· 11 min read
Questions to Ask at Your Residency Interview
40 questions to ask program directors, faculty and residents, with why each one works and what to listen for, plus the questions to avoid and how to use the answers when you rank.
Ask each person two or three questions they are best placed to answer, about things the program's website does not say. Ask the program director where the program is going, faculty about teaching and feedback, and residents about workload, culture and life outside the hospital. Then listen for specifics: a real example or a number tells you far more than "we're like a family." Open any question below to see why it works and what to listen for. For the half where programs ask about you, Confetto, an AI mock interviewer for medical school and other healthcare program interviews (MMI, traditional, panel), builds residency mock interviews from your own ERAS application.
Questions for the program director
Ask about direction, change and outcomes, not daily logistics.
What are you working on in the program right now, and where do you want it to be in five years?
It shows you are thinking about the whole three or more years, not just interview day.
Listen for: A specific project, such as a new clinic site, a new track or a change to the call schedule. A vague answer about excellence tells you there is no plan.
What has changed in the program because of resident feedback in the last year or two?
Every program says it listens to residents. This asks for the proof.
Listen for: A concrete change and how it came about. If the director cannot name one, residents probably do not feel heard.
What do your graduates go on to do, and how does the program help with fellowship or job applications?
Outcomes are the clearest measure of a program, and the answer shows how invested leadership is in your next step.
Listen for: Recent examples by name of fellowship or practice setting, mentors who write letters, and time off for interviews.
What do the residents who do best here have in common?
It tells you what the program values, in its own words.
Listen for: Whether the description sounds like you. Curiosity and teamwork mean something different from toughness and speed.
Are any big changes coming, such as a new hospital, a new rotation site or a change in leadership?
Mergers and new sites change residents' days, and they can land in the middle of your training.
Listen for: An open answer with details. Changes are normal. Being vague about one that is clearly coming is not.
How do you protect teaching time on the busiest services?
Noon conference and academic half days only help if residents can actually go.
Listen for: Who holds the pagers during teaching, and how often residents miss it in a typical month.
Questions for faculty interviewers
Ask about teaching, feedback and support, and about their own path.
What do you enjoy most about teaching the residents here?
It is an easy, warm opener, and it gets them talking about the teaching culture.
Listen for: A specific story about a resident or a teaching moment. A long pause is also an answer.
How and how often do residents get feedback, and what does it look like on a busy rotation?
Feedback is how you improve, and many programs only give it at the end of a rotation.
Listen for: Feedback in the moment and a regular sit-down with a named person, not only an online form.
When a resident is struggling, what happens?
Everyone has a hard stretch in residency. This asks how the program treats people when they do.
Listen for: Coaching, a clear process and support. Words like remediation and probation in the first sentence suggest a program that punishes first.
How do residents find a research mentor, and how much time do they get for it?
Ask it if research matters for your career. It shows you have a plan.
Listen for: Named faculty who take residents, protected time or a research block, and recent resident posters or papers.
What brought you to this program, and what has kept you here?
People like telling their own story, and faculty who stay say a lot about a department.
Listen for: Whether the reasons they stay are reasons you would want to come.
What would the residents say is the hardest part of the program?
It asks for honesty without putting the interviewer on the spot.
Listen for: A real answer, ideally with what is being done about it. Then ask the residents the same thing and compare.
Questions for residents
The most honest answers, at the pre-interview social or resident lunch. Ask about workload, culture and life outside the hospital.
What does a hard week on your busiest rotation look like?
It gets you real hours and real patient numbers instead of the official schedule.
Listen for: Numbers: when they arrive, when they leave, how many patients. Laughter before the answer is worth noting.
If you could change one thing about the program, what would it be?
Every program has something. This makes it easy to say.
Listen for: A specific, fixable thing such as a rotation or a scheduling problem. If several residents name the same thing, believe them.
Would you choose this program again?
It is the most direct question you can ask, and residents expect it.
Listen for: A quick yes with a reason. Hesitation or a careful answer about the city tells you something too.
What surprised you most after you started?
It surfaces the things that are not in the presentation, good and bad.
Listen for: Whether the surprises are things you would welcome.
When something goes wrong on a shift, how do the attendings react?
You will make mistakes as an intern. How they are handled shapes your whole training.
Listen for: Teaching and a debrief rather than blame. A story about a specific attending is better than a general answer.
What happens when someone is sick or has a family emergency?
It tests whether the backup system works and whether people feel guilty using it.
