Original data, free to cite
What Health Professions Schools Actually Ask
We classified 11,382 school-specific interview questions across 663 dental, medical, PA, and pharmacy programs into sixteen themes. Here is what applicants are really being asked, field by field.
11,382
Questions classified
663
Programs covered
16
Themes tracked
Dental school interview questions: what comes up most
Based on 1,291 questions across 76 dental school programs. Percentages are the share of that field's question set.
- Personal background and story40.5% (523)
- Stress and resilience6.8% (88)
- Self-awareness and failure6.7% (87)
- Teamwork and conflict6.1% (79)
- Why this profession5.3% (69)
- Service and community4.3% (55)
- Patient and clinical experience4.2% (54)
- Ethics and professionalism4.0% (52)
What to do with this: Have one tight origin story and be able to tell it in ninety seconds without listing your whole resume.
See the breakdown for your dental school programMedical school interview questions: what comes up most
Based on 3,588 questions across 205 medical school programs. Percentages are the share of that field's question set.
- Personal background and story48.8% (1,750)
- Why this profession7.4% (264)
- Patient and clinical experience7.2% (258)
- Ethics and professionalism5.4% (192)
- Problem solving and hypotheticals5.0% (181)
- Self-awareness and failure4.2% (150)
- Leadership and initiative3.0% (107)
- Research2.8% (99)
What to do with this: Have one tight origin story and be able to tell it in ninety seconds without listing your whole resume.
See the breakdown for your medical school programPA program interview questions: what comes up most
Based on 3,914 questions across 230 pa program programs. Percentages are the share of that field's question set.
- Personal background and story28.8% (1,127)
- Teamwork and conflict14.3% (560)
- Diversity and cultural awareness13.2% (515)
- Self-awareness and failure12.2% (479)
- Why this profession11.2% (438)
- Patient and clinical experience9.3% (363)
- Service and community2.9% (112)
- Problem solving and hypotheticals2.2% (86)
What to do with this: Have one tight origin story and be able to tell it in ninety seconds without listing your whole resume.
See the breakdown for your pa program programPharmacy school interview questions: what comes up most
Based on 2,589 questions across 152 pharmacy school programs. Percentages are the share of that field's question set.
- Personal background and story37.3% (966)
- Teamwork and conflict9.0% (232)
- Self-awareness and failure6.8% (177)
- Ethics and professionalism6.5% (168)
- Patient and clinical experience5.6% (144)
- Stress and resilience5.3% (136)
- Why this profession5.0% (130)
- Problem solving and hypotheticals4.8% (124)
What to do with this: Have one tight origin story and be able to tell it in ninety seconds without listing your whole resume.
See the breakdown for your pharmacy school programMethod and citation
Every question in the Intervly bank is tagged to one of sixteen themes and to the program it was collected for. Counts here are the totals of those tags, not a sample or an estimate. Question text stays private to protect the bank; only the classification counts are published. Programs without enough collected questions are excluded from their field's totals.
This data is free to reuse, including by journalists, advisors, and pre-health organisations, with attribution and a link to this page.
Cite this page
Intervly. "What Health Professions Schools Actually Ask: Interview Question Report." Updated 2026-08-25. https://intervly.com/interview-question-report
Last updated 2026-08-25.