Guide
FIRE DEPARTMENT INTERVIEW GUIDES BY STATE
15 departments across five states. Panel format, scoring criteria, and what actually decides who gets hired vary a lot more than most candidates expect. Find your department below, or start with the general prep guide if you are not testing anywhere specific yet.
NOT TESTING ANYWHERE SPECIFIC YET?
CALIFORNIA
- Los Angeles Fire Department oral interviewEight scored criteria, behavior-based, 70 to stay on the list.
- LAFD vs LA County Fire oral interviewSame city, opposite hiring logic: interview score vs written test score.
- Orange County Fire Authority oral interviewTwo interviews: a scored panel, then a Chief's interview for fit.
- Long Beach Fire Department oral interviewCaptain's interview with a community member, then a Chief's interview.
- City of Sacramento Fire Department oral interviewChief's interview weighted 60 percent against the oral board's 40.
- San Diego Fire-Rescue oral interviewRuns its own Civil Service Exam, not FCTC. Applications open every 1 to 2 years.
- San Francisco Fire Department oral interviewTwo interviews, and the oral board explicitly scores your knowledge of the city.
- San Jose Fire Department oral interview5 to 8 panel questions, not necessarily fire-related, then a Chief's interview.
TEXAS
- Houston Fire Department oral interviewCivil service process with a recruiter interview stage.
- Austin Fire Department oral interviewNo live panel. Your answers are video recorded and rated by assessors later.
- San Antonio Fire Department oral interviewA 230-question written exam gates everything before the interview.
- Dallas Fire-Rescue oral interviewDoes not publish its interview structure. Hard eligibility gates before you apply.
ARIZONA
NEW YORK
ILLINOIS
Testing somewhere not listed here? Most oral boards share the same underlying structure, so the interview prep guide still applies. If you have heard your department's exact questions on a station visit, add them to a custom practice board and get scored on them before the panel asks.
HOW DO TEN CALIFORNIA-AREA FIRE DEPARTMENT ORAL BOARDS COMPARE?
LAFD publishes the most detail: eight named criteria, a two to three person panel, and a minimum passing score of 70. Houston and Phoenix run comparable behavioral panels but do not publish their scoring sheets. LA County is structurally different from the rest: it does not run a scored oral board at all. Rank comes from the FCTC written test score, and an interview only happens for candidates already in the top band. OCFA, Long Beach, Sacramento, and San Francisco all run a two-stage panel-then-chief (or Command Staff) structure. Sacramento is the outlier worth noting: its Chief's Interview is weighted 60 percent against the oral test's 40, making it the deciding stage rather than a fit check that comes after scoring is locked in. San Diego is the odd one out entirely: it runs its own Civil Service Exam instead of FCTC, and publishes almost nothing about the oral interview itself. San Francisco is the only department that explicitly scores your knowledge of the city. San Jose is the only one that publishes how many questions the panel asks.
| LAFD | Houston | Phoenix | LA County | OCFA | Long Beach | Sacramento | San Diego | San Francisco | San Jose | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panel size | 2 to 3 | Panel plus a 1-on-1 recruiter interview | Panel, size not published | Not published | Not published | Captain's: 2. Chief's: 2. | Not published | Not published | Not published. Two stages: preliminary panel, then Command Staff. | Not published |
| Minimum passing score | 70 | Not published | Not published | 70% on FCTC written test | See note, verify on live bulletin | Not published for interviews. 70 on the written Human Relations Video. | 70% on the EMS Skills Test to reach the interviews | Not published for the interview | 70% on the FCTC written test | Not published by the City |
| Who sits on it | Fire Department, Personnel Department, community reps | Department staff and a recruiter | Department staff | Not published | Panel interview, then a separate Chief's interview | Captain's: 1 captain + 1 community member. Chief's: 2 chiefs, BC to Deputy Chief. | Panel of department officers, then a Chief's interview | Not published | Preliminary: uniformed members. Command Staff: Executive Officers, may include the Chief. | Oral: City and Fire Department personnel. Chief's: Fire Administration senior staff plus the Fire Chief. |
| Published scoring criteria | 8 named criteria | Not published as a list | Not published as a list | Not published | Not published as a list | Not published as a list | Not published as a list | Not published | Assessed areas named, not published as weighted scores | Competencies named, not published as weighted scores |
| Question style | Behavior-based: what you have done, not what you would do | Behavioral plus scenario and motivation | Behavioral plus scenario and motivation | No scored interview. Rank comes from the written test score. | Panel assesses knowledge, skills and abilities. Chief's assesses organizational fit. | Structured questions on experience and communication, then a fit interview | Situational and behavioral | Not published | Community knowledge, motivation for public service, problem solving, communication | 5 to 8 questions, not necessarily fire-related |
