Status: 1 YOE @ top 50 tech company in the bay area.
Position: Human Engineering SDE1 (Develop tools for other engineers) @ Apple
Location: Cupertino, CA
Date: Mid January over a 2 week period

Recruiter reached out to me through email. I did not apply for this position, but applied previously to other positions.

I got rejected before reaching a technical interview. Feels bad man.

Round 1 (30 minute phone call with recruiter):

• Tell me about yourself?
• What classes have you taken?
• Would you prefer software for software or software for hardware?
• What area of SDE are you interested in?
• What's does the perfect position look like to you?
• Are you interested in the position? If you're not interested I can refer you to other positions?
• What is inheritance? But don't use any examples they teach you in school and give a real world example.
• What is polymorphism?

Round 2 (30 minute phone call with hiring manager):

• Tell me about yourself?
• What classes have you taken?
• Tell me about this experience? (For every position on my resume)
• What languages are you familiar with?
• What SDE positions are you interested in?
• What does the perfect/dream team/job look like to you?
• Why are you interested in apple?
• Why do you think apple products are so great?
• Why are you interested in apple, regardless of our products?
• Why are you interested in apple, regardless of this position?
• Why are you interested in apple and not your current work place?
• Are you interviewing somewhere else?
• Why would you leave your current job?

Round 3 (Take home assignment):
Did not make it to this round, but was told this was the next step.

Round 4 (Onsite)
Did not make it to this round, but was told this was the next next step.

Thoughts (I'm salty):

Honestly, I'm really salty. I've been applying to apple for atleast ~3 years and I finally landed an interview, but failed the HR screen. I study leetcode for around 3 hours everyday and I have around ~275 questions solved at the moment.

Round 1
At the start, he asked about my Full stack experience and I said I mostly worked with Backend and not Frontend. He seem really annoying and said "That's really weird. Why is your position fullstack then?" Ever since then he just seemed annoyed.

Before the first phone call, I didn't know what to expect because I haven't seen the formal job summary. What I was told during the call..

• Unique high profile group
• Flagship products, including the iPhone
• Wireless product development
• Interfaced with Product Design, HW Test, Component Design
• Run/manage user studies
• iOS
• Web
• Presenting data to other teams and managers

Not very specific. During the phone call, I had trouble understanding what the position actually was. He described how they had people in an apartment and they would study their reactions to different scenarios.

I think I failed the interview when he asked, software for software or software for hardware? I said software for software, but he was expecting software for hardware. I was confused about this question as well. He started the conversion asking about my hardware experience since I'm computer engineering. I mentioned how I was not interested in hardware positions and instead wanted SDE. For some reason after this questions, I got the impression that he thought I wasn't interested in the job. He said "Are you interested in this position? Because if not I have a million other positions that I can refer to you right now in other departments?"

Round 2
I was told this round was technical, but it was only recruiter questions. He kept asking me why I was interested in working for Apple, but everytime I answered he wanted a different answer. He was looking for a specific philosophical answer that has nothing to do with the team I'm applying for or the product I would be working on. At the very end, I asked what the next steps are and he said "first I need to compare notes with the recruiter" and at that point I knew I was rejected. I really feel like the previous phone call set me up to fail. I also don't think the hiring manager understood that I didn't apply for this position and that the recruiter reached out to me.

The conversation

Why are you interested in Apple?
I've been using apple products for almost a decade.
Why do you like apple products?
Apple has an amazing design
Why would you leave XYZ and work for Apple?
I have more of a passion for Apple products
Why would you work for apple regardless of the products?
I like XYZ about the position and it sounds really interesting
Why would you work for apple besides what the position is?
I don't understand, can you clarify?

He finally stops asking and says something about Tim Cook and how Apple employees are hard workers and feel good when a product is released because of the time and effort they put into it and how they don't want to be around mediocre people.

I have 4 internships and 1 YOE @ top 50 tech company. I made it to the onsite at Amazon last year. I've never not passed the recruiter screen. Feels bad.

Overall

I had a poor experience and I feel like the recruiter did a bad job of describing the position. When he asked very specific questions about it, I wasn't able to answer correctly. Also believe I wasn't even meant to pass the 2nd phone call interview. Next time I'll ask for the formal job description before talking with anyone.

It seems odd to me that I really need to prove my interest in the position and Apple when they are the ones that cold emailed me when I already have a job.