I applied on Canva's career site and had a 30-minute talk with a recruiter. They then arranged the first-round interview, which focused on Computer Science Fundamentals.

First Round: The interviewer was a front-end developer, but I had applied for a back-end position. The job description stated that coding questions would typically relate to standard Computer Science concepts like data structures and algorithms. However, the questions were not algorithm-focused. Instead, it was an implementation problem, which was not difficult.

The interview question presented a scenario where the interviewer provided three method names, along with input and output parameters, and asked me to implement these methods. The problem description itself was vague, with no specific questions, only the three methods to implement.

Initially, it was unclear what I was supposed to do, and I didn't know where to start. I asked the interviewer if I needed to create a class, but they didn't seem to understand what a class was. It was difficult to begin, and I needed some time to think, as the problem was unclear.

However, the interviewer kept interrupting, asking if I needed help, which I didn't, as I was capable of figuring it out. Once I understood the problem, implementing it was straightforward and quick.

Despite this, I was rejected. The feedback stated that my initial thinking time was 2 minutes, which the interviewer considered too long. Additionally, when asked if I needed help, my 'no' response was interpreted as poor communication and collaboration skills.

This is outrageous.

This was a software engineer coding round interview, yet the interviewer's feedback indicated that while my code was fluent, it was not the criteria they were assessing. I find this ridiculous. The interviewer at Canva was very unprofessional.

A scenario-based problem with three methods to implement.