diff --git a/flink-table/flink-table-common/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/table/utils/PartitionPathUtils.java b/flink-table/flink-table-common/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/table/utils/PartitionPathUtils.java
index 98842c482d4a72..200ab726b4f899 100644
--- a/flink-table/flink-table-common/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/table/utils/PartitionPathUtils.java
+++ b/flink-table/flink-table-common/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/table/utils/PartitionPathUtils.java
@@ -341,7 +341,11 @@ private static void listStatusRecursively(
         }
 
         if (fileStatus.isDir()) {
-            for (FileStatus stat : fs.listStatus(fileStatus.getPath())) {
+            FileStatus[] children = listStatusWithoutHidden(fs, fileStatus.getPath());
+            if (children == null) {
+                return;
+            }
+            for (FileStatus stat : children) {
                 listStatusRecursively(fs, stat, level + 1, expectLevel, results);
             }
         }
diff --git a/flink-table/flink-table-common/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/table/utils/PartitionPathUtilsTest.java b/flink-table/flink-table-common/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/table/utils/PartitionPathUtilsTest.java
index 8aa9816a450df8..99eb394deb1be8 100644
--- a/flink-table/flink-table-common/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/table/utils/PartitionPathUtilsTest.java
+++ b/flink-table/flink-table-common/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/table/utils/PartitionPathUtilsTest.java
@@ -18,13 +18,26 @@
 
 package org.apache.flink.table.utils;
 
+import org.apache.flink.api.java.tuple.Tuple2;
+import org.apache.flink.core.fs.FileSystem;
+
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.io.TempDir;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.Path;
+import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
+import java.util.List;
 
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
 
 /** Tests for {@link org.apache.flink.table.utils.PartitionPathUtils}. */
 class PartitionPathUtilsTest {
 
+    @TempDir
+    Path tmpDir;
+
     @Test
     void testEscapeChar() {
         for (char c = 0; c <= 128; c++) {
@@ -87,4 +100,38 @@ void testEscapePathNameWithCurlyBraces() {
         assertThat(actual).isEqualTo(expected);
         assertThat(PartitionPathUtils.unescapePathName(actual)).isEqualTo(origin);
     }
+
+    /**
+     * FLINK-38774: {@link PartitionPathUtils#searchPartSpecAndPaths} must not descend into hidden
+     * directories. A hidden dir such as {@code _temporary} may contain non-hidden children (e.g.
+     * {@code job-123}) at partition depth; without skipping hidden dirs those children leak into
+     * the result with an empty partition spec, which later surfaces as a {@code TableException:
+     * incomplete partition spec}.
+     */
+    @Test
+    void testSearchPartSpecAndPathsSkipsHiddenDirectories() throws IOException {
+        org.apache.flink.core.fs.Path basePath =
+                new org.apache.flink.core.fs.Path(tmpDir.toString(), "country_page_view");
+        FileSystem fs = basePath.getFileSystem();
+
+        // Real partition: date=2019-8-30/country=China
+        Files.createDirectories(
+                Path.of(
+                        tmpDir.toString(),
+                        "country_page_view",
+                        "date=2019-8-30",
+                        "country=China"));
+        // Hidden _temporary dir whose non-hidden child sits at partition depth (2).
+        Files.createDirectories(
+                Path.of(tmpDir.toString(), "country_page_view", "_temporary", "job-123"));
+
+        List<Tuple2<LinkedHashMap<String, String>, org.apache.flink.core.fs.Path>> parts =
+                PartitionPathUtils.searchPartSpecAndPaths(fs, basePath, 2);
+
+        // Only the real partition is returned; the _temporary subtree is skipped entirely.
+        assertThat(parts).hasSize(1);
+        assertThat(parts.get(0).f0)
+                .containsEntry("date", "2019-8-30")
+                .containsEntry("country", "China");
+    }
 }