Patent Examiner applicants have rated the interview process at US Patent and Trademark Office with 3 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 100% positive. To compare, the company-average is 100% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Patent Examiner roles take an average of 42 days to get hired, when considering 1 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at US Patent and Trademark Office overall takes an average of 42 days.
Common stages of the interview process at US Patent and Trademark Office as a Patent Examiner according to 1 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 50%
Background check: 50%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied online. The process took 5 months. I interviewed at US Patent and Trademark Office
Interview
I interviewed in June of 2013. The interview questions were:
•Define the USPTO and what they do.
•Describe the last confrontational situation you were in and how you solved it.
•Describe a situation/project where you had to prepare a technical paper/presentation.
•When was the last time you had an assignment that had to get completed quickly and how did you organize/manage your time.
When was the last time you had to convince your supervisor that he/she did not necessarily believe in and what did you do to try to persuade them.
•How would you describe the process for patents?
•How do you handle constructive criticism?
I was very relaxed, it seemed as if they just wanted to know if you could do a lot of solo work and able to manage several different assignments at the same time. Also, I strongly recommend that you do your research on the art units and technologies. That really helped me out when answering follow up questions from my responses.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
When was the last time you had to convince your supervisor that he/she did not necessarily believe in and what did you do to try to persuade them.
I interviewed at US Patent and Trademark Office (Washington, DC)
Interview
Online Hirevue interview. Interview was simple and brief. Questions were related to the general breadth of patents as a whole along with various personality questions. You are given multiple attempts to record your answers.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
"Give us a time where _____ happened and how you responded"
I applied through a staffing agency. I interviewed at US Patent and Trademark Office (Oxnard, CA) in Jun 2026
Interview
I've only done the digital one, where I recorded myself, and it was fairly easy. You got chances to redo your recording, which was nice, and you had a minute before you read the question to prepare your answer. I found it to be intuitive.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What was one time you had multiple things to do? How did you prioritize those things, and how did you complete them? (that's the gist of the question)
I applied online. I interviewed at US Patent and Trademark Office (Alexandria, VA) in Jun 2026
Interview
1st round: Hirevue interview, pretty simple, they asked 5 questions and you have the opportunity to retake each question 1 time. Total length was about 25 minutes.
2nd round: In-person interview scheduled a week after.