Long and prescriptive. The competencies are straight forward but the additional questions asked around strengths feel arbitrary and they say you cannot prepare for them. It included a presentation aswell as interview questions.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Home Office (London, England) in Oct 2020
Interview
Standard application on CS website, invite to interview if pass mark is over 4 on each competency. Got the job 2 weeks after interview. Usually I have received offers over the telephone than through the standard CS offer accepted email.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Making effective decisions
Collaborative examples
Seeing the big picture
Communicating and influencing
Very slow process from application to offer, but is to be expected. Overall staff were friendly and because of the civil service competencies it was easy to prepare. All questions were straightforward and no real curveball.