Listen for: A clear backup or jeopardy system that residents actually use, with no payback expected.
How easy is it to get time for a doctor's appointment or a wedding?
It tells you how much control you have over your life, which the schedule on paper does not.
Listen for: How far ahead requests go in, and how often they are turned down.
Which rotation taught you the most, and which taught you the least?
It shows where the real teaching happens and which rotations are mostly service work.
Listen for: Whether the strong rotations are in the area you care about.
How do residents prepare for boards here, and does the program help?
Board results matter for your career, and support varies a lot.
Listen for: A question bank the program pays for, a review schedule, and what happens if someone fails.
Where do most residents live, and does the salary cover it?
Cost of living decides how residency actually feels.
Listen for: Commute times and whether residents live alone, with roommates or far away.
What do residents do together outside work?
It shows whether the residents are a group or just colleagues.
Listen for: Recent examples, not only the welcome party.
How do residents with partners or kids make it work here?
If it applies to you, it is a fair question for residents, and they will answer it plainly.
Listen for: Childcare options, schedule flexibility and how leave has worked for people who took it.
Questions built from your own goals
The best questions connect you to the program: "I am hoping to [goal]. How have residents here done that?" Only ask about goals you really have, because the interviewer will follow up.
Four examples
- I am hoping to apply for a cardiology fellowship. How have recent residents who matched in cardiology found mentors and research here?
- I would like to keep teaching during residency. Is there a medical education track or a role teaching students?
- I want to practice in a rural community after training. Which rotations would give me that experience?
- I spent two years doing public health work before medical school. Are there residents doing advocacy or community projects, and how do they find time for them?
Questions by specialty
Two for each of six specialties.
Internal medicine
- How close do the ward teams usually run to the patient cap?
- How much elective time do residents get to try out subspecialties before fellowship applications?
Family medicine
- Do residents keep the same clinic patients for all three years, and how big is a panel by graduation?
- How much obstetrics and procedural training do residents get?
Pediatrics
- How is time split between the children's hospital and community or outpatient sites?
- How do residents get NICU and PICU experience?
Emergency medicine
- How many shifts a month do residents work, and how long are they?
- How much time do residents spend at a community site compared with the main academic center?
General surgery
- When do residents start doing parts of cases themselves, and how does that grow by year?
- Are research years expected, and how are they funded?
Psychiatry
- How much psychotherapy training do residents get, and who supervises it?
- How is training split between inpatient units, outpatient clinics and consult work?
How to follow up on an answer
Most of what you learn comes from the second question. If a resident says night float is a lot, ask "What makes it hard, and has anything changed since you were an intern?" You learn whether the problem is being fixed, and they see you listened.
Questions to avoid
Anything the website already answers, such as how many residents you take.
It tells the interviewer you did not look.
Instead: Start from what the website says: "I read that interns have a clinic half day every week. How does that work on night float?"
Salary, vacation and benefits, asked to the program director or faculty.
They are fair questions, but the answers are in the program's written materials, and they are not the best use of a faculty interview.
Instead: Read the materials first, then ask residents how vacation and time off work in practice.
"How will you rank me?" or "Am I going to match here?"
The NRMP's rules say you should not ask a program how it will rank you, and it puts the interviewer in a bad spot.
Instead: Tell the program you are interested, if you are, and ask what they look for in residents who do well.
"How often can I leave early?" or questions about moonlighting as your first question.
Leading with time off makes it sound like your top priority.
Instead: Ask residents what a hard week looks like. The answer tells you the same thing.
Yes or no questions, such as "Is the culture good here?"
Every interviewer will say yes, and you learn nothing.
Instead: Ask "If you could change one thing about the program, what would it be?"
Questions that compare the program unfavorably with another one.
It sounds like the program is your backup.
Instead: Ask about the thing you care about directly: "How do residents here get procedures?"
Using the answers to build your rank list
Write three lines the evening of each interview, then rank every program you would be happy to attend, in your true order of preference. The NRMP's algorithm tries your first choice first and only moves down when a program cannot take you, so a reach program at the top never costs you one lower down. Certify the list by March 3, 2027, 9 p.m. Eastern.
Three habits on interview day
- Ask the same three resident questions everywhere: a hard week, what they would change, and whether they would choose the program again.
- Write three lines the same evening: what stood out, what worried you, and one thing a resident said.
- Compare residents with leadership. When their answers match, trust them. When they do not, trust the residents.
