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Medibuddy gives you both a Paediatrics ST1 Question Bank and live practice with other candidates in one place.
The Question Bank covers 45 scenarios that mirror the real interview across all four domains, Communication, Career Motivation, Reflective Practice and Clinical Reasoning, each with a model answer written and edited by high-scoring candidates who sat the Paediatrics ST1 interview in 2026.
But knowing a strong answer and delivering one under interview pressure are different skills. So we've also built live practice into the platform:
- Study Groups
- Unlimited Live Mocks with real people
- Peer Feedback on your mocks from a wide range of candidates
45 scenarios across all four domains, each with a model answer from a high-scoring candidate who sat this interview in 2026.
Most people only ever practise with one or two friends. Study Groups connect you with candidates right across the country sitting the same interview.
Arrange or get matched on demand with other candidates and run real scenarios out loud under interview conditions. Those who practise with a wide range of people tend to score the highest.
Submit your recorded mocks to candidates across the platform and get honest, varied feedback. Reviewing other people's mocks teaches you just as much.
Add the clinical depth behind your answers
The Revision Platform covers the questions that come up and shows you how to answer them well. But when you're doing well, interviewers tend to push past your first answer to see how far your knowledge actually goes, and that's where the Paediatrics ST1 Knowledge Course comes in: video lectures taking you through the paediatric presentations the Clinical Reasoning domain is built on.
45 scenarios with model answers, and Study Groups, Live Mocks and Peer Feedback to practise them live.
Get Instant AccessVideo lectures on the paediatric presentations the panel probes hardest, so when it pushes past your first answer you've got the depth to keep going. £55 added here, against £85 on its own.
Add the Knowledge CourseWhat to expect from the Paediatrics ST1 interview
Paediatrics ST1 is highly competitive: in 2025 there were 2,780 applicants for 476 posts, more than five for every place. The MSRA is no longer part of selection, so more weight now falls on your self-assessment and, above all, the interview, which becomes the deciding factor once you're shortlisted.
The interview is broken into four domains, each lasting up to 10 minutes.
Communication
A role-play scenario where you explain a clinical condition, or the reasons for an intervention or transfer. Every trainee has to show excellent communication, and we help you rehearse it.
Career Motivation
Your chance to show your enthusiasm and suitability for paediatrics (a physical portfolio is no longer required). We give you advice and prompts to prepare for it.
Reflective Practice
You're assessed on how you reflect on your experiences, what you learned, and the impact it's had on your practice since.
Clinical Reasoning
Show a clear, methodical approach to clinical problems. Our scenarios come with comprehensive guidance on how to structure your reasoning.
What the panel is looking for
The four domains are marked against the Paediatrics ST1 selection criteria. Our model answers are structured to hit those criteria, so you know exactly what a strong, well-organised answer looks like in each one.
Scored well, ranked high, got their first choice
The Medibuddy 2027 Paediatrics ST1 Interview Question Bank
Each of the 45 scenarios comes with a model answer showing how to structure your clinical reasoning and your delivery, written by high-scoring candidates who sat the Paediatrics ST1 interview in 2026.
45 scenarios across all four domains, each with a model answer from a candidate who sat this interview and scored well.
Get Instant AccessA model answer shows you how to structure a response. The lectures give you the clinical understanding underneath it, which is what the follow-up question tests. £55 added here, against £85 on its own.
Add the Knowledge CourseWhat's included in the Paediatrics ST1 Interview Question Bank
| Domain | What you'll practise |
|---|---|
| Communication | Role-play scenarios where you explain a condition or the reasons for an intervention or transfer, with guidance on how to score. |
| Career Motivation | How to show your enthusiasm and suitability for paediatrics, with prompts and ideas to prepare. |
| Reflective Practice | How to reflect on your experiences and show what you learned and the impact it's had since. |
| Clinical Reasoning | Example clinical scenarios with comprehensive guidance on a clear, methodical approach. |
Updated for 2027: 5 scenarios updated after candidate feedback.
Try an example Paediatrics ST1 interview question
You are an FY2 in paediatric A&E. Nursing staff escalate Elena, a 13-year-old girl brought in by her parents with severe right-sided abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. They're concerned she is tachycardic with a high fever. She has a one-day history of abdominal pain with nausea and vomiting of food and clear fluids. She reached menarche at 12; her last period was 3 weeks ago. She has eczema and seasonal rhinitis managed by her GP.
