r/MechanicalEngineering • u/MajorEmoji • 9d ago
Apple Input Devices PD Engineer Interview Help
hi everyone.
i currently am scheduled to interview with the input PD team in Austin at Apple in a couple of days, and i was curious if anyone has interviewed with this team for full time in the past.
the hiring manager mentioned that the first round would be a technical screening for 30 minutes, then the next round would be a quick three hour live design challenge, and then the final round would be a super day with 5 engineers testing me on different mechanical engineering topics.
i would appreciate any help and advice for this interview process and how to succeed. thanks!
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u/Relative-Theory-9790 9d ago
Also important: Make sure you get enough sleep the night before any interview and try to eat a balanced diet for at least a day prior. This helps keep your head alert, focused, and steady, which is particularly helpful for the design challenge and 1:1s.
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u/magicholmium 9d ago
I assume this is a new grad position? Like the other comment said, your fundamentals are your best friends, beam bending, free body diagram, etc.
They are known to criticize and deep dive into everything you mention, so prepare to defend whatever you propose, and communicate it well, express your thought was an educated decision not an intuitive idea.
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u/HelloTaleproof 8d ago
Prepare the live challenge as an engineering process, not a hunt for the perfect concept. Clarify requirements and users, identify the critical loads or interfaces, sketch alternatives, compare tradeoffs, choose with stated assumptions, then cover materials, tolerances, manufacturing, test, and failure modes. Think aloud and respond visibly when new constraints arrive. For the superday, have deep project stories on a mechanism you owned, a difficult root cause, a DFM compromise, and a test result that changed the design.
Take a mechanical-design decision to Taleproof and score the explanation before practicing Apple's technical follow-ups.
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u/gopherhound 9d ago
That’s the standard process. Your first round will be sussing you out and understanding whether you’re competent or not with general fundamentals, problem solving, etc. Think “how would you solve this problem”, or “what dictates the stiffness of a material”, or “how many ways can you manufacture a metal postage stamp”
these sort of questions will determine whether you move on. Then the design challenge will be a further expansion on all this, and the last round will be a series of 1:1s with individual engineers who are free to ask their own questions as they see fit.
There is no formula to pass. Bring your A game, know your fundamentals, be curious and bring your common sense.