I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Apple in Apr 2014
Interview
Was referred to the company by a friend and contacted by a recruiter within 2-3 weeks. Interview process went by fairly smoothly, with only two technical phone interviews. Both these interviews were with members from the prospective team I would be joining and I got a call from the recruiter about a week after the second interview with the offer. Everything was handled very cordially and the recruiter was available by email to answer any questions I had. Make sure to review data structures and search algorithms for the technical questions. I would also say that showing great interest in Apple products and being able to express why you want to work at the company is just as important as doing well on the technical questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Easy warmup question like reversing a string and then some more difficult ones involving search algorithms and data structures. Overall the interview process and questions asked are represented fairly well on this site.
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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