Apple prep

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) System design

#01

Explain the CAP theorem and what it means for distributed systems — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Classic system design question asked at US big-tech and fintech on-site loops.

Medium Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Coding / DSA

#02

How many distinct ways can you climb n stairs taking 1 or 2 steps at a time? — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Introductory dynamic programming problem isomorphic to Fibonacci.

Medium Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Coding / DSA

#03

Design and implement an LRU cache with O(1) get and put — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Hash map plus doubly linked list problem bridging DSA and system components.

Hard Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Coding / DSA

#04

Solve the 0/1 knapsack problem with dynamic programming — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Classic DP testing tabulation, space optimization, and item selection reconstruction.

Hard Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Coding / DSA

#05

Explain and implement Dijkstra's algorithm for shortest paths — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Graph algorithm for non-negative edge weights using priority queue.

Hard Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) System design

#06

Design a URL shortening service — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Foundational system design covering APIs, encoding, storage, and read-heavy scaling.

Medium Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) System design

#07

Design a distributed rate limiter for an API gateway — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. System design testing token bucket, sliding window, and Redis coordination.

Medium Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Behavioral

#08

Tell me about a time you disagreed with a teammate. How did you handle it? — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Behavioral STAR question assessing collaboration and conflict resolution.

Medium Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Technical deep dive

#09

What principles do you follow when designing RESTful APIs? — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. API design question covering resources, HTTP semantics, and versioning.

Medium Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Technical deep dive

#10

When would you choose microservices over a monolith? — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Architecture trade-off question for mid-level backend and platform roles.

Medium Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Technical deep dive

#11

Explain CI/CD and what a typical pipeline includes — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. DevOps fundamentals for mid-level engineers discussing automation and quality gates.

Medium Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Technical deep dive

#12

What is the difference between unit and integration tests? — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Testing strategy question covering pyramid, mocks, and confidence vs speed.

Easy Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Technical deep dive

#13

How does HashMap work internally in Java? — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Java-specific collections question on buckets, hashing, and resize behavior.

Medium Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Technical deep dive

#14

Explain the JavaScript event loop, call stack, and task queues — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Core JavaScript concurrency model question for frontend and Node.js roles.

Medium Read answer →

Apple Mid-level (3–5 years) Technical deep dive

#15

What is the Python GIL and how does it affect concurrency? — Apple interview

Reported in Apple USA engineering loops. Python-specific question on threading limits and multiprocessing alternatives.

Medium Read answer →