Thank you for your interest in becoming a Los Angeles City Firefighter.

For those candidates who passed the written multiple-choice test and submitted a valid CPAT, LAFD is offering free interview preparation seminars to assist you as you prepare for your Firefighter oral interview. Check your mail, e-mail, and this website for information on future interview preparation seminars.

It is anticipated that EVERYONE that took the written test will be processed based on the hiring needs of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

PLEASE BE ADVISED - CPAT PROOF WILL BE PROCESSED IN THE ORDER IT IS RECEIVED. In determining the number of candidates that will be scheduled for each interview session, consideration will be given to the hiring needs of the Los Angeles Fire Department and available City resources, including sufficient City funding to support Firefighter hiring.

The LAFD Firefighter exam is extremely competitive! Over 13,000 applicants were scheduled for the written test and over 9,500 candidates took it! Then, about 6,500 passed, and all who passed were instructed to submit proof of a valid CPAT on April 22, beginning at 8:00 am.

Because this exam is so competitive and there are so many candidates, the majority of CPAT proofs were received within the first hour! In order to be as fair and objective as possible, we process the CPAT proofs in order, based on the time that they were received in Personnel (not the time they were sent).

As a result, between candidates lined up around the Personnel Building, emails, and faxes, by 8:01 a.m. we had more than enough candidates to process for the first round of interviews!

So, the candidates whose CPAT proofs were received in the first minute are the first to receive an interview. But, the remaining candidates who submitted a CPAT will be interviewed at a later date. Future interviews will be scheduled to meet the hiring needs of the LAFD. And, by hiring needs, we mean the number of Drill Tower Fire Academy classes that LAFD conducts over the next months and years, and the number of Recruits they hire for each of those classes.

So, again, although not every candidate can be processed with the first group for the first drill tower, they will be scheduled for interviews and processed for future drill towers, based on LAFD's hiring needs.

On a related note, we have been told that some candidates sent their CPAT proof email at exactly the same time as another candidate but were not scheduled for an interview, while that other candidate did get scheduled. Candidates were scheduled based on when the CPAT proof was received, not when it was sent. While we don't know what could account for this, common reasons for emails being sent at the same time but being received at different times include internet server issues, differing devices, cyberspace issues, and the volume of emails sent at the same time.

We recognize that becoming a Firefighter with the LAFD is a significant goal for the vast majority of our Firefighter candidates. And we know that, in pursuit of this goal, many candidates have engaged in significant effort and expense. Please be assured that the LAFD and the Personnel Department are aware of and are sensitive to that fact.

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