I had a HM call first to discuss if we are mutual fit, followed by a coding screen. Then there were multiple rounds of interviews. Questions were medium to hard level.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1. Rate Limiter design
2. restart mechanism for n servers.
I applied online. I interviewed at Apple (London, England) in Jun 2026
Interview
Strange half hour interview. Interviewer slightly late so not the best start. Then started asking me if we had an interview. I thought that was a bit bizarre.
Questions that I was asked were reasonable but the actual role was minimally aligned to the actual job spec. I'm glad I asked questions which highlighted those inconsistencies. Bit of a waste of time but always good to get some interview experience.
It was also quite clear that engineers at Apple have their own area (e.g. the App Store person or the Library person). So it's probably not the place if you're seeking out variety in your work (even though the job spec made out that there would be plenty of variety in the role - didnt seem true from what I was being told).
My advice to the interviewer though; Let the interviewee speak. Jeez, he would not stop talking. When I mentioned something, he may challenge it, and then continue talking for another 1-2 minutes. I didn't really have any opportunity to defend the points I was making, and by the time he stopped, he had moved the conversation on. I was trying to get a word in but simply couldn't without it coming across as rude. He definitely needs to work on it.
Nice enough guy though and glad I went through the process.
Finally - if individuals take the time to prefer for interviews (like I have), the decent thing that Apple could do is at least provide them with feedback. The UK is suffering from a jobs crisis so it is extremely poor that I only received a generic email through a recruitment system when you could have actually helped me out. Please do better.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a project that you've done recently.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Apple (Sunnyvale, CA) in Nov 2022
Interview
1 phone screen with hiring manager, 4 additional rounds of interview with mix of technical and behavioral rounds. Technical rounds were focused on database design, SQL and Python. Interviewers were friendly.