Radiology: Specialty Training Interview Questions Australia
The radiology questions that sit on top of the specialty training core: clinical scenarios, the system and governance questions specific to the specialty, and presentation titles.
Updated 24 October 2026
The structures these questions are marked on
- STAR Situation in a sentence, Task: what you had to do, Action: what you did in the first person, Result: the outcome with a number where there is one. Add Reflection for STARR. Full guide →
- ETHICS Establish the facts and capacity, Think through the four pillars and name the tension, Hear the other side fairly, Identify two or three options, Choose a patient centred action with the next step, Safeguard and document. Full guide →
- SAFER See the patient, Assess systematically with ABCDE, Fix what you can and decide, Escalate with a clear request in SBAR or ISBAR, Review: the patient told, the handover, the documentation and what you would do if the first plan failed. Full guide →
- The What it is in a sentence, Why it matters with a fact, What it means for this organisation and specialty, What I would do at my level and how I would measure it. Full guide →
Motivation
Evidence of commitment over enthusiasm: rotations, courses, audits, exams sat. Know the programme's stages, exams and rural requirements. Say what you would bring to a rural site, not just that you are willing to go.
- Asked in most interviewsUsually asked by the head of department
Why radiology, and what have you done to explore the specialty beyond requesting scans?
Evidence of exploration: time in the department, reporting sessions observed, a radiology project, a course, the anatomy and physics looked at. Why radiology in terms of the work: the diagnostic puzzle, the consulting role, the procedures. Panels are wary of candidates choosing it for the hours.
- Asked in most interviewsUsually asked by the staff specialist colleague
What do you know about the RANZCR training programme, its examinations and the time commitment to study?
The phases, the examinations and when they fall, the subspecialty rotations, the supervision. Two accurate sentences, then the honest acknowledgement that the study load is heavy and how you would manage it.
- Asked in most interviewsUsually asked by the head of department
What makes you suited to radiology, and what will you find hardest?
Qualities with evidence: visual pattern recognition, attention to detail, comfort with uncertainty, the ability to say no to a referrer. Then the honest difficulty: the examinations, the isolation of the reporting room, the volume, the critical finding missed.
- Often askedUsually asked by the staff specialist colleague
How do you see the role of the radiologist changing with artificial intelligence, and how would you prepare for it?
What the tools do now, what radiologists do that they do not, the likely future of supervision and integration, your own preparation, and the safety and governance angle. A view with honesty about the uncertainty, not a slogan either way.
- Often askedUsually asked by the head of department
Which areas of radiology interest you, including interventional work?
An area with reasons from what you have seen, including whether interventional work appeals and why. Openness about how training will shape it.
Communication
One real conversation, stepped through, with the outcome. For the family refusing analgesia or treatment, explore the belief, involve an interpreter or cultural liaison, explain without pressure, and find the acceptable option. Practise ISBAR until it is automatic.
A referrer is pushing for an urgent CT you believe is not indicated. How do you handle the conversation?
Ask what the clinical question is first. Explain your reasoning in terms of the patient: radiation, contrast, yield, the better alternative. Offer the alternative. If the referrer insists, escalate to the consultant rather than refusing outright or giving in. Keep the relationship.
Tell us about a time you communicated a critical or unexpected finding to a clinician.
A real example: the finding recognised as critical, the direct phone call, the result stated plainly, the read back, the name and time documented, the escalation if unreachable. If you have none, describe the process and the hospital's critical results policy.
A patient is anxious about radiation from a scan. What do you say?
Acknowledge the worry, explain the dose in terms they can grasp, explain why the scan is needed and what would be lost without it, say what is done to keep the dose low, offer the alternative if there is one, and check they feel able to proceed.
Ethics and professionalism
For the supervisor, stay professional, use the supervisor of training and the college channels, and keep patients safe. Define cultural safety as the patient's experience and give your own actions. Know mandatory notification and open disclosure.
You notice a significant abnormality on a scan reported as normal by a colleague six months ago. What do you do?
The patient first: find out whether treatment has been affected and tell the treating clinician now. Then the consultant and the colleague, without blame. An addendum to the report, open disclosure through the treating team, and the incident process. Say what you would do if the colleague asked you not to raise it.
A clinician asks you to change a report because they disagree with it. What do you do?
Discuss it: look at the images together, hear their reasoning, and if you were wrong add an addendum and say so. If you were not, explain why the report stands. The report is your professional opinion and is not altered to suit a referrer. Involve the consultant if it matters to the patient's care.
A pregnant woman needs imaging. How do you balance diagnostic need against radiation risk?
The clinical need weighed against the fetal dose, the modality without ionising radiation chosen where it answers the question, the dose minimised where it does not, the discussion with the referrer and the woman, and the documentation. Say that a needed scan is not withheld because of pregnancy.
Clinical scenario
Systematic assessment, treat what you can, escalate early and clearly even when the consultant is distant, use retrieval and telehealth where they apply, and say what you would do afterwards. A safe answer that asks for help beats a clever one that does not.
A patient becomes unwell with wheeze and hypotension after contrast. What do you do?
Recognise the reaction, stop the contrast, call for help, adrenaline for anaphylaxis at the right dose and route, oxygen, fluids, the resuscitation trolley, and the documentation and reporting afterwards. Say the dose and that you would stay with the patient.
A trauma patient arrives for a CT and becomes unstable in the scanner. What do you do?
The scan stops, the trauma team is called, resuscitation in the department with the equipment the scanner room has, and the scan resumed only when the patient is safe. Say what you would do if the patient arrested on the table.
Talk us through how you would approach a chest X ray on a breathless patient and what you would look for.
A systematic method said aloud: the technical quality, then the structures in order, with the breathless patient's differentials in mind: consolidation, effusion, pneumothorax, oedema, the mediastinum, the bones, the lines and tubes. Say what you would compare with and what you would phone about.
A patient with a suspected stroke needs imaging. What is the pathway and what matters about time?
Time is the measure: the stroke team alerted, the non contrast CT first to exclude haemorrhage, then the angiography and perfusion imaging for the thrombectomy decision, reported immediately. The registrar's job is to make the imaging happen fast and report it fast.
System knowledge
Know the programme's requirements in detail. Name three current pressures and link each to your specialty. Be able to explain clinical governance and the standards most relevant to your work in a sentence each.
What are the main pressures on public radiology services, and how do they affect patient care?
Imaging demand rising faster than the workforce, reporting turnaround, teleradiology and outsourcing, the cost, and the gap for rural hospitals. Say what a registrar can do about one.
Guides
How to answer what they actually ask
Artificial intelligence and the future of radiology: answering the question in the interview
Nearly every radiology selection panel asks about artificial intelligence. What the question is testing, the considered view that scores, and how to talk about the changing role of the radiologist without either fear or hype.
Radiology training interview questions every panel asks
RANZCR selection is network and hospital based, with structured panels and in some states a situational judgement test. The questions that recur, from why you want to read images rather than request them to the contrast reaction in the department, and what the panel scores.
Saying no to a referrer: communication in radiology selection
Radiology is a consulting specialty and panels test whether you can decline an unjustified request, communicate a critical finding, and reassure an anxious patient. The scenarios that recur and how to answer each.