I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Apple in Mar 2017
Interview
I have applied through the website. After few weeks a recruiter for that group contacted me via email and scheduled a phone conversation with her. After she scheduled a phone interview with the hiring manager that was about 1 hour technical discussion. I had another phone interview with another person for about 1 hour. Then they invited me onsite for a full day of interviews with 5 or more engineers, one hour each. Topics ranged from Cocoa development, software architecture, but most of interviews was knowledge-specific in detail. So my advice is to know your stuff.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Apple (Sunnyvale, CA)
Interview
Had a referral so had a quick call and was invited onsite pretty quickly. I thought onsite went great, but heard nothing for a month and later told they job wasn't available anymore. Pretty sketch.
Call with HR led to her scheduling an initial call with the hiring manager.
I specially drove back home from office for this call. No one called me. I called HR, left a voicemail but no response. I emailed HR and again, no response. If you are planning on missing an interview let the other party know. You literally waste other person's time and energy. Not informing the person even after the event time is even more unprofessional. Great disappointment from Apple!
Highly disappointed with Apple.