u/PoetProfessional7662

Hello,

My workplace is extremely toxic and more than learning anything, I am dealing with regular chaos of uncertain priorities, changes in workload on regular basis, others taking credit of your work, if you speak up even diplomatically to improve things - leadership doesn't like it and retaliates by holding on promotion, bullying and belittling. HR doesn't care (many have complained in the past). I was passed over for promotion once 3 years back and now again they are dangling promotion carrot in front of me and not taking any action towards it since last 2 months. I even changed my mind to believe that I only have this job to make money, but leadership pulls us into conversations and then plays blame games/belittling in meetings.

I had started applying for new jobs couple of years back, but due to layoffs, I did hold back myself. My main problem is, my energy is completely drained after dealing with daily chaos and blame games and even after work, my mind just replays the conversations in mind. My mental health is the lowest i.e. not as strong as it was when I joined this workplace. I do get couple of hours every day to focus on LC/interview prep, but I lack mental and physical energy. I tried sleeping early and waking up early which helped a bit, but after few mins, my mind starts replaying work conversations in mind.

I have started taking time off of work to focus on prep, but it's not enough. I haven't touched DSA in few years now and even before that it wasn't my favorite, so in current job market, I will have to grind harder on it.

How do you detach yourself from work or anything stressful in general to focus on interview prep?

I have 5 rounds of 45 mins each. It's a platform level EM role. 3 rounds are of leadership questions, 1 says software architecture (am guessing it will be system design) and one if problem solving (guessing it will be coding, though they haven't shared CoderPad link in the email).

I have prepared stories for leadership rounds, but I don't know what should I prepare for system design and coding rounds. AFAIK, for system design, Apple doesn't ask to design questions like "Design tiny URL", "Design Netflix", but are more of general/common questions such as design Key value pair. This makes it more difficult for me to understand where should I put my focus to.

Same with coding. I have noticed that they are slowing shifting away from LC and the recruiter sent me link for GeeksForGeeks to prepare for coding, but I doubt it's going to be any direct question from LC/GFG.

Anyone been through EM interview what kinds of system design and coding questions are asked?

I am a iOS developer and have mainly used MacBook Pro's at work. I had a old MacBook Pro with smaller screen size which I had purchased in 2012 or 2013, but I am unable to upgrade it to any new OS version and is extremely slow, so thinking of buying a new one but also in money saving mode at the current moment.

I can use my company laptop to learn anything new in iOS and my company does support that, but I am planning to start looking for other opportunities and may start interviewing soon for which I need a new laptop. Having used MacBook for many years now, I would like to stick to MacBook with 15+ screen and sometimes develop lighter apps for learning purposes.

I haven't used MacBook Air's before, but looks like if I buy a MacBook Air with higher configuration, I may save some $$$$ and can still get a bigger screen. Has anyone used it for developing apps? I am talking about smaller apps and nothing major that I plan to publish to app store.

I am confused between:

MacBook Air - https://www.bestbuy.com/product/15-inch-macbook-air-apple-m5-chip-with-10-core-cpu-and-10-core-gpu-24gb-memory-1tb-ssd-midnight/JJGCQLKHZ5

MacBook Pro - https://www.bestbuy.com/product/16-inch-macbook-pro-apple-m5-pro-chip-with-18-core-cpu-and-20-core-gpu-24gb-memory-1tb-ssd-silver/JJGCQLZQRQ

I am leaning more towards MacBook Air so I can save some money, but wanting to know if it's good for iOS app development (i.e. install all the development tools) and streaming movies/show.

Hello,

I’m curious to hear from anyone who has gone through Apple’s virtual interview process—how much preparation time did you have before scheduling the final loop?

I’ve been invited to a virtual panel interview, but the recruiter hasn’t mentioned a specific timeline. I’m considering taking about three weeks to prepare before sharing my availability, but I’m unsure if that would be viewed as too long.

From what I’ve seen, technical rounds are often scheduled within a couple of weeks of initial contact, so I’m trying to understand what’s typical for final rounds.

Any insights would be really helpful.

Thanks!