[06-2024][Apple SRE Interview Experience: A Journey to Success

Overview

Timeline Breakdown

Application Phase (2023-December - March)

• Applied online in early December with a referral added a week later

• Three-month waiting period before hearing back

• Recruiter finally reached out mid-March to schedule a phone screen

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Preparation Strategy

Coding Practice

• Completed 116 LeetCode problems (62 Easy, 54 Medium)

• Additional practice from concurrent interview processes with other companies

Linux/Systems/Networking

• Created and reviewed hundreds of Anki flashcards

• Researched common interview topics from major tech companies

• Practiced with sadservers.com (practical Linux troubleshooting challenges)

• Referenced key books:

  • Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook

  • The Linux Systems Interview by Marker Kane

  • Targeted reading on specific topics rather than cover-to-cover

SRE-Specific Preparation

• Watched numerous YouTube videos on SRE practices

• Studied:

  • Google SRE Book

  • SRE Workbook

System Design

• Created comprehensive Anki flashcards

• Completed Neetcode System Design course (recommended for beginners)

• Viewed BytebyteGo YouTube content

• Studied mock system design interviews

• Participated in paid mock interviews via iGotAnOffer

• Referenced:

  • Designing Data-Intensive Applications (highly recommended)

  • Google SRE Book

  • Building Secure and Reliable Systems

Behavioral

• Adapted previous Amazon Leadership Principles interview preparation

• Mapped personal experiences to common behavioral questions

• Recommends: Behavioral Interview Preparation Video

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First Round: Phone Screen with Hiring Manager (Early April)

This initial interview combined coding, technical knowledge, and behavioral assessment:

• Coding: LeetCode Easy problem using two-pointer technique

• Linux/Systems: Deep technical questions covering:

  • Low-level details of how ls -l works

  • File descriptors and inodes

  • System calls (fork, exec family, opendir, stat)

  • Inter-process communication (IPC)

  • Virtual address space and memory isolation

• The hiring manager was clearly assessing technical depth

• Advanced to virtual on-site interviews the next day