Application process
Civil Service Competency Based Interview Questions (2026 Update)
Published
The Civil Service stopped using the competency framework in 2018. Interviews still ask the same past-example questions, but they are scored against the nine behaviours in Success Profiles rather than against ten competencies.
If you are preparing from competency-era material, almost all of it converts. What does not convert is the old level descriptions, and the assumption that behaviours are the only thing being assessed.
What actually changed in 2018
Three things, in descending order of practical impact.
The ten competencies became nine behaviours, with some merged and several reworded. Collaborating and Partnering became Working Together. Building Capability for All became Developing Self and Others. Setting Direction split its content across Seeing the Big Picture and Leadership. The substance of what is rewarded moved less than the names did.
More significantly, the framework became one element among five. Success Profiles allows behaviours, strengths, ability, experience and technical, and the advert names which apply. A competency-era candidate who prepares only past examples can walk into a strengths block unprepared, which is the most common way this transition catches people.
And the level descriptions changed. The old framework had its own competency levels; behaviours now have grade-specific descriptors from AA to SCS, and those descriptors are what panels physically tick.
The question style is nearly identical
This is the reassuring part. A competency question and a behaviour question look the same.
| Old competency phrasing | Current behaviour equivalent |
|---|---|
| "Give an example of when you collaborated with others to deliver" | Working Together |
| "Describe a time you made a decision using limited information" | Making Effective Decisions |
| "Tell us about a time you improved a process" | Changing and Improving |
| "Give an example of delivering to a tight deadline" | Delivering at Pace |
| "Describe how you have developed a member of your team" | Developing Self and Others |
If you have a bank of competency examples, the conversion work is a relabelling exercise plus one genuine check: does each example evidence the behaviour at the descriptor level for the grade on the advert. The behaviours guide sets out what each one now rewards.
Why some adverts still say competency
Three reasons, and the distinction matters for how you prepare.
Older templates persist inside departments, and a hiring manager reusing a 2017 advert is not unusual. Some arm's-length bodies, NHS organisations, local authorities and other public sector employers never adopted Success Profiles and genuinely still run competency frameworks of their own. And "competency-based interview" survives as generic recruitment vocabulary meaning any past-example interview.
The practical response is the same in all three cases: read the named criteria rather than the label. If the advert lists things that look like the nine behaviours, it is a Success Profiles campaign whatever it calls itself. If it lists criteria you do not recognise, it is a different framework and those criteria are your mark scheme.
What "experience" questions mean now
Experience is a separate Success Profiles element and is frequently confused with competency questions.
A behaviour question asks how you acted. An experience question asks what you have done: the knowledge and mastery you have built against the essential criteria in the advert. It is usually assessed through a CV or personal statement at the sift rather than at interview, and the failure mode is answering it with one deep STAR story when it wanted breadth mapped against every criterion.
Where experience is assessed at interview, expect questions like "what experience do you have of managing a budget?" rather than "tell me about a time you managed a budget." The first wants your track record; the second wants one event. The five Success Profiles elements covers how each is assessed and where.
Converting old preparation, practically
Four steps, and an afternoon is enough.
- Take each competency example you already have and identify which of the nine behaviours it now evidences. Most map cleanly; a few split across two.
- Check each against the grade descriptors on the advert rather than against a general sense of quality. This is the step that catches strong old material pitched at the wrong level.
- Check what else the advert assesses. If it names strengths, prepare those separately, because rehearsed strengths answers score badly and the format catches competency-trained candidates hardest. The strengths guide covers it.
- Re-check length. Competency answers were often longer; the current interview allows two to three minutes per behaviour, with probing follow-ups that need the time.
The full set of current question patterns by behaviour is in the interview questions hub.
If you are applying outside the Civil Service proper
Worth separating, because a lot of competency-framework recruitment is adjacent to the Civil Service without being part of it.
NHS organisations, local authorities, many arm's-length bodies, the devolved administrations and some regulators run their own frameworks with their own criteria and their own scoring. The question style is the same past-example format, so your material transfers, but the criteria names and level definitions do not.
The rule that holds everywhere is to take the criteria list in the advert as the mark scheme and address each one explicitly. Where a Civil Service application would map to behaviours, these map to whatever the organisation publishes, and the discipline of covering every listed criterion rather than writing generally about yourself is what separates a pass from a rejection in both systems.
Common questions
Not by that name. The Civil Service Competency Framework was replaced by Success Profiles in 2018. Interviews still ask past-example questions in the same style, but they are scored against the nine behaviours rather than ten competencies, and other elements sit alongside them.
Largely renaming and re-scoping. The ten competencies became nine behaviours, several were merged or reworded, and the 2018 change added strengths, ability, experience and technical as separately assessable elements. The question style is almost unchanged.
Yes. The phrasings are nearly identical and a well-built competency example converts to a behaviour example with a relabel and a calibration check. What does not convert is the old competency framework's level descriptions, which have been replaced.
Habit, older templates, and some arm's-length bodies and public sector employers outside the Civil Service proper that never adopted Success Profiles. Where an advert says competency, read the named criteria: they usually map straight onto the nine behaviours.
A question testing the Experience element of Success Profiles, which assesses your track record against the advertised essential criteria. It is usually assessed through a CV or personal statement rather than at interview, and where it appears at interview it asks what you have done rather than how you behaved.
Practise before the real thing
Reading how panels score is step one. The candidates who pass are the ones who practised saying their answers out loud — and got scored feedback against the official Civil Service Behaviours framework before interview day.
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