Example answerInitial assessment
Work within your competencies and don't be afraid to ask for help. This is an acute abdomen: the emphasis is on the clinical assessment, but you can ask for any history that would help.
Airway
- Any signs of airway compromise? She's vomiting, so there's an aspiration risk; only suction what you can see in the mouth
- Is an airway adjunct needed?
Breathing
- Any respiratory effort? If not, start paediatric CPR
- Assess saturations and respiratory rate; consider oxygen (15L non-rebreathe mask)
- Auscultate the lungs (basal crepitations may suggest aspiration pneumonia after repeated vomiting)
- Look for respiratory distress (recessions, tracheal tug, head-bobbing in younger children; recessions, tachypnoea, tripod position in older children)
Circulation
- Is there a pulse? If not, start paediatric CPR
- Assess perfusion; if sepsis is a concern (CRT over 2 seconds, mottled), call for help
- Assess heart rate, blood pressure and pulse volume; if shocked, give a fluid bolus (10 ml/kg). Remember hypotension is a late sign in children
- Capillary or venous blood gas, and IV access (two cannulas if worried about bleeding)
Disability
- Temperature (paracetamol if pyrexial), AVPU (call for help if not responsive), GCS, and glucose on CBG given the vomiting losses
Exposure
- Abdominal examination: tenderness (with rebound), distension (consider toxic megacolon), guarding, peritonism, hernias, organomegaly, bowel sounds
- Examine the groin (inguinal hernia) and back (flank pain, LUTS)
- Adolescent girls: menstrual history and a pregnancy test in all abdominal pain (with consent), and consider pelvic pathology (PID, ectopic, ovarian torsion)
- Examine the peri-anal region, and note any rashes (she has eczema)
A rectal examination is routine in adult medicine, but in paediatrics it should only be done by a clinician competent to act on the findings. If in doubt, defer until you've discussed with a senior or the gastroenterology team.
Example answerFurther investigations
- Resuscitate with IV fluids (10 ml/kg) if any sign of shock or sepsis
- Analgesia and antiemetics for the pain and vomiting
- Sepsis 6, including IV antibiotics, if sepsis or an infective cause is suspected
- Involve the senior paediatric and surgical or specialty teams early
- Keep her nil by mouth until specialty review
- IV maintenance fluids by the Holliday-Segar formula (100 ml/kg/day for the first 10 kg, 50 ml/kg/day for the next 10 kg, and 20 ml/kg/day beyond 20 kg)
Appropriate bloods and a blood gas taken with IV access help investigate the cause. Appendicitis management, for example, may be guided by examination severity and infection markers (immediate surgical exploration versus an abdominal ultrasound), and you can look for triggers such as infection at the same time.
Example answerFurther management
Use an ABCDE approach first to tackle the most important issues. Further management depends on your differentials, guided by the patient's age and sex.
Surgical acute abdomen
- Appendicitis, testicular or ovarian torsion, intussusception, bowel obstruction, perforation, hernia
- Nil by mouth until surgical or urological review, IV fluids and antibiotics, and consider the scans the specialty team may order (for example an abdominal ultrasound). The choice is theirs, but showing you're thinking ahead scores well
Medical
- Gastroenteritis, mesenteric adenitis (a key differential mistaken for appendicitis in younger children), HSP, DKA, and UTI or pyelonephritis
Gynaecological (adolescent girls)
- Ectopic pregnancy, PID, or a ruptured or torted ovarian cyst; nil by mouth until gynaecology review, consider a pelvic ultrasound, and manage any PV bleeding according to haemodynamic stability
That's one scenario. There are 44 more.
Every scenario in the Question Bank, plus Study Groups, Live Mocks and Peer Feedback.
Get Instant AccessThe Clinical Reasoning domain rests on how well you know the presentation in front of you, and that's what the lectures build. £55 added here, against £85 on its own.
Add the Knowledge CourseHow we keep our Question Banks up to date
We review and update every Question Bank twice a year: in April after the interviews, and again when the new recruitment guidance is published.
