I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Apple (Cupertino, CA) in Jan 2013
Interview
I got a cold call from a recruiter with Apple. I did a 1:1 with the hiring manager was was invited the following week to interview in Cupertino. I had 4 interviews including one with the hiring manager whom I met on the telephone call. That was about the only interview which went well. I found his staff and I did not click at all, with the 3rd interviewer forgetting about me, and I sat in a meeting room alone for an hour wondering what was going on. He came in after being an hour late and had no idea what I was applying for, who I was, and had no questions for me. He asks me "what is the difference between a segmentation fault and a page fault". I almost missed my plane home.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
This was my first interview with an engineering team within IS&T at Apple and felt like the 3 interviewers were overly harsh. Don't be surprised if they say "write a shell script on the board", or ask subnetting questions (e.g. IP address to binary) or get heavy into networking questions for a Systems Admin job. I was surprised, and didn't really find a lot of the questions fair for the job classification. I was not impressed that I was left alone and forgotten.
I applied online. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Apple (San Diego, CA) in Dec 2023
Interview
Roughly 12 hours over 6 weeks of interviews between 15 people, some in pairs, most individual, almost all technical-focused with a big emphasis on work ethic, personality and communication skills.
Single round interviews until final 2 days, then 5 round technical, followed up by 3 rounds with senior management.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Apple (Phoenix, AZ) in Apr 2013
Interview
Apple is careful about selecting the right people. The typical interview process involves many interviews with various levels to ensure you are the right fit. I interviewed with the recruiter twice, 3 potential peers, and two separate managers. Having a great knowledge of the Apple history is helpful. Understand how Apple differentiates itself from its competitors is a key. They do not do everything, but pride themselves on what they do.