I applied for a front-end developer role at Canva, having heard many good things about the company, so I was really excited. The first step was an online HackerRank assessment with run-of-the-mill algorithm questions for a senior front-end role.

The problem was not at all close to the type of code or programs you would write in a day-to-day job as a front-end developer. While Canva has every right to interview as it sees fit, I had higher expectations from a reputable company like Canva, known for investing heavily in its recruitment process. From some older reviews, I had heard they give you an application to design, and the rest of the process is based on that, but that's not what I experienced.

To top it off, I got 10 out of 12 test cases correct, and the other two failed due to some strange error unrelated to timeouts. I lost quite a bit of time on that, so please get your platform checked.

Suggestion to recruiters: Someone good at speed programming has a better chance of solving your HackerRank problem than an experienced front-end developer who isn't well-versed in these algorithms. If you want to stand out from other companies, please do better than this.

Q: Find some number from a variable set of inputs using some sort of recursion.