After reviewing the bank for the 2027 interview, we updated five scenarios based on candidate feedback from last year.
Updated for 2027 Interviews
The only interview resource where you can practise live with other candidates from across the country
Our Paediatrics ST1 Question Bank gives you the scenarios and the model answers. But it's how you practise with them that decides the day. The interview is spoken, and reading a strong answer on the page is nothing like delivering one out loud, under pressure, to a panel.
Most candidates get as far as a friend or two who happen to be applying: the same couple of people, the same feedback every time. Medibuddy opens that up to every Paediatrics ST1 candidate on the platform, across the country, so you rehearse with far more people and hear a far wider range of feedback than your own circle could ever give you.
Study Groups
Preparing on your own, you only ever revise from the questions you think to ask, and what catches candidates out on the day usually isn't in the person specification. Study Groups connect you with other doctors across the country preparing for the same Paediatrics ST1 interview: ask a question, share what's just come up, and compare how you'd approach a scenario. Everyone brings different experience from different hospitals and deaneries, so you hear the things no single group of friends could ever tell you.
Study Groups: connect and prepare with Paediatrics ST1 candidates from across the country.
Live MocksBeta
The panel doesn't score the answer on the page; it scores how you deliver it out loud, under pressure, and that's the one thing you can't rehearse by reading. Join the waiting room and we match you with a different Paediatrics ST1 candidate each time, taking turns as interviewer and candidate on real Question Bank scenarios. The candidates who practise with the widest range of people tend to be the ones who score highest.
Live Mocks: practise with a wide variety of different candidates.
Peer FeedbackBeta
You can't see how you actually come across, and the same one or two friends tend to give you the same narrow feedback every time. Record a mock and submit the whole thing, or just one answer you want a second opinion on, and get varied feedback from candidates right across the platform. Reviewing other people's mocks is just as valuable: it shows you how strong candidates handle the same scenarios, which is one of the fastest ways to improve your own.
Peer Feedback: reviews from candidates across the platform, not the same few friends.
Practising out loud, hearing how other candidates answer, and getting your performance reviewed are all included in the £85.
Choose the Paediatrics ST1 Revision Platform, the Knowledge Course, or both
The Revision Platform gives you the Question Bank, the model answers and all the live practice. It covers the common questions that come up and shows you how to score highly on them. But when you're doing well, interviewers will often push past your first answer to test the depth of your clinical knowledge, usually their way of deciding whether to give you the top mark. Those are the questions you can only answer well if you properly understand the presentation in front of you, and that's what the Paediatrics ST1 Knowledge Course is for: video lectures on the paediatric presentations the Clinical Reasoning domain is built around.
What the Paediatrics ST1 Knowledge Course covers
Video lectures, over 4 hours, taught by specialty registrars who've been through Paediatrics ST1 selection.
- Respiratory Conditions
- ENT Conditions
- Haematological and Oncological Conditions
- Musculoskeletal Conditions
- Cardiology Conditions
- Dermatological Conditions
- Gastroenterology
- Neonatology
Every lecture covers:
- Core clinical understanding
- Presentation and recognition
- Investigation and management principles
- Safety considerations and complications
Watch a lecture before you buy
This is the Respiratory conditions lecture: how to assess and manage the common paediatric respiratory presentations, and the follow-up questions the panel asks.
| Paediatrics ST1 Revision PlatformBuy • £85 | Paediatrics ST1 Knowledge CourseBuy • £85 | Best value • save £30Paediatrics ST1 BundleBuy • £140 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Question Bank: 45 interview scenarios | |||
| Communication, Career Motivation, Reflective Practice & Clinical Reasoning | |||
| Study Groups & Live Mocks with other candidates | |||
| Peer Feedback from a wide range of candidates | |||
| Written by high-scoring candidates | |||
| Video lectures across the core paediatric presentations | |||
| Paediatric conditions taught in depth | |||
| Be prepared for curve-ball follow-up questions |
Instant access on web and the Medibuddy app. The Revision Platform and the Bundle both include Study Groups, Live Mocks and Peer Feedback.
How to prepare for the Paediatrics ST1 interview
1. Start with the Paediatrics ST1 Question Bank
Work through all 45 scenarios across the four domains, each with a model answer from a candidate who sat the interview in 2026 and scored well. Read how a strong answer is built, then close it and rebuild it in your own words, so you can deliver it and not just recognise it.
