Apple Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – I actually heard back about a month after applying for the Specialist job. I was then invited to the hiring event which included about 30 other candidates as well as about 10 current employees interviewing you. You watch a couple videos in a group setting, then are split into groups of about 3 or 4 to get interviewed by 1 employee. The questions they ask are a lot about "tell me a time when...." After this hiring event, I heard back the day after via phone for a 2nd interview which is a panel interview. This one was with 3 or 4 of different store leaders and market leaders. This one is definitely more serious and formal than the first one. Here, they ask you 'what separates you from other candidates?" etc. After this interview, I received a phone call about a week later for my final interview with the store leader. This final interview was more of the leader telling me about the position and just an informal getting to know me type of interview.

Interview Details – Very casual and laid back interview. The interviewer was a nice guy who seemed like he wanted me to get the job. After the interview there was little contact from Apple until I received a call one morning offering me the job. After I accepted there again was not much contact until a few days before orientation. Orientation was informational but unnecessarily long.

Interview Details – The interviewing was pretty easy. I initially signed up for a Skype interview, but since Skype was seeming to malfunction (big surprise) Apple just decided to call me for the interview. I talked to a very encouraging and friendly lady for about 20 minutes. She explained everything about the position, asked a few questions, and accepted questions with a very polite attitude. I've never been so comfortable for an interview. She asked things like what is RAM, hard drive, and a processor. Also, she asked what was my experience with Apple prodcuts (which was only ipods and ipads fyi), and she also gave me situations and asked how I would help the customer troubleshoot their product. Overall, the questions weren't as difficult as I expected. To be honest, I am definitely no tech expert. My answers for the RAM hard drive processor question was: the RAM deals with memory and it determines how much a computer can process, the hard drive is the storage system for the computer, the processor is like the engine of the computer and it determines how smooth it runs. I swear to god, I felt like I was pulling the BS right out of my butt. But, she said I had excellent answers. Anyway, it was a pretty lax, and easy interview.

Negotiation Details – Well, I would say as a college student don't try to do much negotiating. I was pleasantly surprised when they offered me 11.25 an hour.

Interview Details – Filled out app online on 5/2, got a 5 min quick chat on 5/6. Had 2nd interview 5/8, then 3rd interview on 5/10.

Interview Details – I gave my resume to a friend who works at Apple, who submitted it on their job site with his name attached as a referral. My application targeted several open positions that I thought matched my skills. I started receiving emails from Apple recruiters from various teams in a couple of days. Some of the recruiters talked to me about positions that I don't remember applying for and were beyond my capabilities, so I had to turn some of them down. In the end I ended up being scheduled phone screens with two separate teams.

Team A's phone screen almost entirely general, with one extremely basic technical question ("What is an affine transformation?"). This one led to a second phone screen two weeks later that was slightly more technical but still heavily focused on my experience. In the end I did not make it past this stage.

Team B's phone screen on the other hand ran the gamut of generic programming interview questions:
"Describe an interesting problem and how did you debug/solve it."
"What is const correctness?"
"What is the mutable keyword in C++ used for?"
"What is the difference between a list and a vector?"
We didn't talk about my experience or anything on my resume at all. But the evening after the phone screen, I was contacted by the recruiter via email informing me that the team would like me to interview me onsite.

As I already live in the area, I was responsible for getting myself to their headquarters so I have no idea how they manage interviews with non-local folks. My first interview was at 11:15am. I planned to get there at 10:45am just to be safe, but parking was so bad that I didn't end up checking in until 11:05am. Luckily I decided to be early! In general, parking at the main campus is an awful experience if you arrive after 10am.

The interview itinerary was as follows:
2 engineers (45 minutes)
1 engineering manager (lunch + interview) (1 hour)
1 recruiter who I talked to on the phone (30 minutes)
2 engineers (45 minutes)
2 engineers (45 minutes)
2 engineers (45 minutes)
1 engineering manager (45 minutes)

I received one break in between the engineering manager and recruiter interview only because I requested to use the restroom. Aside from that my schedule was back-to-back interviews and it was honestly a very draining experience.

The interviews all involved writing coding solutions in C on a whiteboard. The problems themselves were mainly contrived variations of string and list manipulations, and character permutations. Unlike the interview process of a certain other notorious tech giant, they didn't care much about time complexity or improving solutions. Once I came upon the solution that the interviews seemed to be looking for, they immediately moved onto the next one. The problems alone were not terribly difficult, but there is the consideration of nervousness and anxiety that turns an intermediate problem into a difficult one. While I was able to get the right answer for every problem, I definitely wandered down the wrong path and went in circles a bit before arriving at the correct response.

