Prepare for Stage 3
What the assessment centre actually contains, the behaviours the interview is built around, and the ground the knowledge questions cover.
This page prepares you for the interview only.
Stage 3 is three separate things: the competency interview, an ATC knowledge test drawn from the document pack NATS sends you, and an observed retest of the Stage 1 and Stage 2 ability tests to confirm your earlier results were genuinely yours. Nothing here prepares you for the other two. The knowledge test comes from your pack — read it. The retest is the same exercises you have already sat, so keep practising them right up to the day.
NATS doesn't publish its interview questions, its knowledge-test syllabus or a marking scheme, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing. Everything here comes from what NATS states publicly, standard air traffic control knowledge, and the competency areas the established guides agree on. The knowledge test itself is drawn from a document pack NATS sends you before the centre — read that pack; it's the only source that counts.
It's a virtual assessment centre
Stage 3 is held over Microsoft Teams rather than in person. Treat it like a real interview: somewhere quiet, a tidy background, good light, and a wired or reliable connection. Test your camera and microphone the day before, not five minutes before.
Three things happen, not one
NATS describes Stage 3 as containing an interview, an air traffic control knowledge test, and a retest of your earlier ability tests while you're observed. Candidates who prepare only for the interview get caught by the other two.
The interview
A competency interview with a single assessor. It covers why you want the job, what you understand it to be, and evidence from your own life against a set of behaviours. Candidates consistently describe the interviewers as friendly and professional — it is not a stress interview, but it does follow up.
The knowledge test
Around 30 questions, drawn from documents NATS sends you before the centre — the invite carries the link and password. That pack is the only source that counts. Read it properly, more than once, and don't substitute it with crowdsourced flashcard decks: those go stale between campaigns and carry other people's errors.
The observed retest
Some of the Stage 1 and Stage 2 ability tests again, with an assessor watching, to confirm the earlier results were genuinely yours. There is no trick to this — if you sat the originals honestly, you simply need to be in the same shape on the day. Keep practising the tests right up to the centre.
What happens next
Pass Stage 3 and you're invited to Stage 4, the practical exercise, held virtually or face to face at the Whiteley office. Stage 3 centres run from September 2026 and Stage 4 from December 2026.
What we simulate, and what we don't
Our mock covers the interview, and finishes with a few knowledge questions because the real centre asks them in the same sitting. We don't simulate the observed retest — that's your Stage 1 and Stage 2 tests again, and those are already in the app, so keep practising them right up to the day.
Reading it isn't the same as saying it
Knowing your examples on paper and getting them out loud, in order, while someone follows up on the vague bits are different skills. The mock interview is where you find out which one you have.