How the Match uses your list
The algorithm is applicant-proposing: it places you at the highest program on your list that ranked you and has a spot, or prefers you to someone it is holding. Placements stay tentative until every list is processed. Say you rank Program A, Program B, Program C, Program D:
- Program A has filled its spots with applicants it ranked above you. The algorithm moves to your second choice.
- Program B ranked you and has a spot open, so you are placed there tentatively.
- Later, an applicant Program B ranked higher than you also lands there, and B is full. You are bumped and the algorithm tries Program C.
- Program C ranked you and prefers you to someone it was holding. You stay at C, and when every list has been processed the match is final.
Programs C and D never affected your chance at A or B. Listing them only gave you somewhere to land.
Source: NRMP, The Matching Algorithm
2027 rank list dates
- Standard registration deadline ($50 more after): January 29, 2027, 11:59 p.m. Eastern
- Ranking opens: February 1, 2027, 12 p.m. Eastern
- Rank order list certification deadline: March 3, 2027, 9 p.m. Eastern
- Match Week: you learn whether you matched, SOAP begins: March 15, 2027, 10 a.m. Eastern
- Match Day: where you matched: March 19, 2027, 12 p.m. Eastern
How many programs to rank
There is no right number for everyone. The NRMP advises including every program you would accept, because a longer list never lowers your chances at the programs higher up. For how many programs matched and unmatched applicants ranked, see NRMP's report on rank order list length and Charting Outcomes.
Building the list, step by step
- Cross off programs you would not attend. Ranking a program is a binding commitment if you match there, so leave off any program where you would not be happy to train.
- Order the rest by where you want to train. Not by where you think you will match. The algorithm tries your first choice first, so a long shot at the top costs nothing.
- Keep every program you would accept. A longer list does not hurt your chances at the programs near the top. It only adds places to land. Include at least one program you are confident about.
- Check every track and program code. Many programs have more than one track, such as categorical, primary care or preliminary, and each one you rank is a separate rank with its own code.
- Add supplemental lists if you rank advanced programs. Advanced (PGY-2) programs start after a preliminary year. Link supplemental lists of preliminary programs to them, or you could match to an advanced spot with no first year.
- Certify, then check your status. Only certified lists are used. Any change after certifying needs a new certification before the deadline.
Mistakes the NRMP warns about
- Ranking by where you think you will match. NRMP's own advice is to rank in your true order of preference and to go for your reach program. Order cannot lower your chances.
- Ranking a program you would not attend. If you match there you are committed to train there. Leave it off.
- Ranking a program where you did not interview. Programs only rank applicants they interviewed, so it cannot produce a match.
- Leaving off programs you would accept. NRMP advises including every acceptable choice. A short list mostly raises the risk of not matching.
- Ranking the wrong track. Check the program name, track and NRMP program code of every rank against the program's materials.
- Advanced programs with no preliminary backup. If you match an advanced program but none of its linked preliminary programs, you are still committed to the advanced spot and must find a first year in SOAP or after.
- Changing the list and not certifying again. A changed list has to be certified again. The system keeps only the latest version, and only certified lists are used.
- Waiting for the last evening. NRMP warns the system can be slow near the deadline. Certify a version a few days early and adjust it if you need to.
- Couples putting “No Match” pairs too high. NRMP says pairs with the No Match code belong at the bottom, so both partners have the best chance of matching to programs.
What ranking costs
Registration covers a set number of programs, and longer lists, couples and late registration cost extra. Fees are charged when you certify and are not refunded. For the current amounts, see NRMP's Match fees page.
Telling your first choice? See residency letters of intent. For what programs will ask you, see the residency interview questions guide.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions should I ask at a residency interview?
Two or three for each interviewer, and more at the resident social. Bring 10 to 12 written down for each program so you can skip the ones the day already answered. Asking one good question and a follow-up beats rushing through five.
Is it OK to ask about salary, vacation and benefits?
Yes, but read the program's written materials first, since most of it is there. Ask the residents how time off works in practice rather than asking the program director or a faculty interviewer for the numbers.
What if all my questions were already answered?
Say so, then build on it: "The presentation covered the clinic schedule, which was my main question. How does it work during ICU months?" You can also ask the interviewer about their own experience, such as what has kept them at the program.
Can I ask about parental leave?
Yes, and residents are the best people to ask. Since July 2022 the ACGME has required the institutions that sponsor residency programs to offer at least six weeks of paid medical, parental and caregiver leave once during training. What varies is how the team covers you and whether the time extends your training, which depends on your specialty board. Ask a resident who took leave how it went.