Meet Peter Fu, Apple Software Engineer | Ask Me Anything

Ask Me Anything Series

This month, we hosted our first Ask Me Anything with Apple Software Engineer Peter Fu. These events are the perfect opportunity to connect kids with tech professionals, thought leaders, and Juni Community members.

Juni families were given the opportunity to ask Peter anything they were curious about. Check out his replies below!

About Peter Fu

Peter Fu is a Software Engineer at Apple. He's on the Apple Siri team, working in the Sports domain knowledge area. He ensures that Siri has the most up-to-date schedule, scores, and stat information. Previously, he worked at ESPN and Amazon.

Fun Fact: He eats, breathes, and sleeps sports. When he's not playing sports or watching a sporting event, you can find him watching Big Brother and Survivor.

Questions for Peter

1. How do I get my 13 yr old Fortnight obsessed son to try coding? (Bill, Claymont, DE)

This is a great question! I have done some volunteer work in the past with an event called Maker Faire, and I would highly recommend bringing your son. The Maker Faire brings together all sorts of people who are making things from bottle rockets to large scale robots. And when you talk to these makers, a lot of them have built their robots or art projects with code.

I think it’s an excellent showcase of the cool things that code can create, and that it’s not limited to just computers and websites. If you can’t attend, I recommend getting a robotics kit, the ones I like kind of look like RC cars. I like recommending robotic kits for kids because it gives them some physical to play with, and programs like Scratch are built to provide immediate feedback, which I think is critical.

2. What sort of tools do you use in your day to day work? Are there any we can learn as high schoolers? (Sandy)

When I’m writing code the primary tool I use is an IDE called IntelliJ. It’s free to download to try, and it creates a friendly workspace, so it’s easy to browse and edit your code while making debugging a breeze. Besides that, we use many collaboration tools, which are vital when working alongside my team members.

3. Do you have any advice for young students who want to pursue a career in software design? (Mathias, Woodbridge, VA)

Technology is moving faster than it ever has before, and every year the speed it moves seems to grow exponentially. I would recommend not getting bogged down learning a specific coding language. It’s much more important to understand how the software works both at the lower level and the systems level.

I suggest that you build your software fundamentals — take as many algorithms and system design classes as possible. For example, learning how Facebook and Instagram can handle so many users at once can give you a good sense of the software problems you might deal with in the future.

4. What is one of the things you've made that is the hardest and most achievable thing you've done? (Areeb Ahmed Khan, Pakistan, Lahore)

I built a working website for reality television fantasy sports (think: Fantasy Football but for Bachelor or Survivor) over several weekends using AWS. It was hard because I had no experience building a website from scratch and minimal experience with AWS. But it turned out pretty well, and it brought together two of my passions — fantasy football and reality television.

5. What’s your favorite football team? (Cameron, Modesto)

Before they moved to Las Vegas, it was always the Raiders and the 49ers, but now it’s just the 49ers.

More Juni Community Events

Thanks to all the families and students who participated in this AMA! We also of course need to thank Peter for joining us and sharing his experiences.

Check out more of the latest Juni Community news, and stay tuned for more events we hold in the future.