Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience - Cupertino, California
October 22, 2024
Neutral ExperienceNo Offer
Process
Team-specific interview process.
This team focused on OOP principles. The phone screen involved OOP with a bit of system design. The onsite included another OOP section and a peculiar tree/node question where the task was to serialize and deserialize the input. System design (SD) concepts can be found on hellointerview.com. I performed well in most rounds, except for the tree question.
Questions
The phone screen involved Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) with a little bit of system design.
The onsite interview was another OOP question, along with a peculiar tree/node problem where the interviewer wanted me to serialize and deserialize the input.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 40 interview experiences for the Apple Senior Software Engineer role in Cupertino, California.
Success Rate
28%
Pass Rate
Apple's interview process for their Senior Software Engineer roles in Cupertino, California is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Positive43%
Neutral33%
Negative25%
Candidates reported having good feelings for Apple's Senior Software Engineer interview process in Cupertino, California.
Apple Work Experiences
4.0
Smart Team, Stifled Growth
Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee
Cupertino, California, United States
November 5, 2025
Pros: - Smart people
- Challenging work
- Always engaged
Cons: - Little room for career growth.
- Pigeon-holed to certain functions.
- Company is not empathetic, even though they say they are (DEI, accommodations for differences, etc.). They cater to the typical white male who is authoritative; those are the executive and senior leaders.
4.0
Engineering Life at Apple - Retrospective
Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee
Cupertino, California, United States
November 2, 2025
Pros: Exciting environment, work alongside world-class minds, be amazed, and be humbled.
Flexible work environment for occasional or frequent remote work.
Cons: There is no such thing as full-time, or time to go home and spend time with the family at the end of the day. Usually, you go home so you can keep working remotely.
4.0
Great experience, but not what it used to be.
Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee
Cupertino, California, United States
October 29, 2025
Pros: Incredible opportunity to work on the world's best products, and most of the people really care about the product. It was a lot of fun to see how the world's most admired company works behind the scenes. If you have a good manager, you can go pretty far, pretty quick.
Compensation and PTO are very fair for Silicon Valley. The culture is very design and user experience driven, which may seem obvious, but you should feel the same way before joining. Sometimes sacrifices in the technical implementation are made because it provides a better user design.
Cons: My main complaint is that it gets repetitive after a few years. Specifically, working on the OS side, you just feel like it's the same cycle-driven work year in and year out.
Work-life balance can be tough, especially leading up to major OS releases.
The hybrid schedule is nice, but the in-office days force you to commute to/from Cupertino to sit in online meetings.
I put a low score for DEI because there is not huge representation of underserved minorities in tech. That becomes apparent from day one on campus, despite what the values of the company are.
- 4.0Smart Team, Stifled GrowthSenior Software Engineer • Former EmployeeCupertino, California, United StatesNovember 5, 2025Pros: - Smart people - Challenging work - Always engagedCons: - Little room for career growth. - Pigeon-holed to certain functions. - Company is not empathetic, even though they say they are (DEI, accommodations for differences, etc.). They cater to the typical white male who is authoritative; those are the executive and senior leaders.
- 4.0Engineering Life at Apple - RetrospectiveSenior Software Engineer • Former EmployeeCupertino, California, United StatesNovember 2, 2025Pros: Exciting environment, work alongside world-class minds, be amazed, and be humbled. Flexible work environment for occasional or frequent remote work.Cons: There is no such thing as full-time, or time to go home and spend time with the family at the end of the day. Usually, you go home so you can keep working remotely.
- 4.0Great experience, but not what it used to be.Senior Software Engineer • Former EmployeeCupertino, California, United StatesOctober 29, 2025Pros: Incredible opportunity to work on the world's best products, and most of the people really care about the product. It was a lot of fun to see how the world's most admired company works behind the scenes. If you have a good manager, you can go pretty far, pretty quick. Compensation and PTO are very fair for Silicon Valley. The culture is very design and user experience driven, which may seem obvious, but you should feel the same way before joining. Sometimes sacrifices in the technical implementation are made because it provides a better user design.Cons: My main complaint is that it gets repetitive after a few years. Specifically, working on the OS side, you just feel like it's the same cycle-driven work year in and year out. Work-life balance can be tough, especially leading up to major OS releases. The hybrid schedule is nice, but the in-office days force you to commute to/from Cupertino to sit in online meetings. I put a low score for DEI because there is not huge representation of underserved minorities in tech. That becomes apparent from day one on campus, despite what the values of the company are.
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