Apple

Application

I applied online. The process took 4+ weeks. I interviewed at Apple (Singapore) in May 2015.

Interview

I was interviewed for Software Engineer in Singapore for Emerging Technologies team.

Phone interview as first engagement, which was more like background check and some technical proficiency assesment. To see where you're good at. Then moving on to onsite interview, I have 4 rounds back-to-back.

First meeting with the recruiter - to get your current career view and asking about salary. Then second round, interviewer was late for half an hour so i had to call the recruiter again. They are asking about Java, security (PKI, authentication, encryption) concepts, and Linux commands to check cpu stat, search open port remotely, etc. At this round, the interviewer demands lots of answers for exact filenames (e.g to configure tomcat, sysctl file name) which gets very frustrating. I think some people who works more on other technologies will find it very hard even though they understand the how-tos. They also dont answer questions related to the roles and impose secrecy and "you will know if you join" notion, rude. Third interview is more to understand on the networking and core java, sql knowledge. I find it very helpful if you prepare for reviewing tcp udp concepts, read java books for basics. Fourth interview, is again a general question regarding many topics like Java, shell scripting, sql.

Second onsite interview, i am faced with the hiring manager. In here we spoke more about the work i've done, explain some server architectural concepts and design. I guess they want to access your knowledge vs their setup and see if things match. He said it will be another interview for final round.

Then finally 3rd and final round is with engineering director (hiring manager's boss). Here it is more to speak your background and why you want to leave your job, he is accompanied by one technical person in my case. I guess he is there to assess and help if there is some technical concepts to verify. The director then speaks more about the vision for the team and assess your knowledge on scaling your deployment.

BUT after last interview, NO NEWS whether i'm accepted or not, nada zilch. The recruiter have contacted me once to checkup for the expected details, buy no news after even with follow up several times. I'm terribly disappointed with this kind of behavior from Apple. Really. At least information of the outcome if its bad news/problems with some requirements. This is the least courtesy you can do. I'm not sure what is held back for, this is true even for poor candidate.