Difficult Interview – Overall Negative Experience – Yes, but I declined – Thu, 10 Dec 2015
Interviewed Dec 2015(took 21 days)
I had 2 rounds of phone interviews. The hiring manager chatted a bit about my current job and some architectural design questions followed by a couple of simple algorithm questions. A few days later, a software engineer asked some technical questions, many specific to Java, and a couple of simple algorithm questions.
The on-site interview was 6 hours long. 5 interviews, each with a panel of 2 plus lunch. The hiring manager drilled down on the architectural design questions, followed by 2 interviewers on DB related questions and 7 interviewers on algorithm questions.
The positives: I felt the interviewers respected me as a candidates, their body language were mostly positive. A brief tour around the campus was also very good. The recruiting process was quick and no repeated visits was required.
The negatives: I was treated like a robot to solve algorithm questions. I have nearly 20 years of coding experience in server side Java yet no one asked about my resume, the technologies and processes I've used or my leadership experience. Some didn't even read my resume before the interview. I asked what technologies they're currently using and let's just say the answers didn't excite me very much.
Finally, a note to the Apple engineers: Smile! You're human beings, not robots. And you're hiring human beings, not robots.
Interview Questions
Not the actual question, I've modified a bit:
Find the element(s) in an integer array such that if it's removed, the rest of the array can be divided into 2 sub-arrays of equal sums. The sub-arrays need not contain contiguous elements. There may be 0 or more answers.
Answer Question
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, Group/Panel Interview and a Skills Test