Canopy Interview Questions
& Process

Scheduled for 3x 45' back-to-back virtual interviews. First interviewer was off-putting, commented about being in a frustrated mood, barely made eye contact, furiously responding to slack messages. Seemed uninterested and didn't care, making it uncomfortable and jarring. Very unprofessional. During this interview, an email was received that there had been a 'switcheroo' and the remaining 2 interviews were cancelled. Red flags raised early.

I applied to Canopy last summer because I really connected with their company values and the general vibe I got from their website. It started well, and I enjoyed my initial conversations with the team. After that, it went downhill. Overall, I felt this company didn't know itself, and candidates felt the pain of that. They had an incredibly long and painful interview process that didn't seem to relate to the actual tasks of the job. It seems they had been burned in the past choosing people that weren't a fit. Rather than get real with themselves about who they're really looking for, they just added more steps out of anxiety. I did many interviews for senior software engineering positions, and ended up with my dream job (not this one). This is the only interview process that actively made me baffled at what they were even thinking and angry as I felt my time was so wasted and people so rude. For example, figure out if the candidate has the technical skills you want from the beginning before you put them through a four-hour panel interview with non-engineers (which they were an hour late for, by the way). The first two technical rounds were algorithms, which I passed. I then got rejected because I didn't have experience with various state machines. This is inefficient for both of us. It just goes to show algos don't tell you how someone is going to do with the real skills needed for the company, and socially with the team. Another thing to note is the culture I was receiving from the engineering team did not match the culture the company markets at all. This is somewhat normal, but they didn't seem aware of it. I felt like the first stage of hiring was picking people they liked, with no idea that those personalities were not going to get along with the engineers. One person interviewing me from engineering even seemed to be typing and working on something else while interviewing me, and was only half paying attention. I asked someone during the interview process what the most common reason was that caused engineers to leave the company. They paused and immediately listed 8 people, so it seems it's not just me. Please sit down and really have a discussion internally about the specific technical skills you're looking for as an engineering team, and come up with a technical assessment that represents that. Don't just 'play interview' by doing algos if that's not giving you the right information about the candidate (and I say that as someone who passed the algos). Be honest about your engineering culture and who will fit in there, and make that clear in the job ad. You don't need such a long and tedious interview process if you do that.

The hiring process was pretty much what they had on their Careers page, but with an added portfolio review, which is pretty standard for this kind of job. It all took about a month. They were really nice, clear, and quick with their communication.

The interviewers seemed untrained. The HR interview was okay, mostly about selling the company and my background. The next manager didn't listen well and seemed focused on why I left jobs, like trying to find if I was fired or laid off. It felt weird. It seems like they prefer hiring people they know and only interview outside people as a formality.