AbstractScenario-based exercises employing fgurants are frequently used in vocationaleducation worldwide. The purpose of these exercises is to help the students developpractical knowledge and skills on their way to becoming professional practitioners.While previous research often concentrates on the exercises’ design, level of realismand complexity, there is a knowledge gap regarding the use of fgurants, not leastwhen it comes to advantages and disadvantages with diferent fgurant types. The aimof this study is to investigate how, why and in what type of exercises fgurants are usedin Swedish police education. The empirical material derives from interviews with teachers, students, and fgurants from fve Swedish police education programmes, focusingon the interviewees’ experience of the use of internal, external, and semi-external fgurants in distinctive exercises. The three fgurant types were attributed specifc efectson the implementation of exercises and were perceived as having diferent advantagesand disadvantages depending on the purpose of each exercise, the impact being particularly noticeable in relation to levels of realism, permissive environments, the counterpart perspective, safety concerns, feedback, and simulation competence. The choiceof fgurant type has an equally important impact on the outcome of the scenariosas other factors, and there is a need for more research on the use of fgurants in relationto student learning.