In one sentence , one of the stupidest interview processes I have ever seen !!!
Interviewers were kind and were sounding reasonable smart. But they had to go through 8 rounds of interviews , that too , wasting senior leadership time to reject a candidate. (2 rounds with same hiring manager). My whole process lasted for 3.5 months and they took an additional 3 weeks to convey the rejection news after 8 rounds of interviews.
For all the talks on efficiency in Apple's DNA, this is one of the most inefficient processes.
I believe Apple posts out jobs to outside candidates to convince themselves that their internal candidates are far superior than talent pools outside of their company. Because recruiters do not provide any guidance on the interview needs for the outside candidates, but through my conversations, I got to know the internal candidates were very well aware of the expectations from each interviewer.
Please do not waste your time and effort on this organization as they always prefer internal ones.