Canonical Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process started with a written interview, which was about 8 pages long and took around 2 hours. This was followed by a 30-minute psychometric assessment. Then there was a coding assessment that involved 3 tasks: code review, kernel module development, and kernel backporting using git, taking about 16 hours. After that, there were 3 separate 1-hour interviews with engineers on the engineering team, totaling 3 hours. These were friendly and insightful discussions with some light skill assessments. There was also a 20-minute behavioral assessment. Next, a 1-hour interview with the talent team included more behavioral questions and discussion about working at Canonical. Finally, there was a technical interview with the hiring manager, which I found underwhelming due to my inexperience. Shortly after, I received a very short, typo-ridden email stating I was unsuccessful. The whole process spanned from October to January, extended by the Christmas break. While I'm okay with the thoroughness and focus on potential, I felt disrespected by the immediate rejection after the technical interview without regard for previous stages, and especially by the poorly written rejection email and lack of response to my follow-up for feedback.

I spoke with several folks, including other Engineering Directors and the CEO twice. They had me write an essay upfront, and then asked about it in the interview. Later on, I had to write another short essay on a specific topic. Also, I was surprised to have to take two automated tests: one for personality and one for intelligence. Everyone was nice and curious, making the interviews feel like conversations. The CEO interviews were a bit more intense, like he was looking for weaknesses, but he was still polite. The whole thing took way longer than I thought it would, and there was a quiet period where I figured I didn't get the job, but it was just a slow process.

The process was completely dehumanizing. If your resume looked good, you got an AI-generated email asking for a writing assignment about your entire history, from high school to now. To do well, you had to spend hours writing and finding old school records. If you passed that, another AI email came, requiring a cognitive test from Thomas International to numerically rank your personality for filtering. Even with "above average" scores on most tests, I got rejected almost immediately. In total, the writing, test prep, and test itself would take 4-6 hours, with the company only contributing 3 AI emails. It felt dystopian. Don't start if you want to keep your humanity.