Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience - Australia
February 14, 2024
Negative ExperienceNo Offer
Process
I was met by an unpleasant internal recruiter. He had a rather pernicious personality, in my opinion.
He refused to tell me anything of importance about the role itself. Instead, he asked me multiple technical questions—questions that he wouldn't know the answer to himself if he didn't have them written in front of him, as he is a recruiter.
Almost every other company I've spoken with (and I've had offers at most big-tech companies as well) first tells you about the role, expected salary, the process, etc. Not Canva. They only care about what's in it for them and they won't hand over any information about what you're actually applying for until you do a technical round with a recruiter.
As a result, I declined to progress any further and took my efforts elsewhere. I landed a job in A.I.
Questions
I can't remember, as this was about six months ago.
Some abstract questions were involved, with no programming.
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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
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.
3.0
Okay
Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee
March 18, 2026
Pros: - Great office.
- Excellent pay.
- Reasonable onboarding process for general corporate things and general engineering things.
Cons: - The team didn't use a structured container of work model, such as sprints.
- The team didn't have daily video stand-ups, nor other regular rituals.
- The backlog of work wasn't prioritised, and cards didn't have well-defined definitions of done.
- The team didn't have shared deliverables, and the team was split into silos of knowledge.
- A lot of implicit social coordination and coalition-building skills were required.
- Nobody on the team was colocated.
- There was a lot of red tape. To get something simple approved in one instance, I needed to get sign-off from my manager's manager's manager.
- There was heaps of back-and-forth on design docs without being able to align quickly on what needs doing.
- Newbie tasks were not already scoped and were secretly "redesign our entire team workflow".
- There was a culture of everyone on the team working on their own thing, with no shared team deliverables.
- The review culture was not aligned towards shipping and was mildly antagonistic.
- There was a culture of introducing scope from, for example, a Slack message from the previous day that the newbie was supposed to be keyed into, into otherwise small pull requests.
5.0
Best company I've worked out, hands down
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
August 18, 2023
Pros: Fantastic perks. Really smart team. Great leadership & direction. Lots of growth opportunities.
Cons: No downsides I've experienced so far.
- 5.0Generally positive, good engineering culture.Senior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeAdelaideSeptember 3, 2026Pros: 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.
- 3.0OkaySenior Software Engineer • Former EmployeeMarch 18, 2026Pros: - Great office. - Excellent pay. - Reasonable onboarding process for general corporate things and general engineering things.Cons: - The team didn't use a structured container of work model, such as sprints. - The team didn't have daily video stand-ups, nor other regular rituals. - The backlog of work wasn't prioritised, and cards didn't have well-defined definitions of done. - The team didn't have shared deliverables, and the team was split into silos of knowledge. - A lot of implicit social coordination and coalition-building skills were required. - Nobody on the team was colocated. - There was a lot of red tape. To get something simple approved in one instance, I needed to get sign-off from my manager's manager's manager. - There was heaps of back-and-forth on design docs without being able to align quickly on what needs doing. - Newbie tasks were not already scoped and were secretly "redesign our entire team workflow". - There was a culture of everyone on the team working on their own thing, with no shared team deliverables. - The review culture was not aligned towards shipping and was mildly antagonistic. - There was a culture of introducing scope from, for example, a Slack message from the previous day that the newbie was supposed to be keyed into, into otherwise small pull requests.
- 5.0Best company I've worked out, hands downSenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeePerth, Western Australia, AustraliaAugust 18, 2023Pros: Fantastic perks. Really smart team. Great leadership & direction. Lots of growth opportunities.Cons: No downsides I've experienced so far.
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