The purpose of this study was to identify the the factors that influenced pre-service teachers' perceptions of their abilities to solve structured physics problems. 1185 pre-service teachers from different disciplines, enrolled in physics courses in one Turkish University from 2008 to 2017 participated in a descriptive survey. The factors influencing the pre-service r physics problem-solving abilities, ranking from most to least, were as follows: personal characteristics; quality of secondary or university physics teaching; secondary school physics education, and physics learning environment. The study implies the need for: (i) equal opportunities; (ii) knowledge integration; and (iii) learning affordances, which are relevant not only to Turkey but also to worldwide physics education.