Apple Interview Questions

Apple is the world's second-largest tech company by market valuation. Being so successful, Apple chooses its candidates very carefully. Apple’s technical interview is definitely the hardest and the most unique among the other FAANG companies. Apple does not disclose too much detail about its hiring process, and neither do the employees (not even anonymously, on job portals). After all, Apple is known for its secrecy, in addition to its flagship products. 

If you are preparing for a tech interview, check out our interview questions page and salary negotiation ebook to get interview-ready! Also, read Apple Interview Process Guide 2021 and How Hard Is It to Get a Job at Apple? for specific insights and guidance on Apple tech interviews.

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Strategic practice is the key to cracking tech interviews. In this article, we’ll list Apple interview questions and cover some important information to help you with your prep, including: 

• What Is the Apple Interview Process Like?
• Apple Interview Questions
• How to Prepare for the Apple Interview
• FAQs on Apple Interview Questions

What Is the Apple Interview Process Like?

To land a job at Apple, you need to be familiar with their interview process. You can expect up to 9-12 rounds of interviews before bagging an offer. Here’s a breakdown of the Apple interview process:

Phone Screen

There can be up to 2 phone screen rounds. It will be a 30-minute informal conversation with a recruiter, who will assess your interest in Apple and the role and how well you will fit in the team. The first call will be with an internal recruiter, but the second call might be with a team lead since all the openings at Apple are team-specific. You will be asked questions on your academic qualifications, professional achievements, and your past projects.

Recommended reading: Apple Phone Interview Questions

FaceTime interview

This is a unique round that takes place in an Apple interview process. There can be up to 5 FaceTime interviews. These will be one-on-one interviews, which last roughly 30 minutes each. In this round, you will be assessed on your technical as well as behavioral skills. Few of these questions will require a lot of introspection.

Technical Assessment

The technical phone screen will be with a hiring manager or a team lead from the team you will be joining. In this interview, you will be judged on your resume and a few questions around data structure and algorithms. You will have to use a tool called Codility, a shared editor, to solve the coding questions. These take 45-60 minutes, and you will have 30 minutes to code.

Recommended reading: Apple Interview Questions to Crack the Technical Interview

Onsite Interview

After the two phone screens, you will face the onsite or virtual onsite interview. The invitation for this interview might take up to 2 weeks. Here, you will be judged on your domain knowledge and other skills like passion and patience. It can last up to 6 hours, where around 8-12 people will interview you. In some cases, the number also might go up to 15. The onsite interviews will be a combination of behavioral, domain knowledge, and coding questions.

 These interviews will last up to 45-60 minutes each. You can also have two people interviewing you at the same time. So, be prepared to be cross-questioned by the second interviewer while you are still writing the code. They might also bomb you with many questions like a rapid-fire round to judge your patience and focus. Stay calm and understand the question well before answering.

Check out The Ultimate Guide to Crack Apple’s On-site Interview for more.

Apple Interview Questions

In this section, we’ve covered a few sample interview questions asked at Apple, categorized by roles and types of questions.

Apple Interview Questions by Roles

Apple Software Engineer Interview Questions:

1. You are given an array of strings; now determine if there are any three integers whose sum equals the given value.
2. Merge the overlapping intervals of an array and return a new output array.
3. Clone a directed graph by creating a deep copy.
4. Merge two sorted linked lists so that the resulting linked list is also sorted.
5. Determine whether two binary trees are identical when you are given the roots of both.

Check out Apple Software Engineer Interview Questions for more.

Apple Engineering Program Manager Interview Questions:

1. Why do you want to work for Apple?
2. How would you deal with an angry customer?
3. How would you fulfill an unexpected or unrealistic expectation of a customer?
4. Tell us about when you were given some task, and you had no clue how to do it; how did you learn it quickly?

Apple Front-End Engineer Interview Questions:

1. What do you mean by a composting layer in CSS3?
2. How do you implement your past learning experiences in your future role?
3. Why do you want to work for Apple?

Apple Coding Interview Questions

Apple Java Interview Questions:

1. Define the final keyword in Java?
2. Is Java pass by value or pass by reference?
3. Differentiate between swap and compare algorithm?
4. Can you have an empty catch block while programming in Java?
5. What are the key elements of the Java programming language?

Apple QA Interview Questions:

1. How would you test a Vending Machine?
2. What is the Leetcode medium problem?
3. How do you deal with scalability issues?

Apple iOS Interview Questions:

1. What do you know about Cocoa and Cocoa Touch?
2. Which JSON framework is supported by iOS?
3. Differentiate between atomic and nonatomic properties.
4. How is app ID different from bundle ID?
5. How to achieve concurrency in iOS?

Apple SQL Interview Questions:

1. What is inner join in SQL?
2. What is left join in SQL?
3. What is a full join or full outer join in SQL?
4. Can we roll back after using the ALTER command?
5. Difference between Truncate and Drop command?

Apple Behavioral Interview Questions

1. Why Apple?
2. What were your best and worst days over the last four years?
3. Explain an achievement you are particularly proud of?
4. How have you overcome failure, and what were your learnings from it?
5. Are you a positive person? What brings you down?

Other Apple Interview Questions:

1. What is the best solution to figure out the highest floor from which an egg can be dropped without breaking it?
2. How many children are born daily?
3. If you are in a river, in a boat with a boulder, and the boulder falls into the river, how does the water level of the river change?
4. If, by chance, you get in the elevator with the CEO and you have 2 minutes to convince him to hire you, how would you do it?
5. How many rounds would it take to choose the winner among the 25 teams in a single-elimination tournament?

How to Prepare for the Apple Interview?

Apple is a dream company for many tech aspirants throughout the world. That dream can only be achieved by nailing their hardest ever interviews. You could prepare answers to all the questions covered here and more but still may not be able to make it. This is because, more than the answer to the question, Apple looks at how you answer. One of the core principles of Apple is to hire attitude and train for skills. 

• Check the job description thoroughly: Hoards of candidates apply for new roles at Apple. You will have to stand out from the crowd. For every role, there are specific interview questions. Apple does not hire centrally; they hire for team-specific roles. So review your job description well, and watch out for the must-have skills and traits for the job. If some skills are repetitive in the JD, then it is clear that those are extremely important.
• Learn about Apple’s values: Learn about the core values and mission of Apple. You can check Apple’s website for this information. You can also read Steve Job’s vision for the company over the internet. Also, go through Tim Cook’s ideas, which will give you a more recent and modern take on the core values. 
• Learn about Apple’s products: Become well-versed with their products and unique features. Also, read blogs to check out their recent accomplishments and media coverages, and major priorities.
• Highlight your strengths: Position yourself as a strong match by translating your past work experience to how they can be used in the future for your job role at Apple.
• Get your basics right: Brush up on your programming language of choice and data structures and algorithms concepts.

Read How to Get a Software Engineer Job at Apple for more.

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FAQs on Apple Interview Questions

1. How long does the software engineer interview process take at Apple?

Typically, the software engineering interview process might take up to 1-2 months to complete.

2. What are Apple recruiters looking for in a candidate?

Apple wants passionate coding engineers. In fact, they are keener on hiring people with the right attitude and characters and then training them for skills.