The interview process was rigorous. After an initial phone screen with the recruiter, there was another phone screen with the hiring manager, followed by an out-of-office technical design challenge. The prompt was to design a feature into an existing part and build a presentation showing your process. After completing that design and sending it in, there was an in-person interview in Cupertino with the product team over the course of a morning.

Interviewers came individually or in pairs and generally asked technical questions, with more senior people coming later. The interview concluded with the VP of the division.

After about six hours, the interviews stopped, and I was told to wait for a decision. I heard back at 7 PM that schedules had closed up, and the next day of interviews was canceled due to substantial fires that had come up during the day and needed to be put out.

For me, the whole experience was captured in the interview room, which was only accessible from the outside of the building. Interviewers were most interested in testing technical knowledge in narrow subject areas and discovering the ability to expand within those areas. They were looking for strong depth in a multitude of areas within a defined field. They were very upfront about the team structure, anticipated job functions, and time commitment expectations. All interviews were relatively impersonal, though the final interviewer was overly antagonistic. However, that seemed to stem from the situations developing outside the interview room. Every interviewer was far more interested in existing skill sets and technical knowledge than in enthusiasm or capacity to learn or grow.

Overall, it was a neutral experience, as it was not a good fit for either of us.

Disclaimer: The timing of my interview was tremendously poor for Apple, so I don't know how representative my experience within the interview room is.

Tell me all the ways you could possibly manufacture this part (shown in person).