2. Talk the hard ones through in Study Groups
Take the scenarios you find toughest into the Study Groups and see how candidates from other hospitals and deaneries approach them. What catches people out on the day usually isn't in the person specification, and this is where you hear it first.
3. Rehearse out loud in Live Mocks
The interview is spoken, so reading isn't enough. Get matched with a different Paediatrics ST1 candidate each time and take turns as interviewer and candidate on real scenarios, until answering out loud under pressure feels normal.
4. Get reviewed with Peer Feedback
Record a mock and have other members review it, so you find out how you actually come across while there's still time to fix it. Reviewing other people's mocks in return is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
5. Build the clinical depth behind your answers
Add the Paediatrics ST1 Knowledge Course for the follow-up questions the panel uses to test how far your knowledge really goes: video lectures on the paediatric presentations the Clinical Reasoning domain is built on, so when they push past your first answer you've got somewhere to go.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Paediatrics ST1 interview involve?
Four domains, each lasting up to 10 minutes: Communication, Career Motivation, Reflective Practice and Clinical Reasoning. A physical portfolio is no longer required.
How competitive is the Paediatrics ST1 interview?
Very. In 2025 there were 2,780 applicants for 476 posts, more than five candidates for every place, and once you're shortlisted the interview is the deciding factor.
Is the MSRA part of Paediatrics ST1 selection?
No. The MSRA is no longer part of Paediatrics ST1 selection, so far greater weight now falls on your self-assessment and, most importantly, your performance in the interview.
Who writes the model answers?
High-scoring candidates who sat the Paediatrics ST1 interview in 2026. That's the whole idea of Medibuddy, the buddy in the year above: the answers reflect what actually came up and what actually scored, this year.
Can I practise with other candidates?
Yes. Every purchase includes Study Groups, Live Mocks and Peer Feedback.
How do the Live Mocks work?
Join the waiting room and we match you with another Paediatrics ST1 candidate, then take turns as interviewer and candidate on real Question Bank scenarios. The point is simple: you get used to answering out loud, to a real person, before you ever sit in front of the panel.
What are Study Groups and how do they help?
They're community forums for doctors across the country preparing for the same Paediatrics ST1 interview. Ask questions, share what's coming up, and compare how you'd approach a scenario. Instead of preparing alone, you're learning from the whole cohort.
Can I get feedback on my interview performance?
Yes. Record a mock and other members review it, telling you what landed and what to sharpen. It's the honest, outside review most candidates never get before the day.
How do you keep the Paediatrics ST1 Question Bank up to date?
Twice a year. In April, after that year's interviews, we review the scenarios and model answers against what candidates actually met on the day; then again when the new recruitment guidance is published. For 2027 we updated five scenarios after candidate feedback.
Why use Medibuddy over other interview question banks?
We've spent 10 years preparing doctors for interviews, and the bank is updated every year by editors who recently sat this interview and scored well, so the scenarios reflect this year's interview rather than the one it was first written for.
And it doesn't stop at model answers. Every purchase includes Study Groups, Live Mocks and Peer Feedback, so you can practise out loud with candidates across the country. Most resources hand you a list of questions and leave you to it.
How long do I get access for?
Access runs for 12 months from purchase.
What's the difference between the Question Bank and the Knowledge Course?
The Question Bank is 45 scenarios with worked answers and all the live practice. The Knowledge Course teaches the clinical depth behind your answers with video lectures on the paediatric presentations. Most use both; adding the Course to the Platform is £55.
Start preparing for the Paediatrics ST1 interview
The Revision Platform is everything you need for the interview itself: 45 scenarios across all four domains, model answers from candidates who sat it in 2026, and Study Groups, Live Mocks and Peer Feedback so you can practise them out loud with other candidates. That's £85.
Most candidates add the Knowledge Course for £55, which brings in video lectures on the paediatric presentations the panel follows up on hardest, taught by specialty registrars who've been through Paediatrics ST1 selection. £140 for both, against £170 if you buy them separately.
Ten years preparing doctors for interviews, and the questions, model answers, live practice and clinical teaching in one place.