Please read through the application questions, draft your responses, and apply here!

As an Apprentice Engineer - Backend, you will be placed on an engineering team at LinkedIn and build scalable infrastructure or backend business logic to support product use cases. You will help us scale LinkedIn’s infrastructure to handle massive data growth across the LinkedIn ecosystem as we experience dramatic growth in membership and products. You will utilize distributed systems and algorithms, develop applications at scale, learn from fellow engineers and managers, and build key skills that can be applied to a future career in engineering. Apprentices will also be given a percentage of time to focus on their own personal technical development, using both internal and external educational resources. The time in program is a one year minimum and a five year maximum in the apprenticeship. 

At LinkedIn, we trust each other to do our best work where it works best for us and our teams. This role offers a hybrid work option, meaning you can both work from home and commute to a LinkedIn office, depending on what’s best for you and when it is important for your team to be together.

This role is hybrid and will be based out of our Mountain View, CA office.

This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship. Applicants must be authorized to work in the US for LinkedIn without requiring visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Our application process is designed to give individuals the opportunity to show us a range of qualities we believe will make them successful engineers. This includes their drive and ability to learn, tenacity and work ethic, unique perspective and passion for engineering. As part of the application process, individuals are required to submit responses to all components of the following three questions and responses will be reviewed for completeness as well as content.

Please note, resumes and LinkedIn profiles will NOT be considered as part of the evaluation for REACH. Therefore, please make sure that any information you would like us to know is highlighted in your application responses. While working on your application responses, prioritize authenticity. We know that tools like ChatGPT and others are widely used and can be helpful in organizing your thoughts. If you choose to use AI while writing your application, please make sure your responses reflect your own experiences, voice, and ideas. We're looking to understand your journey, interests, and baseline technical skills - and authenticity really helps us get to know you.

While LinkedIn profiles will not be reviewed in our hiring process, you must have a LinkedIn profile when applying in order for LinkedIn to receive your application through our applicant tracking system. In case you are new to LinkedIn or if you’d like some help in updating your profile, please visit this page or this video to see tips for creating a LinkedIn profile.

1. Your Personal Story and Impact

Please answer all parts listed below. We recommend your complete answer to this question be between 400 and 700 words.

a.    At LinkedIn, we strive for a culture that embraces and represents diverse ways of thinking, background, and approaches to solving the world’s problems. Tell us how your unique experiences and background shape the point of view that you will bring to LinkedIn. We are looking to understand your unique perspective, story, and background, along with how that influences the point of view you will bring to LinkedIn and your work as an engineer.

b.    We are looking for apprentices who are committed to reaching their goal of becoming an engineer.  Tell us how you have demonstrated continuous perseverance and tenacity to achieve a long-term goal or overcome challenges and setbacks throughout your life. This could include personal and professional experiences.

 

2. Your Journey into Engineering

We want to understand how you developed your passion for programming and how it aligns with your goals for the REACH program. Please answer all three of the following prompts clearly and concisely, targeting between 500 and 700 words for Question 2.

1. Your Spark: What was the origin of your interest in programming? What made you decide to explore this field further?
   
   
2. Your Growth: Highlight how you’ve grown your skills—independently or formally. This might include personal projects, volunteer work, bootcamps, courses, or professional roles. Describe how you have taken action to deepen your proficiency. Additionally, tell us about your plans for further learning and how programming fits into your long-term career aspirations.
   
   
3. Your Role Fit: Explain why you’re specifically interested in the Backend Apprentice Engineer role (or InfoSec/etc.). What about the role excites you and why is the Backend Engineer role the right next step for you in your career? Be sure to reference the role description to align your response with the skills and interests the position requires.

What we’re looking for in your response:

• Demonstrations of curiosity and passion for programming. Show us where the software the development-mindset permeated into other aspects of your life
  
  
• Examples of the steps you’ve actively taken to grow your technical skills. Where have you gone above and beyond to deepen your understanding and push through challenges? Beyond bootcamps, have you tackled software engineering projects in our personal space or sought out mentorship to achieve your goals?
  
  
• A demonstrated alignment between your skills/experience and your interest in the Backend Apprentice Engineer role. We are looking for an understanding of the skills you have that will help you be successful and the skills you are looking to gain during your Apprenticeship.

3. Your Engineering Talent

Every Engineer at LinkedIn writes code. We are looking to see a concrete example of your programming work, and more importantly learning specific details of your process, as this will help us assess your technical foundation, problem-solving approach, and your ability to be successful in the role. **NOTE: All these criteria will potentially be covered during the on-site interview if your application is selected.** 

Please answer all of the following prompts with conciseness and clear examples. Your response should be no more than 600 words.

