The first interview was a "Coding Exercise" with a Senior Engineer. As others have mentioned, it was fairly easy, but almost to the point where I can't imagine it was really worth either of our time. I had a working solution within the first few minutes. My interviewer seemed satisfied after checking a few different inputs, asked if I had any questions, and we chatted for 40 minutes before ending early.

I had sort of expected to be prompted to explain my solution, optimize it, maybe add a new constraint to the question, or even try a second question. Instead, it took 5 minutes, and that was that. I can't really imagine someone struggling with the type of question I received and also being viewed as experienced/competent enough.

The interviewer was very friendly, though. We discussed what his work was like, what he enjoyed about Shopify, etc. Pretty chill experience overall.

My second interview a week later was the "Life Story." I had sort of thought this was more general about who I am, what I've done, and what makes me tick. However, it was essentially just them asking me to explain my work experience. Certainly not a surprise as far as interviews go, but not really a unique thing either, as they seemed to imply this stage would be.

The recruiter was very friendly, although I wasn't really sure what they wanted to hear. They also didn't want to hear anything else from me, so we ended a bit early. I received the rejection the next morning.

Going in, I had thought the first interview was to find out what sort of developer I was, and the second was to find out what sort of person I was. I don't feel either did a great job of doing those things. Perhaps I just did a poor job of advocating for myself, or it's possible they just didn't like me. It's tough to know what they're looking for: I'm just a bad fit for every team.

What did you do at this job?