| Eligibility list validity | 1 year from interview date | Certified list, duration varies by cycle | Varies by hiring cycle | 12 months | Lists do not carry over. Previous list members must reapply. | Not published | Requires active FCTC statewide list status at final filing date | 1 year | Not published | Not published |
| Notable emphasis | Respect for Diversity and Service Orientation are scored criteria | 24 college credits or 2 years military required to apply | Heavy weight on community service record | Written score cannot be improved once you apply, so it is the highest-stakes number in the process | Biddle must be retaken with OCFA even with a current certificate | Chief's interview expects working knowledge of the city, its diversity, and the department | Chief's interview weighted 60%, oral test 40% | Runs its own Civil Service Exam, not FCTC. Applications open roughly every 1 to 2 years. | Explicitly assesses knowledge of San Francisco's population, hazards and the department itself | Invitations are by best combination of scores and qualifications, not strict rank order |
“Not published” means the department does not release that figure publicly, not that it does not exist. Confirm details against your department's own hiring bulletin, since criteria change between cycles. Heard something different at a station visit? Add those exact questions to a custom board and practice against them.
HOW DO HOUSTON, AUSTIN, SAN ANTONIO, AND DALLAS COMPARE?
Houston runs a recruiter interview alongside its panel and does not publish scoring criteria. Austin is the outlier of the four, and arguably of every department covered on this site: there is no live panel, your Structured Oral Process response is video recorded and rated by assessors afterward. San Antonio gates everything on a 230-question written exam before the interview stage is even reached. Dallas does not publish its interview structure at all. What appears here for Dallas comes from candidate reports, not the department, and is labeled that way.
| Houston | Austin | San Antonio | Dallas | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panel size | Panel plus a 1-on-1 recruiter interview | Not published. No live panel: responses are video recorded. | Not published | Not published |
| Minimum passing score | Not published | Not published | 70% on the SAELFE written exam. Oral score not published. | Not published |
| Who sits on it | Department staff and a recruiter | No one, live. Trained assessors review and rate the recording later. | Not published | Not officially published. Candidates report a DFR officer panel, then a Chief's Interview. |
| Published scoring criteria | Not published as a list | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Question style | Behavioral plus scenario and motivation | Video-recorded responses to a structured prompt, reviewed after the fact | Not published | Not officially published. Candidates report scenario-based questions on judgment, teamwork, integrity and communication. |
| Eligibility list validity | Certified list, duration varies by cycle | Not published | 12 months from date of approval | Not published |
| Notable emphasis | 24 college credits or 2 years military required to apply | You are being rated from a recording, not read by people in the room. Rehearsing with a friend practices a different skill than the one being scored. | 230-question SAELFE written exam, about 3 hours, gates everything before the interview | Hard eligibility gates before any interview: college credit or TSIA or 48 months military service, and an age cap of 36 on the day the written exam is given. |
“Not published” means the department does not release that figure publicly, not that it does not exist. The Dallas interview structure is attributed to candidate reports, not the department. Confirm details against the live hiring bulletin before you rely on them, since processes change between cycles. Heard something different at a station visit? Add those exact questions to a custom board and practice against them.
PRACTICE FOR YOUR DEPARTMENT
Station Visit runs you through a full mock oral board and scores every answer. Add your own department's questions once you have them. Your first interview is free.
Start for freeAbout the author
LUKE — FIREFIGHTER-PARAMEDIC
Luke is a working firefighter-paramedic with several years on the job, including time on the other side of the hiring table. He has sat on multiple oral boards and run mock interviews with candidates who went on to get hired, and watched strong candidates lose spots to people who simply interviewed better. The scoring rubric behind Station Visit was built with input from captains and battalion chiefs with 20 to 30-plus years in the fire service. He built Station Visit after running out of ways to tell friends the same thing: your answers are too generic, and you will not find that out until the panel has already scored you.
Last name and department withheld. Station Visit is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or speaking for any fire department, and keeping the department out of it keeps it that way. More about Station Visit