Topics: Technical Case Studies, Heat Transfer, Analog Circuits, I2C, Debugging, Quality Control, Data Analysis, Box Plots
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Interview date: 2026-03-12
Got offer: False
Summary
Interview Rounds Overview
Round 1: Hiring Manager (Technical Case Studies)
Round 2: Product Design
Round 3: Electrical Engineering
Round 4: Engineering Team Manager (Debugging, Case Study)
Round 5: Electrical Engineering
Details
I had an onsite interview at Apple for a Hardware Sensor Engineer position in Cupertino. The interview was on March 11-12 and consisted of five 1:1 interviews, each lasting 45 minutes.
The first interview with the Hiring Manager included 4-5 technical case questions. These covered topics such as smartwatch design, debugging design flaws, quality control with suppliers, describing and analyzing a data code, and box plots.
The second interview with a Product Designer involved designing a module to simulate thermal conduction equivalent resistance.
The third interview with EE1 covered selecting pull-up resistors, I2C frequencies (I had no prior experience with I2C), and using analog circuits to filter noise.
The fourth interview with the Engineering Team Manager focused on detection, debugging, and a case study (details not remembered).
The fifth interview with EE2 covered supplier quality control, and another case study (details not remembered).
I was rejected on March 16. I felt a bit sad because it was difficult to transition to this field with less than a year of experience after graduating with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering (medical device sensors). There was very little information available online. I prepared a lot with GPT, but my personal experience was too limited. I really didn't know what questions would be asked and how to answer them.