Canva

Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience - Australia

February 1, 2025

Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

Recruiter screening with some standard questions about experience, motivation, and explaining the role itself and how they work. The recruiter didn't seem very excited. After being told that they would pass my profile to the hiring team for a technical interview, I was rejected by the hiring team without any feedback. I never even had the chance to speak with them.

Not impressed.

Questions

Tell me about your experience.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 33 interview experiences for the Canva Senior Software Engineer role in Australia.

Success Rate

15%

Pass Rate

Canva's interview process for their Senior Software Engineer roles in Australia is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive24%

Neutral21%

Negative55%

Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Canva's Senior Software Engineer interview process in Australia.

Canva Work Experiences

Very challenging, but can be rewarding

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

January 3, 2025

Pros: Very generous benefits and stock options. Lots of great colleagues with strong alignment on values and mission. Heaps of interesting problems to address.

Cons: Some growing pains are still happening. A lot of engineering leaders are not well trained or supported for leadership, which at times results in teams being unfairly punished for poor management. The expectations on staff to deliver are very high, and performance reviews are quite brutal and opaque.

Very challenging, but can be rewarding

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

January 3, 2025

Pros: Very generous benefits and stock options. Lots of great colleagues with strong alignment on values and mission. Heaps of interesting problems to address.

Cons: Some growing pains are still happening. A lot of engineering leaders are not well trained or supported for leadership, which at times results in teams being unfairly punished for poor management. The expectations on staff to deliver are very high, and performance reviews are quite brutal and opaque.

Generally positive, good engineering culture.

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

September 3, 2026

Pros: Engineering culture is quite good, and people are generally really good to work with and responsive to design and changes that impact them. Leadership has a good idea of what it wants, but sometimes that does get lost in the trickle-down to engineers. Salary and benefits are both good, and opportunities for advancement are readily available.

Cons: Work-life is generally good, but with the recent AI mania and speed of development, this is taking a bit of a hit. I don't think the company has quite found the right balance yet of extracting value from AI-powered employees without overloading the employees and generating burnout.

Generally positive, good engineering culture.

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

September 3, 2026

Pros: Engineering culture is quite good, and people are generally really good to work with and responsive to design and changes that impact them. Leadership has a good idea of what it wants, but sometimes that does get lost in the trickle-down to engineers. Salary and benefits are both good, and opportunities for advancement are readily available.

Cons: Work-life is generally good, but with the recent AI mania and speed of development, this is taking a bit of a hit. I don't think the company has quite found the right balance yet of extracting value from AI-powered employees without overloading the employees and generating burnout.

Great place to work

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: - Flexibility in working hours - Cares about employee wellbeing - Full of smart people

Cons: - Not all teams/groups within the company have the same quality of leadership.

Great place to work

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: - Flexibility in working hours - Cares about employee wellbeing - Full of smart people

Cons: - Not all teams/groups within the company have the same quality of leadership.

Very challenging, but can be rewarding

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

January 3, 2025

Pros: Very generous benefits and stock options. Lots of great colleagues with strong alignment on values and mission. Heaps of interesting problems to address.

Cons: Some growing pains are still happening. A lot of engineering leaders are not well trained or supported for leadership, which at times results in teams being unfairly punished for poor management. The expectations on staff to deliver are very high, and performance reviews are quite brutal and opaque.

3.0
Very challenging, but can be rewarding
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
January 3, 2025
Pros: Very generous benefits and stock options. Lots of great colleagues with strong alignment on values and mission. Heaps of interesting problems to address.
Cons: Some growing pains are still happening. A lot of engineering leaders are not well trained or supported for leadership, which at times results in teams being unfairly punished for poor management. The expectations on staff to deliver are very high, and performance reviews are quite brutal and opaque.

Generally positive, good engineering culture.

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

September 3, 2026

Pros: Engineering culture is quite good, and people are generally really good to work with and responsive to design and changes that impact them. Leadership has a good idea of what it wants, but sometimes that does get lost in the trickle-down to engineers. Salary and benefits are both good, and opportunities for advancement are readily available.

Cons: Work-life is generally good, but with the recent AI mania and speed of development, this is taking a bit of a hit. I don't think the company has quite found the right balance yet of extracting value from AI-powered employees without overloading the employees and generating burnout.

5.0
Generally positive, good engineering culture.
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Adelaide
September 3, 2026
Pros: Engineering culture is quite good, and people are generally really good to work with and responsive to design and changes that impact them. Leadership has a good idea of what it wants, but sometimes that does get lost in the trickle-down to engineers. Salary and benefits are both good, and opportunities for advancement are readily available.
Cons: Work-life is generally good, but with the recent AI mania and speed of development, this is taking a bit of a hit. I don't think the company has quite found the right balance yet of extracting value from AI-powered employees without overloading the employees and generating burnout.

Great place to work

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: - Flexibility in working hours - Cares about employee wellbeing - Full of smart people

Cons: - Not all teams/groups within the company have the same quality of leadership.

5.0
Great place to work
Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee
April 23, 2024
Pros: - Flexibility in working hours - Cares about employee wellbeing - Full of smart people
Cons: - Not all teams/groups within the company have the same quality of leadership.

Canva Interview Questions

Basic Calculator

Implement a basic calculator to evaluate a simple expression string. The expression can contain parentheses, addition, and subtraction.

Basic Calculator II

Implement a basic calculator to evaluate a simple expression string. The expression can contain non-negative integers, '+', '-', '*', '/' operators, and spaces; integer division should truncate toward zero.

Game of Life

Simulate the Game of Life, updating the state of a board based on the rules of cell survival and death in each generation. Modify the board in place to represent the next generation.

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