Apple Recruiter contacted me about the position and said the hiring manager liked my background and experience. The job description was shared with me, and an initial call with the Recruiter was set up. After that call the Recruiter setup a virtual Webex meeting with the hiring manager, which happened a week later. After signing in to chat with the hiring manager, I found out that they were unavailable, and I was to talk to another manager, who would stand in for them instead. That was 45 minutes, and not much job information was shared. Not much emphasis was placed on my previous experience or the YOE period. At the end of the meeting, some random fundamental questions were asked, much of which I did not see any correlation to the job or product being applicable. Many Apple hardware engineering roles tend to have a very narrow focus on one small part of the product line, and secrecy is very high, which makes communication with the interviewer difficult. After that chat, I received another response from the recruiter that they would like to proceed to the next step of the process, which was a design challenge. Basically design a battery door to house 2 AA batteries and focus on the tiny latching mechanism. FYI search online for "Apple Design Challenge Battery Door," and you will see others who have uploaded their work for reference. I also caution that a quick LinkedIn search of at least 5 that I found appears only one landed a job at Apple. I did not intend to copy any of these, so I did my design and used them as a reference. This Design Challenge took considerable time to complete, though they provided ample time. Many details were requested. After completing this, I submitted it to the recruiter, who said if the team approves your design, you will make it to the next step, a Webex virtual design challenge presentation in front of the team and others with Apple, could be 25+ people. So after a week, I received a response that they would like to proceed after arranging the meeting via another recruiter who took over from this stage, I was given 60 to 75 minutes to present. First, the hiring manager (whom I had never talked to) was present and said hello, and led the meeting on their side, but many were late and kept joining and dropping off during the call, one person was driving in their car and trying to ask questions without even viewing the presentation. There were also some technical issues that caused things to not flow too well. I was told numerous times that the design challenge wasn't to prove a perfect design and only to focus on your thought process and how you take feedback. I had over 30+ slides and most of the meeting was spent on one or two, there appeared to be much emphasis on one aspect of the design that several people were focused on, and then the fundamental questions started coming, "can you draw a free body diagram" and etc., though I already did that on one of the slides that we never were able to get to. I also felt some of the questions did not even relate to the product the team was working on, which did not involve anything dynamic, though the details were sparse it's easy to go online and look at Apple teardowns to see what part of the product the team is working on. In this case, the part this team was working on was simple and mundane; in my opinion, that's compared to my previous experience, which wasn't even discussed at this point. So, the time ran out and the hiring manager stopped the meeting and thanked me, but said he had to run to another meeting, so again no chance to talk or even ask for details on the role. I also later did a LinkedIn search of the Hiring managers I talked to, and others on the team had less experience than me, and some were recent graduates. So it was then I realized Apple, or this org in general, is not really a place for people with a lot of solid experience. A week later, I received an email from the recruiter, saying that while they enjoyed talking to me, they decided not to move forward at this time. They also thanked me for the time I put into this, which was at least a month and a half of interviews and work. The next step would have been a virtual Webex onsite, I was told 6 to 8 people, basically an all-day interview which I'm sure would have included more irrelevant engineering fundamental questions and also trick questions that usually come up and not much focus on experience and actual product design. After this, I realized Apple was not the place for me. Also, after talking to many ex-Apple employees and reading Glassdoor reviews, it appears the culture is not great, and the silo mentality and overall robotic personality are also negative. Apple recruiters were the best part of the process. I appreciate that they were all very professional and did not ghost me. Overall the interview process was long. The job itself and the work appeared to be somewhat boring in nature so take that into consideration.