Cardiothoracic Surgery 30th October 2025

Cardiothoracic Surgery ST1: 2026 Interview

Are you looking to uncover everything there is to know about the Cardiothoracic Surgery ST1 interview? To help you with your application, we have created our Cardiothoracic Surgery ST1 interview guide. The guide covers the key recruitment dates, as well as the self-assessment part of the application and the interview format.

With a high volume of candidates and only a limited number of posts, Cardiothoracic Surgery ST1 is a competitive specialty. To showcase this, in round 1 of 2025, there were 737 applications for 10 posts. This resulted in a competition ratio of 73.70, meaning more than 73 people applied for each Cardiothoracic Surgery ST1 post.

Cardiothoracic ST1 Application

You can submit your Cardiothoracic ST1 application through the Oriel platform, from Thursday 23 October to 20 November 2025. Within the application form, you’ll find sections relating to the following:

• Qualifications
• Clinical skills
• Academic skills
• Personal skills
• Commitment to specialty

For your application to be considered, you must make your submission before the deadline. Just know, you can’t make changes to your application once it’s been submitted,so ensure the content is free of errors.

You can find more information about the eligibility criteria and different sections of the application form in the 2026 Cardiothoracic ST1 person specification form.

Cardiothoracic ST1 Key Dates

The 2026 round one interviews for Cardiothoracic ST1 take place on 2 — 3 February 2026. Managing work and specialty applications can be time consuming, so we’ve arranged all the Cardiothoracic ST1 recruitment dates for you:

Cardiothoracic ST1 Self Assessment

The self-assessment part of the application process requires you to score yourself based on your achievements and qualifications across a variety of domains. Each domain assesses an element of your experience, with your self-assessment scores contributing to your overall interview score. You can find the self-assessment domains below:

• Undergraduate Medical Career
• Post graduate qualifications
• Professional Development
• Operative Skills
• Supporting Activities

Later in the application process, you must submit evidence to support the claims you make on the application form. The window to do this is open from 8 — 19 December 2025

You should organise your portfolio of evidence in the following way:

• Your evidence must be uploaded in the same order as the domains in the application form
• The evidence should be in English, and Non-English documents must be accompanied by a certified English translation
• Your portfolio of evidence must be uploaded as a single PDF

Your evidence will be verified by a panel of assessors on 5 January 2026. If your evidence doesn’t follow the required format, your application won’t progress any further.

You can find more information about the self-assessment part of the application process in the 2026 Cardiothoracic ST1 self-assessment criteria.

Cardiothoracic ST1 Interview Format

If you’re invited to an online Cardiothoracic ST1 interview, you’ll first have to book one of the available slots. However, it’s worth making yourself available across the two consecutive interview days, just in case any technical issues arise.

The recruitment office provides minimal information about what might come up in the Cardiothoracic ST1 interview, but you can expect it to consist of five structured questions and three communication skill questions, taking around 50 minutes.

Good luck!