I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Apple (Santa Clara, CA) in Apr 2017
Interview
Internal Apple recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn, and set up a a phone call between me and one of the team members. It was a technical phone screening. Then I moved on to the next phone screen with the team lead, which was another technical phone screen. Then another call with the recruiter to set up the onsite interview. The onsite interview consisted of a 40 minutes presentation which I prepared a lot for. I had 8 rounds of interviews in one day with 8 people form the team and other teams. Some interviews were technical and some behavioral. I was there onsite from 10AM with back-to-back interviews. The recruiting coordinator "forgot" to schedule a time for lunch. So I had to go through the day without eating until 5PM. Rooms were not reserved for some interviews and we had walk around to find an available room. It was a total mess. After 8 rounds of interviews and 40 minutes of presentation I was done.
After more than 1 month that I did not hear from them, I sent an email to them asking for some feedback. they said we are working on it and will get back to you. I again did not hear form them for another two weeks. So I sent another email again asking for feedback. Then the recruiter called me and said all the reviews were great, and all the candidates were good, it was a hard decision and we had to move forward with the candidate who go the highest score.
That's fine if you do not want to move forward with an applicant. But not giving them any feedback for more than one month, and blaming it on "we are very busy, and have too much on our plates" is not an acceptable excuse. Candidates spent days preparing for such interviews and it is very disrespectful not to even care to email them back with the decision. I am sure had I not emailed them, I would not have heard back for another month. very disrespectful!
First Round: 2 questions on SQL (hard) and Scenario based question was given. You have to provide a detailed answer on what kind of framework you would build on the scenario.
The interview process for the Data Scientist role at Apple consisted of three rounds
First round: screen with a recruiter
Second round: screen with a hiring manager
Third round: a virtual on-site with 3 interviews
The interview process consisted of multiple rounds, including an initial recruiter conversation followed by several virtual interviews with team members. The interviews focused on my background, past data science projects, machine learning fundamentals, statistical thinking, and how I approach business problems with data. There was also discussion around cross-functional collaboration, communication, and how I would translate technical insights into actionable recommendations. Overall, the process was rigorous and comprehensive, with a strong emphasis on both technical depth and practical problem solving.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about one of your data science projects and explain the business problem, your modeling approach, the metrics you used, and how you communicated the results to stakeholders.