Texas Civil Service Firefighter Exam 2026: 70% Floor

Start with the city's civil service notice. That notice names the vendor, the date, and the study booklet. Chapter 143 requires the notice in city hall and the commission office before the tenth day before the exam (Tex. Loc. Gov't Code §143.024, official capitol text, current through the 89th Legislature, 2nd Called Session 2025, retrieved 2026-08-22). The TCFP jobs board lists openings. It does not name this test.

30-second answer. The written exam is general aptitude, not the TCFP structure test. Five veteran points land after a passing grade. Buy the booklet the notice names.

The 4-week drill lives on Texas Civil Service Firefighter Exam: A 4-Week Plan. Vendor pages and sample items live on Texas civil service firefighter exam prep. This page is the order of operations.

What the notice has to tell you

§143.024 requires the commission to post, in plain view on a city-hall lobby board and in the commission office, the position, date, time, and place of the exam, and how long the eligibility list will last. If that posting is missing, email the civil service office and ask for the vendor and product name. Do not guess FireTEAM because a forum used that word.

Chapter 143 applies to a municipality of 10,000 or more with a paid fire or police department that has voted to adopt it (§143.002). Confirm the city you want actually adopted the chapter. A suburban department that never held that election is not running this exam.

The numbers Chapter 143 actually publishes

The grade on the list is the written score plus any §143.025(f) points, on a 100-point written scale (§143.025(i)). A child of a fire fighter who died in the line of duty, who then makes a passing grade, is ranked at the top of that list (§143.025(j)).

There is no statewide 90-or-you-get-called rule. Clearing 70 puts you on the list. The state does not publish a table of who gets called at 80.

If you served in the United States armed forces, received an honorable discharge, and already made a passing grade, five points are added. Chapter 143 does not add a second statewide bump for combat service or for a service-connected disability. Local rules can add paperwork. Bring what that notice names.

A Chapter 143 entrance examination must be free. When a city tests through NTN, NTN charges a base testing fee plus a fee for each department you add, set out in its cost table (NTN FAQ 1, read September 8, 2026). Pay only what that notice and the NTN checkout show.

You cannot sit the same list twice. When the list expires, the commission posts a new exam. That is not a statutory 12-to-24-month lockout.

Each police officer and fire fighter covered by the chapter must be able to read and write English (§143.023(f)). Ask the civil service office what forms they will put in front of you.

How to prepare, in order

1. Get the notice. Print it or save the PDF. Circle the vendor, product name, date, and the booklet it names.

2. Buy that booklet. Denton applicants: the city Fire & Emergency Careers FAQ, retrieved 2026-08-18, points to the FPSI CEB Candidate Orientation Guide. The next Denton fire exam is in 2026. The date is not posted. Use that guide, not FireTEAM, unless a later official notice names a different instrument.

3. Take a baseline timed practice. Use the RTS practice exam after the official guide, not instead of it. The RTS set is original aptitude practice. It is not the city's exam.

4. Drill the weak sections the vendor actually tests. Texas notices name the vendor and the product. Denton's civil service FAQ names FPSI's CEB; the other two vendor families you will meet on notices are IO Solutions and National Testing Network's FireTEAM. Confirm the product name on that city's notice. Subject mix is in the paid guide, not in a statewide percentage table. The 4-week sequence is on the study-plan page.

5. Train the physical that city actually runs. The written exam is one gate. Denton runs its own department PAT after background and polygraph (city FAQ, 2026-08-18). Train that course with How to Pass the Denton Fire Department PAT. Dallas Fire-Rescue uses CPAT. Houston Fire uses a Physical Ability Test Packet. Train the sheet on the notice.

What this exam is not

It is not the TCFP Basic Structure exam. Fire knowledge is tested in academy. It is not a personality hiring panel, even when a vendor adds a behavioral inventory. It is not a score that transfers to another Chapter 143 city. NTN sends your scores to each department you designate and keeps them for one year (NTN FAQ 13 and 17, read September 8, 2026); that is a vendor feature, not Chapter 143 transfer.

Do not study a generic "firefighter exam" book until the notice names an instrument. Do not count on a ten-point combat bonus the statute does not write. Do not plan around a six-to-twenty-four-month list the statute does not write.

After you have a rank

Keep the rest of the Texas hiring picture in view: how to become a firefighter in Texas. If the department hires uncertified, the cheaper test of a medical exam is whether to do fire academy or EMT school first. Denton candidates: the department page is Denton Fire Department.

Last verified: 2026-08-22 (Chapter 143 capitol text). Denton FAQ retrieved 2026-08-18.