Physician interview questions at Duke University School of Medicine
158 verified questions reported by Physician candidates interviewing at Duke University School of Medicine. Each one is archetype-tagged so you can see the pattern, slot the right STAR story, and practice out loud against an AI interviewer that pushes back the way a real one would.
Top 25 verified questions
Sorted by quality score (specificity, clarity, practice-worthiness) with a tie-break on most recently observed.
- 1A stressed resident asks you to deliver bad news to a family. What do you say?situational
- 2How would you respond to a student refusing to treat an HIV-positive patient without gloves?situational
- 3Tell me about a specific research project and why it captured your interest.behavioral
- 4An 80-year-old patient with congestive heart failure and kidney disease refuses dialysis. How do you respond?situational
- 5How would you choose whether to give a drug to a patient that asked for it by name, but where there wasn't a solid evidence base for its use?situational
- 6Pretend I am an 80 year old woman with CHF and kidney failure who is refusing dialysis. What would you do?situational
- 7Your terminally ill grandfather asks for help ending his life. What do you do?situational
- 8A close friend reveals they're HIV positive. What do you say?situational
- 9A patient requests a specific medication without solid evidence supporting its use. How do you decide?situational
- 10I loved your essay on a moral or ethical dilemma. Can you describe in more detail how you dealt with the situation?behavioral
- 11What was your most memorable service experience and what did you learn about yourself?behavioral
- 12Which book—'Complications' or 'Better'—resonated more with you and why?behavioral
- 13Tell me about this research project and why it interested you.behavioral
- 14Describe a time you couldn't help someone. What did you learn?behavioral
- 15Tell me about an ethical dilemma you've encountered and how you handled it.behavioral
- 16Why MD and not public health, nurse, or another healthcare profession?behavioral
- 17Describe a time you stood up for yourself despite facing consequences.behavioral
- 18Tell me about Dr. X and your research with him.behavioral
- 19Discuss the ethical dilemma you wrote about in your secondary application.situational
- 20How would you address cultural barriers preventing appropriate healthcare?situational
- 21How do you think your interest in philosophy is relevant to medicine?behavioral
- 22Given insurance company constraints, why pursue medicine?behavioral
- 23Why hasn't your research been published yet?behavioral
- 24What's your greatest regret, and what did you learn from it?behavioral
- 25Med school is a challenging time personally. What is your support system like at school right now?behavioral
Common questions
It varies by round — phone screen typically covers 5–8 questions, on-site loops cover 15–25 across multiple interviewers. The full Duke University School of Medicine Physician loop tends to surface 30+ distinct prompt patterns, which is what we've banked here.
Yes — every question on this page is verified, meaning at least one candidate reported being asked it in a real Duke University School of Medicine interview. We don't pad the list with generic prompts that weren't reported.
Pick three to five of the questions below in your weakest archetype, run them through the practice tool out loud, and read the per-answer feedback. Most candidates who get an offer report 8–15 practice sessions in the two weeks before the interview.
The behavioral questions stay roughly the same; what changes is the bar on the answer. At more senior levels, Duke University School of Medicine expects more concrete business outcomes, more stakeholder management, and more scope in the stories. The technical bar also shifts upward.
Read them. Then practice them.
The list is the start. The reps are what move the score. First sample question is free.