The day after the onsite interview, I received an email from the recruiter saying that the team thought I would be a good fit, but I needed to talk to one more higher level manager who happened to be on vacation. So fast forward another two weeks and I'm on the phone with him. His questions are fairly general and he seemed to be mainly interested in selling the position to me rather than attempting to identify whether I qualify for the position, which I saw as a very good sign.

A couple of days after that, the recruiter contacts me again and provides me with an offer.

Negotiation Details – Reading a couple of negotiation books beforehand, I knew going in that the person who drops a number first usually loses. That being said, the recruiter's experience in negotiation crushed mine and I ended up telling him my current salary first, much to my disappointment. When he asked how much I was looking for, I figured that I had little to lose and gave a high ball number (but still reasonable). He said he would talk to the director about it and get back to me.

The next day, they gave me a counter offer. However, the offer was even higher than my high ball number, and they added RSUs and a signing bonus on top of it. I had never heard of a company that did that.

I accepted the offer immediately.

Interview Details – I had the worst interview experience at Apple. Here's what happened

I was interviewed for a position of entry level EMC engineer and I got dumped at the very last stage of the interview process. I am PhD student with years of research experience in EMC but after considering me for senior EMC design engineering position, they decided to interview me for the entry-level position as I had no industry experience. Understandable! In fact I clearly told them myself that I have none. Moreover my resume was complete and I had listed all my experience in a clear manner.

This entry level position's requirements were BS/MS and the position was for someone who is willing to start a career in EMC. The description was very sketchy.

I cleared two phone interviews, one of them a technical interview that lasted for more than 2 hours. Then they called me to Cupertino,CA to interview with the team for the first day and if selected, with the senior management on the second day. I felt that the first day was good. Except the director that I met in end looked completely disinterested from the moment he entered the room and asked some technical questions. The questions sounded simple but the way he asked was hard to understand. When finishing I asked him if I gave the correct answers, he told me he doesn't know.....Why did he ask the question if he did not know the answers himself? This is electronics, not philosophy that has no right answers!

Regardless I was told by the recruiter while leaving that the hiring manager really likes my profile so she thinks that I am going to get a call for the second day. And as expected, it came late in the night. I received and email congratulating me for my selection for the 2nd day.

However the next morning I got an email saying that after careful consideration the team has decided not go any further with me. I then received a third email inviting me to come and meet the iPhone team in the afternoon!!???? I asked them what's going on. Then I got a call from the recruiter saying that I am rejected and reason for rejection is, "I do not have industry experience" and "technological back ground does not match with the requirement".

Bottom line, there was a lack of co-ordination between different people in the group. Clearly someone had interfered with the decision of the hiring manager in the morning and they did not hesitate even once to disturb and annoy the candidate. They actually did not seem to know who they were looking for and with what back ground.... that's why probably they came-up with such a sketchy job description. They kept me hanging-on for two months and then flew me eight hours across the country to reject me on things that were so obvious from my resume from day-one. No industry experience is lamest excuse as they interviewed me for an entry-level position and they tested my technological background for 2 freaking hours before flying me to Cupertino. Didn't they realize then that it did not match their requirements??

I really think that the reason was something else and they were trying to hide it.

Of course there was no use of talking to them about it anymore . They never gave me the contact info of the hiring manager or any senior in the group. And the recruiters are typical HR people who are trained to give crap after goofing-up.

Interview Details – Applied online and was contacted by a recruiter within a week. The recruiter scheduled an interview for the next afternoon. The interview was with technical manager for the department the position was in. Interview questions included questions to assess familiarity with their product, basic linux knowledge, css and questions about your personal history using a mac computer.

Interview Details – I tried to work at Apple and got all the way up to the 2nd interview. The first one was quick and they asked me about my previous work experience and explained how the process for hiring would go if they decided to continue with me. The second interview focused on my experience with apple products, when I was willing to work, and why I wanted to work with Apple. I didn't pass that one because my school schedule didn't allow me to work the hours they needed.

Interview Details – I have to say, I was very insecure about this interview. I submitted my application and was called within 5 minutes. (seriously) I was scheduled for an interview via FaceTime a few days later and spoke with a very friendly interviewer. The interview was intense in the sense that I needed to know my stuff. She asked different questions where I was placed in a scenario.After that, I was invited to a second interview with a supervisor. This was very laid back and I felt comfortable. With this interview he let me know that he appreciated my honesty and my willingness to learn. Its important to be great with customers if you're not that tech savy!

Negotiation Details – I received a call to discuss pay and was told that I would receive an official email where I later accepted.