The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Apple in Oct 2009
Interview
I was contacted by a recruiter after posting and applying to multiple positions online. The recruiter set up a phone interview with one of the members of the iPhone Applications team. The interview started on time and after introducing each other the manager quickly began to ask technical questions. The initial questions had to do with some of my previous work experience and algorithms and design approaches I used to solve the problems.
The final question (and the one that stumped me) had to do with the implementation of a text autocompletion system. No matter what position you're interviewing with, I would make sure that you have brushed up on some fundamental data structures.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The iPhone has a feature for when a user begins to enter a contacts name or email address a list of possible matches is built. How would you implement this in order for the search to perform quickly and change each time a user inputs a character?
Application Submission:
Candidates submit their applications through the company's career portal or job boards.
Resume Screening:
Recruiters or hiring managers review submitted resumes to shortlist candidates based on their qualifications and experiences.
Initial Contact:
Shortlisted candidates receive an initial contact, which may be an email or a brief phone call. The purpose is to confirm interest, provide additional information about the company and the role, and potentially schedule a more in-depth conversation.
Phone Screen:
Candidates undergo a phone interview with a recruiter or a member of the hiring team. This interview may cover the candidate's background, experience, skills, and initial assessment of their fit for the role.
ongoing
First round was to speak with the hiring manager and the engineering manager I would report to. Second round was to speak with the VP of the team. The interview was mostly behavioral with 2 coding questions. Overall, good experience.
I had two half hour interviews, each with an engineering manager. They were more conversational. I didn't get asked any coding questions, but was asked a lot of specific questions about my resume and past experience. I had a positive experience with the interview but they took a long time to get back to me afterward and didn't respond when I followed up.
Software Engineering applicants have rated the interview process at Apple with 2.7 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 80% positive. To compare, the company-average is 64% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineering roles take an average of 12 days to get hired, when considering 20 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Apple overall takes an average of 29 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Apple as a Software Engineering according to 20 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 43%
Skills test: 17%
One on one interview: 13%
Presentation: 9%
Group panel interview: 4%
Personality test: 4%
Drug test: 4%
IQ intelligence test: 4%
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