I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Canva (Sydney) in Mar 2023
Interview
One of the WORST interview process I have gone through. They have more than 4 Technical interviews and 1st HR interview is also a technical interview. And their Interview process is damn funny where you need to remember the coding and the exact part of coding where they will test. they don't care about the concept and how an interviewee reaches the problem. they need coding. Only SCIENTISTS will join here. One of their interviews is live code; can you imagine it lasts 3 hours? and then you will hear No also. They except you to code by remembering all codes in your mind for the questions that they give on spot. My suggestion is please don't waste your time here on this. cause if you are an experienced developer there are plenty of opportunities rather than expect you to remember and byheart codes in your memory. these kind of companies will eventually fall into ground where people they hire doesnt have practical knowlege on how to approach a problem. they just need to byheart code where we have google these days. big NO for this company and their ridicioulus interview process.
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Other Senior Software Engineer interview reviews for Canva
Pros: Interview prep materials were detailed and sent well ahead of each stage. The AI-assisted coding round was a genuinely interesting format.
Cons: The process took roughly two and a half months end-to-end, across seven separate touchpoints: a recruiter screen, an informal chat with an engineering lead, two technical interviews, a three-competency final loop crammed into one almost-three-hour session with a single 15-minute break, an additional vibe check with someone more senior, and a couple of feedback calls. After the final loop, communication went quiet. I had to follow up twice over the following fortnight before getting any answer. After all that time investment, unpaid and unsupported by any interim feedback, the outcome was a generic "closer match" rejection.
Advice to Management: Consider consolidating the number of discrete interview stages, or at minimum be upfront about the likely timeline so candidates can plan around it. If a decision date slips, a proactive heads-up beats making candidates chase twice for a status update.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a system architecture to generate multi-media outputs from design templates and related resources.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Canva (Sydney) in May 2026
Interview
Recruiter was very friendly. He was new at the company though and gave inaccurate information about what was to be asked. I got 2 strong hires in the final round (language fluency, values). For technical communications, it is unclear what the outcome was. I was presented with a very detailed document and unclear expectations. Feedback was very unfair and contradictory to what happened in the interview. I thought I just had an unfair interview, but since found out that the company rescinded offers and froze positions and kicked people out after probation. Something is looming at Canva.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tech comms round included system design concepts, contrary to recruiter's guidance.
The technical interview process felt poorly calibrated and inconsistently framed. The main issue was not that the questions were difficult, but that several rounds seemed to test a different skill set than what was communicated beforehand.
In practice, it often felt unclear what the primary evaluation criteria actually were. Some rounds started as if they were focused coding exercises, but the expected discussion appeared to extend into broader design, scaling, or product-style considerations without that scope being made explicit early on. That made it difficult to judge how much time to spend on core implementation versus higher-level tradeoff discussion. The result was a process that felt noisy rather than rigorous.
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