The medical school curriculum at the Federal University in São Carlos (UFSCar) is competency-based and uses active learning methods. The current study aimed to identify and assess the construction of problem situations (PS) used in the Course on Problem Situations at the UFSCar School of Medicine from 2006 to 2009. For data collection, 81 problem situations were selected by the first class from the first to the fourth years. A case study was carried out with descriptive analysis and a qualitative-quantitative approach. The analytic variables were: gender, age, occupation, religion, skin color, outcome of the situation, phases of the health-disease process, scenario, dimensions (biological, psychological, and social), competency areas (individual care, collective care, management, and education), and knowledge areas. The study showed that elaboration of the problem situations is consistent with the literature, since they relate to Brazil's socio-demographic and epidemiological profile. The study also identified other characteristics related to the format, such as writing in dialogues and the choice between short and long situations.