I applied through other source. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Apple (Cupertino, CA) in Sep 2022
Interview
Three 15 minute phone calls with various people. Pretty chill and easy. But I heard that other people had hard interviews. You will do great. Believe in yourself. You got this.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Apple (San Diego, CA) in May 2022
Interview
Contacted by recruiter and set up for a 45 minute technical interview a week later. Questions ranged from my experience and my personal input into my different experiences. Also tested on specific equations used to solve certain problems, the exact variables that went into them, and the units that went into each variable to come to the output's units.
They also asked for what you would do in different engineering scenarios at Apple.
Had a bit of a negative taste in my mouth after answering the scenario questions in my few rounds of interviews that ended in me being a bit turned off to the company. I am not sure if this is an Apple thing or not, but they would give me a scenario and two options of what to do (there is generally a "right" and a "wrong" answer here). I would answer the question and give my justifications. The only thing was, after I answered the question, they would go on to say "Are you sure you would want to do that? Think about the problem in this way, I don't think your answer is correct," or something similar.
I would re-assess, but end up saying with the given information, I hold firm on what I would do, but am interested in hearing what they had to say about it.
Here is the kicker, they would say I was correct with my answer, but the way I went about choosing it was incorrect... then explain what they would do by... recapping my own justification for why I selected it. They would laugh to themselves explaining it, and I couldn't tell if this was because they knew they were screwing with me, or misunderstood what I said, or what. I must have done at least OK, because I got the offer in the end.
Either way its a bummer because they are a great resume builder and firm, but I can't see myself working under management that almost seems like they are trying to mess with me out the gate.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why select a ductile material over a brittle material?
What are the components to calculate deflection in a cantilever beam, and the units of these components?
When would you use the mod-goodman theorem over the distortion energy theorem? Give equations for each use case and provide personal experience with these theorems if possible.
When would accept something statistically insignificant in a design?
Mix of technical and behavioral questions, technical questions were more open ended to allow for creativity and test for technical knowledge prowess. Behavioral questions were mainly about portfolio and resume, and project experience.