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      Senior Software Engineer Interview

      Feb 7, 2024
      Anonymous interview candidate
      Nowhere, OK
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied online. I interviewed at Canonical (Nowhere, OK) in Feb 2023

      Interview

      After my job application was reviewed, they asked for a "written evaluation" with no fewer than 19 questions, including: - How did you fare in high school mathematics? - Outside of class, what were your interests and where did you spend your time? - Outline your thoughts on the challenges of operating a well integrated and robust data platform Major red flag. Do you really expect me to spend hours writing up answers to these questions, before even getting a chance to ask you anything about the role? What a one-sided process. Glad I checked other reviews on glassdoor. IQ tests? Psychometrics evaluations? What a toxic and disrespectful process.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      Education How did you fare in high school mathematics, physical sciences and computing? Which were strengths and which were most enjoyable? How did you rank, competitively, in them? Which degree and university did you choose, and why? What did you enjoy most about your time at university? Outside of class, what were your interests and where did you spend your time? What did you achieve at university that you consider exceptional? Context Describe your experience with Data Platform technology (e.g. PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Kafka, Elasticsearch, Redis, etc.) Give details of your practical experience with Kubernetes, and with container-based operations in general Have you had any involvement in the Cloud Native community, or contributed to any related projects? Outline your thoughts on the challenges of operating a well integrated and robust data platform What is your understanding of the core functionality for a software operator that drives, for example, a database? Why do you most want to work for Canonical? Engineering Experience What kinds of software projects have you worked on before? Which operating systems, development environments, languages, databases? Give details of your Python software development experience to date, how would you rate your competency with Python? Which project or piece of software are you most proud of, and why? Give details of any experience you have with automated provisioning tools, configuration management and infrastructure-as-code tools How comprehensive is your knowledge of Linux, from the kernel up? How familiar are you with low-level system architecture, runtimes, packaging and command line tooling? Describe your experience with public cloud based operations - how well do you understand large-scale public cloud estate management and developer experience? Outline your thoughts on quality in software development. What practices are most effective to drive improvements in quality? Outline your thoughts on documentation in software projects. What practices should teams follow? What are great examples of open source docs?
      1 Answer
      1

      Other Senior Software Engineer interview reviews for Canonical

      Senior Software Engineer Interview

      Jan 27, 2026
      Anonymous interview candidate
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied through a staffing agency. I interviewed at Canonical in Jan 2026

      Interview

      I understand they are looking for a very specific type of profile. It's just not for me and after a long form with 30+ questions, some of then about my teenage years hobbies or my grades in school, and a intelligence tests consisting on sesame street knowledge like "Peter is taller than Jenny. Who is shorter?" i just withdraw, if that is the respect they have for candidate time i am not a good fit for their culture.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      long writting essay about school grades
      Answer question
      2

      Senior Software Engineer Interview

      Nov 3, 2025
      Anonymous interview candidate
      No offer
      Neutral experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Canonical

      Interview

      Long process, took a lot of time to complete so-called "written interview", talking about your academic performance during high school and college, which is hated by most people. Interviewers are kind, however, it sucks when the interview process takes you 40+ days to get a rejection email.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      Find the position of matched bytes in a large data memory
      Answer question

      Senior Software Engineer Interview

      Sep 3, 2025
      Anonymous employee
      Adelaide
      Accepted offer
      Neutral experience
      Easy interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Canonical (Adelaide)

      Interview

      It was lengthy. There is the well-known written interview, followed by a basic programming test. Lots and lots of Google Meet interviews. Many of the interviewers asked the same questions. A panel interview would have been a lot better.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      They ask a lot about high school times.
      Answer question
      2

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