you know it worked?
6. What feedback did you receive on your teaching, and what did you change?
7. Describe a case from your logbook that taught you the most.
8. What did your taster week change about your view of surgery?
9. Why should your operative experience be graded as you have claimed?
10. What is the next step in your research?
11. Which of your achievements are you least proud of, and why?
12. What is missing from your portfolio, and what is your plan for it?

However, the panel has already read the evidence. They are testing whether the person in front of them can talk about it with the depth the letter claims, which is why the coresurgeryinterview portfolio scenarios include follow-up chains rather than single questions.

What management scenarios come up in the CST interview?

CST management scenarios place you as the surgical SHO with a colleague, a patient or a system problem, and the structure that covers all three marked domains is: patient safety first, gather information, act within your competence, escalate to a named senior, document, and reflect on the system. It takes 20 seconds to say and leaves the rest of the five minutes for the specifics.

1. You smell alcohol on the registrar's breath before a morning list. What do you do?
2. A consultant asks you to consent a patient for an operation you have never seen. What do you do?
3. You are holding four bleeps: a post-operative patient with chest pain, a ward nurse asking for a cannula, ED asking you to see a referral, and theatre asking where you are. Prioritise them.
4. You discover you prescribed the wrong dose of an anticoagulant to a patient who has now had it. What do you do?
5. A patient's relative tells you the night team ignored their concerns. How do you respond?
6. A colleague repeatedly leaves the ward before handover is complete. What do you do?
7. Your FY1 makes a mistake and asks you not to tell anyone. What do you do?
8. The rota leaves the surgical ward with no SHO tomorrow. What do you do?
9. A patient with capacity refuses a life-saving operation. How do you proceed?
10. You are asked to alter a note after an adverse event. What do you do?
11. A patient on your ward posts about their care on social media and names you. What do you do?
12. Theatre is delayed and a patient who has been fasted since midnight is now the last case again. What do you do?
13. You overhear a senior making a discriminatory comment about a colleague. What do you do?
14. A patient asks you to keep a diagnosis from their family. How do you respond?
15. You are exhausted at the end of a run of nights and are asked to stay to assist. What do you do?

That said, the framework is the floor, not the answer. The marks between 3 and 6 come from the judgement in the middle: naming who you escalate to, saying what you would say to the patient, and admitting what you would not do.

What clinical scenarios come up in the CST interview?

CST clinical scenarios are acute surgical presentations and post-operative complications pitched at core-trainee level, and the structure is: immediate safety and an ABCDE assessment, focused history and examination, investigations with reasons, initial management, a named escalation point, and a plan for the next hour. Stop at five minutes even if the plan is unfinished.

1. You are fast-bleeped to a surgical ward where a patient has vomited a large volume of fresh red blood. How do you approach it?
2. A 70-year-old is day three after a right hemicolectomy with a temperature of 38.5 and new abdominal pain. What do you do?
3. A 25-year-old with a tibial fracture in a cast has increasing pain that is not relieved by morphine. What is your concern and your management?
4. A patient is day one after a laparoscopic cholecystectomy with a heart rate of 120 and blood pressure of 90 over 50. What do you do?
5. An 80-year-old on warfarin has fallen and hit their head. They are drowsy. How do you manage them?
6. A trauma call is put out for a motorcyclist. Talk me through the primary survey.
7. A post-operative patient has passed 10 ml of urine in the last four hours. What do you do?
8. A 45-year-old presents with severe epigastric pain radiating to the back and a lipase ten times normal. Outline your management.
9. A patient's wound has opened on day seven after a laparotomy and bowel is visible. What do you do?
10. A diabetic patient with a cold, painful, pale leg presents to ED. How do you assess and manage them?
11. A 60-year-old has colicky abdominal pain, vomiting and a distended abdomen with no bowel movement for three days. What do you do?
12. A patient on the ward has a NEWS2 score of 8. Walk me through your assessment.
13. A post-operative patient becomes acutely confused overnight. What are the causes and what do you do?
14. A 30-year-old has right iliac fossa pain, a temperature and a raised white cell count. How do you manage them?
15. A patient three days after a bowel anastomosis has new tachycardia, oliguria and rising inflammatory markers. What is your concern?

The first clinical question above is the free sample scenario at coresurgeryinterview, with its full model answer open to anyone; the bank's 201 clinical questions across 28 scenarios follow the same six-move structure.

How do you turn a CST question into a five-minute spoken answer?

You turn a CST question into a five-minute answer by allocating time to each move before you start speaking: about 20 seconds for the opening structure, a minute for assessment or the facts, two minutes for the management or the decision, a minute for escalation and communication, and 30 seconds to close. Practised aloud, that allocation becomes automatic.

The coresurgeryinterview spoken-practice mode records an answer and marks it against the station domains, which is the quickest way to find out whether your allocation survives contact with a clock.

What mistakes lower a CST interview score?

The mistakes that lower a CST interview score are the ones that read as unsafe or unstructured on the 0 to 6 scale: skipping the safety opening, treating beyond core-trainee level without escalating, running out of time before management, and answering the portfolio question with a summary of the evidence rather than your role in it.

• Never say you would manage a deteriorating patient alone. Name who you call and when.
• Do not give a differential list instead of a plan; the panel wants what you do next.
• Do not defend an achievement the evidence does not support; the panel has read it.
• Do not run over. A finished four-minute answer scores higher than an unfinished six-minute one.
• Do not use the same example for every management scenario; the panel is scoring judgement, not recall.

Where can you practise more CST interview questions?

You can practise more CST interview questions at NHS England's interviews page, which publishes the format and domains, and at coresurgeryinterview, where three sample scenarios are free and the £97 bank holds 299 questions with model answers, a practice-presentation mode and AI-marked spoken answers, with access to 2 April 2027.

Whatever you use, practise aloud and against a clock. The 2027 CST interview will ask you live questions with five minutes each, and the 50 above are only useful once you have said the answers, not read them.