1. Selecting your Project: Choose a single coding project you’ve worked on (or are currently working on). Describe what makes the project meaningful to you and include direct links to code repositories, demos, and any other related media. Examples could include:
   
       • A GitHub project you’re proud of (include links to specific files or parts of the codebase that showcase your contributions).
   
       • A product, website, or open-source initiative you’ve developed with its accompanying code
   
   
2. Tell us about the project
   
   • Your Why and Contributions: What was the problem you were trying to solve and if it was a group project, what were your independent contributions to the project. Highlight your role in creating specific features, tackling challenges, or applying frameworks and algorithms relevant to the work.
   
   • Overcoming Challenges: Explain any interesting technical challenges you encountered and how you overcame them. Did you face knowledge gaps? If so, how did you bridge them? Share how these experiences reinforced and improved your problem-solving skills and how they specifically demonstrate your readiness for this apprentice role.
   
   • Leveraging AI: AI Coding Assistants are a reality in today’s Software Engineering discipline. Share how you leveraged these tools and retained understanding of the output throughout the process. Provide a specific example of when AI helped, or when it didn’t. How did you decide what to keep, what to modify, and what to discard?
   
   • Your Best Practices: Discuss any engineering best practices you’ve learned and adopted, such as writing test cases and naming conventions.

• Evidence of technical foundations and decision-making process
  
  
• An understanding of engineering principles such as testing and error handling.
  
  
• Examples of problem-solving skills demonstrated through tackling and overcoming technical challenges.
  
  
• Technical leadership and individual contributions in group projects.

• Reusing methods, object-oriented development, scalability considerations, separation of responsibilities, an understanding of Big O notation, and database integrations

• Include plain URLs for links to code repositories, websites, or videos. Avoid clickable hyperlinks (e.g., paste GitHub URLs in plain text).
  
  
• If describing group projects, focus on your specific personal contributions.
  
  
• Explicit discussion on best practices like unit tests or consideration of scalability will strengthen your response.

1. Review the job descriptions and application questions for the positions you are interested in (posted in the role-specific pages) and draft your responses per the guidelines given. While we invite you to apply to multiple roles, you can move forward with at most one role. We, therefore, advise you to only plan to apply for the roles you would want to be hired into, and for which you are qualified. 
   
   
2. Submit your application and essay application responses before the deadline.

Q: When is the next application period?   
A: We accept applications a couple times a year. The dates will be posted on this site once confirmed.

Q: How many apprentices are you accepting?  
A: We expect to hire approximately 10-15 apprentices each cycle. Exact number of hires will depend on the program’s capacity as well as business need at the time.  

Q: What roles are you hiring for?  
A: Our available roles vary from cohort to cohort. Generally, we have encompassed roles such as Software Engineering (Backend), Data Science, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning, and other roles including Technical Program Manager, and Cyber Security. To access the most up-to-date roles being offered, please refer to the "Apprentieship Roles - April 2026 Cohort" section.

Q: Is relocation offered?  
A:  Yes, relocation is offered. Our standard relocation policies and packages apply.  
  
Q: What office location will these roles be based in?  
A: At LinkedIn, we trust each other to do our best work where it works best for us and our teams. This role offers a hybrid work option, meaning you can both work from home and commute to a LinkedIn office, depending on what’s best for you and when it is important for your team to be together.

All roles within the cohort offer a hybrid work arrangement. The majority of our hybrid teams are based out of our Mountain View, CA office. However, we also have teams located in our San Francisco office, and on occasion, our New York office. To find the precise office location for the track you are interested in, please visit the respective track-specific page.

Q: Will LinkedIn sponsor my visa?  
A: Apprentice roles are not eligible for visa sponsorship. Applicants must be authorized to work in the US for LinkedIn without requiring visa sponsorship now or in the future.  
  
Q: How is team placement determined?  
A: The program team will determine which team an individual joins, keeping in mind the apprentice’s interests. Team assignments will be based on several factors in order to set the individual up for success.  

Q: Are all applications reviewed?
A: Based on high volume of interest, we will not always be able to review all applications. However, all applicants within this period will have an equal likelihood of review (i.e. applications will not be reviewed on a first come first serve basis).

Q: Do you need a LinkedIn profile in order to apply?
A: While LinkedIn profiles will not be reviewed in our hiring process, you must have a LinkedIn profile when applying in order for LinkedIn to receive your application through our applicant tracking system. In case you are new to LinkedIn or if you’d like some help in updating your profile, please visit this page or this video to see tips for creating a LinkedIn profile.