Apple — Coding Assessment: Pattern, Syllabus & Mock Test
Apple — Coding Assessment pattern: 3 questions in 90 minutes across 1 section. Sample questions, a preparation guide and a free timed mock.
- Pattern: Apple
- Duration: 90 minutes
- Questions: 3
- Timing: Free — move between sections until the paper's clock ends
- Negative marking: None
Three problems, and at least one where brute force will time out.
- Pure coding
- One problem needs the optimal solution
- Team-dependent
Sections
| Section | Questions | Time | Kind | Marks each |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 3 | 90 min | Coding | 10 |
Apple — Coding Assessment syllabus
Coding: Apple coding questions 33 problems
Instructions
Apple has no single company-wide assessment; it is set team by team, and many candidates never sit one at all. Where it exists it is roughly three problems in ninety minutes.
- At least one problem needs a genuinely efficient algorithm. A working brute force will exceed the time limit.
- Implementation quality is weighted unusually heavily at Apple, so write it as you would want to read it.
- Arrays, strings, trees, graphs and dynamic programming, with memory-aware solutions favoured.
QA and SDET roles instead get one coding problem plus thirty domain multiple-choice questions. That is a different paper and is not modelled.
How to prepare for this pattern
A guide to the Apple coding assessment pattern, the least standardised in this catalogue because it is set team by team.
What the paper looks like
One section: Coding, three problems, one easy, one medium and one hard, in 90 minutes on a shared clock. You can move between the problems freely. Each is worth ten marks and is graded on the test cases passed, with no negative marking and no multiple-choice questions. The paper is not adaptive. At least one problem needs a genuinely efficient algorithm: a working brute force will exceed the time limit. Implementation quality is reported to be weighted unusually heavily. The numbers are entirely crowd-sourced; ninety minutes and three problems is the most-reported shape, with 60 to 90-plus minutes and an unfixed count also reported. QA and SDET roles are reported to get a different paper, which is not modelled.
How to prepare, section by section
- Coding. Expect arrays, strings, trees, graphs and dynamic programming, with memory-aware solutions favoured. For the problem where brute force times out, the usual routes to an efficient solution are Hash Table lookups, Binary Search, Two Pointers, Prefix Sum, Heap and Dynamic Programming. For trees and graphs, practise Depth-First Search, Breadth-First Search and Graph. State the time and space complexity of every solution you write, and ask whether the space can come down; a dynamic programming table often shrinks to a single row. The DSA roadmap covers these topics in order.
- Code quality. Clear names, small functions and early handling of edge cases make a solution readable. If your habits in your language are loose, the interview idioms module that closes each study plan, Java, C++, Python or JavaScript, is a good check.
On the day
Read all three problems first and look at the input sizes: the constraints tell you which problem needs the efficient algorithm. Solve the easy one cleanly and quickly, then give the most time to whichever remaining problem you can see the efficient approach for. If the hard one's efficient solution does not come, a brute force still earns the test cases small enough to pass, so submit it rather than leave the editor empty. Because quality is weighted, spend a few minutes tidying names and structure once a solution passes, rather than starting yet another attempt at the hard problem in the final minutes.
This mock is modelled on the most-reported shape of Apple's coding assessment, which varies by team; CodeKairo is not affiliated with Apple.
About this pattern
The least standardised company here, and entirely crowd-sourced. Ninety minutes and three problems is the most-reported shape, with 60 to 90-plus minutes and an unfixed count also reported.
Modelled on the published pattern; not affiliated with Apple. Every sitting draws a fresh paper from the aptitude bank and the problem catalogue.