Applied online, was contacted by a recruiter. We setup a phone call with two engineers to evaluate my resume. During the phone interview which lasted approximately 30 min, I was asked to describe my background, standard stuff. After the phone conversation I was asked to prepare a model of my smartphone as well as manufacturing drawings and was given a week to complete the challenge. I think overall I put in approximately 30~35 hours to complete this task. I really wanted this job and wanted to add as many details as possible to impress people at Apple. After they reviewed my CAD challenge, I was invited to meet their technical team for an in person interview at Cupertino. The Apply travel portal is well setup and easy to use. Getting there was the easy part. Once I got to Apple headquarters, I was met by HR and brought into a room with no windows. The interview process is 30-45 min per person one on one 7~8 people. Everyone I met was friendly and outgoing. Now this is where my first screw up occurred, I didn't bring any of my design work. If you happen to be in that position, bring some home projects that you worked on to demonstrate your talents. You will have a greater chance to stand out from the others. Screw up #2, I wrongly assumed that the CAD challenge I completed earlier was going to be available at Apple and was going to be discussed. The recruiter wanted to see my 2D drawings but I didn't think I needed to bring them since they already had an electronic version. Most people had technical questions regarding 2D drafting techniques and some design questions in the form of if I have this part, how would you manufacture it. In my opinion I did fine for the first part of the interview but after lunch, things got a little tricky and I screwed up big time. The last interviewer was a really pleasant guy and I liked him the most out of all of the interviewers. He asked me a simple supported beam question. I haven't done these in 8 years and was completely embarrassed since I couldn't work out a simple shear moment diagram. At that point I knew I wouldn't get the job. I was pretty disappointed in myself for not reviewing that stuff earlier. It was a fair question because I think every engineer should know this stuff by heart. I came back home that same day. The worst part of the whole experience was to wait for the HR reply. I understood that I had little chance of getting an offer but I didn't want to believe it. After a couple of days, I convinced myself that I had a good chance of getting an offer. However after anxiously checking my emails for a week the HR recruiter emailed me saying they were passing. I was disappointed because I really wanted to work at Apple. So many intelligent and interesting people. It took me a few days to shake it off. I will try again in a few years and hope I won't be too old at that point.

Their primary focus would be you knowing both DSA and hardware basics. Practice Leetcode before interview of this particular role. Hardware questions ranged from MOSFETs theory, to VLSI and timing analysis.