Thermal Engineer Interview Experience - Cupertino, California
Process
- Recruiter emails you expressing interest in an interview.
- You'll have a phone screen with 8 basic heat transfer questions.
- If passed, the senior engineer in the group will conduct another phone interview, which includes casual conversation followed by 3 technical questions.
Questions
What are the modes of heat transfer?
What Apple products use natural convection for cooling?
What Apple products use forced convection for cooling?
What is the value of the convective heat transfer coefficient in natural convection?
What are the values of thermal conductivity for copper, aluminum, stainless steel, and plastic?
What is the value of emissivity for Apple product casings?
What is a thermocouple and how does it work?
What material property dictates the heat transfer of a long, thin piece of wire in a steady-state condition?
If an iPhone is magically suspended in mid-air, how much power does it dissipate?
Imagine a MacBook is a black box with a single inlet and exhaust. How much CFM is required to cool 100W of power?
Which of the following heatsinks has the best cooling performance: straight fins, pinned fins, or staggered fins, if they all have the same overall dimensions, surface area, and fin pitch?
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 4 interview experiences for the Apple Thermal Engineer role in Cupertino, California.
Success Rate
Apple's interview process for their Thermal Engineer roles in Cupertino, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Apple's Thermal Engineer interview process in Cupertino, California.
Apple Work Experiences
- 5.0Great Opportunity to be at the cutting edge of HardwareStaff Senior Design Verification Engineer • Current EmployeeCupertino, California, United StatesNovember 11, 2025Pros: Management is great; you'll get a chance to work on a wide variety of IPs.Cons: Project deadlines are strict and you need to handle multiple responsibilities at the same time.
- 5.0Apple Leads, Big TechSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeCupertino, California, United StatesNovember 8, 2025Pros: We have Tim Apple leading us.Cons: It's a big tech company.
- 5.0Designing quality inEE Hardware Engineer • Current EmployeeCupertino, California, United StatesNovember 7, 2025Pros: The attention to detail at Apple is amazing. Every step in the process and component chain is monitored, and small defects get root-caused quickly.Cons: Some roles at Apple are difficult and intense, but this has been true for all the companies I have worked for.
Apple Interview Questions
