Did the Apple onsite for an iOS engineer role in February 2026. Virtual onsite, five rounds over two days (three one day, two the next). Sharing the actual experience.
Day 1, Round 1: Hiring manager conversation. 45 minutes. Half of it was them explaining the team, the other half was questions about my background and projects. Not technical at all. This was relationship-building more than evaluation. I asked a lot of questions and they seemed to like it.
Day 1, Round 2: Coding. 60 minutes. Two problems: first was an array/hash-map problem (medium), second was a binary search variant (also medium, maybe medium-hard). Standard CoderPad setup. I talked through my approach before typing, which felt right.
Day 1, Round 3: Behavioral. 60 minutes. Questions about collaboration, dealing with ambiguity, taking ownership. Very conversational. The interviewer took notes but asked follow-ups freely.
Day 2, Round 4: Second coding. Similar format to round 2. One recursion problem, one design of a small data structure (implement a least-recently-used cache). The LRU cache problem is classic but they wanted a specific variant with TTL expiry added. Classic problem, non-classic follow-up.
Day 2, Round 5: System design. 60 minutes. I was asked to design an offline-capable sync system for a mobile app. Very Apple-relevant. On-device storage, conflict resolution, what happens when a user edits on iPhone and iPad simultaneously. They didn't need me to go deep on infrastructure, more on the client-side architecture choices.
Timeline: got verbal offer 6 business days after Day 2. Written offer 3 days after that. Total loop from first recruiter contact to verbal: 7 weeks.
Hardest part for me was the LRU + TTL follow-up. I got through it but not cleanly. They didn't take me out of the process for it so I think they weigh the total picture, not any single fumble.