Apple

Role: Software Developer

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: April 2020

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Selected (Offer)

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Rounds: 6 rounds

Topics Asked: Software Development, Problem Solving, Data Structures, Algorithms, System Design, Object-Oriented Programming, Behavioral

Experience:

The candidate was a Microsoft Software Engineer at the time of the interview. The overall interview process was impressive, focusing on general software development rather than specific platform queries. The team was described as "different and very fun." The candidate received an offer a few days after the interviews.

Round 1: Coding
Given a Tic Tac Toe board, the task was to verify if a player had won. The question was vague but not difficult.

Round 2: Coding and Design
Given a grid with random characters and a dictionary, the task was to find all words that could be built on the board (moving up, down, left, right), returning a dictionary with words as keys and their counts as values. This was a combination of coding and design, requiring pseudocode and API design. The candidate solved it by creating a Trie from the dictionary and performing DFS on the grid. This question was described as confusing, difficult, and evolving during the conversation.

Round 3: Project Discussion / Behavioral
This round was a discussion with a "Prime Minister" (likely a senior role). The interviewer described their role at Apple and then presented a vague project: to include Rotten Tomatoes ratings in Siri's video responses. The candidate discussed clarifying requirements, performance descriptions, telemetry for success measurement, day-to-day development details, stakeholder engagement, conflict resolution, and expectation management.

Round 4: Technical
This round was purely technical. The candidate mentioned stumbling on a dictionary question but overall performed well in some rounds.

Round 5: Coding
The question involved using an `IsPalindrome` function.

Round 6: Managerial
This round was with the manager, covering leadership, projects, team charter, Apple's culture, tech stack, compensation, and career growth. The candidate viewed this round as an opportunity to interview the team and company.