Software Engineer, Backend Interview Experience - Ottawa, Canada
Process
I must start by saying that I really enjoyed the interview process. Most of the interviews were very conversational, and all of the team members I met were friendly and open to answering any questions I had. Everyone was also on time for my interviews.
I had a phone screening interview, then a technical screening and "life story" interviews. Later, I reached the final stage, which included two pair programming interviews and a technical deep dive.
The pair programming sessions are quite misleading. The interviewers won't help you much to solve the actual problem; it's just you, live coding under pressure.
Be prepared for a range of algorithm problems in those sessions. I received an NP-hard problem and wasn't prepared for it, as I don't practice LeetCode. Consequently, I hit a wall.
They also pay attention to your object-oriented design as you solve the problems, so put your SOLID principles into action.
I wouldn't say this process was particularly hard. You just need to be a good fit for their culture and get a little lucky with the algorithm problems.
Questions
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Shopify Software Engineer, Backend role in Ottawa, Ontario.
Success Rate
Shopify's interview process for their Software Engineer, Backend roles in Ottawa, Ontario is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Shopify's Software Engineer, Backend interview process in Ottawa, Ontario.
Shopify Work Experiences
- 5.0Shopify is definitely the place to be!Software Engineer, Backend • Former EmployeeOttawa, Ontario, CanadaMay 15, 2019Pros: I've achieved things working here that I would have never imagined I'd do during my internship career. This is due to excellent mentorship and culture; interns are treated almost identically to full-timers (aside from being put on call). You're given the same privileges as full-timers with full access to all machines your team owns, including SSH access to production machines. Unlike certain other companies (cough, cough), you're not siloed to an intern project and instead pull tickets from the top of the bucket like full-timers and work as part of a team.Cons: The internship is what you make of it.
- 3.0Used to be great. Now it's just another tech companySenior Developer • Former EmployeeOttawa, Ontario, CanadaSeptember 28, 2021Pros: ros Flexible & remote work In-office perks were great. Helped all employees in 2020 to set up home offices and provided some additional one-time perks. Core product, idea, and vision for the future.Cons: Salary is on the low side. They are not taking feedback from employees on the salary level being low compared to other tech companies in Canada (not even comparing to FAANG). Lacking internal compensation fairness. Prepare to offer a much higher salary to a new hire on the same team, at the same level, with the same years of experience, but they will shut you down when you try to ask for a raise. You will just be told they are evaluating a new framework (really, for a year!!!). Replaced the majority of middle management with external hires, even while preaching about promoting from within by higher-ups. Bro culture. You can be easily sidelined if you are not in the inner circle or do not come up with some talk about activities that your lead likes to do outside of work. If you can, you are in for a lottery. Very strong "not-built-here" mentality, where Shopify tends to rebuild everything that already has solutions.
- 5.0Flexible Hours, Great TeamProduction Engineer Co-op • Current EmployeeOttawa, Ontario, CanadaJuly 3, 2019Pros: Teams are very flexible with work hours and projects to work on.Cons: - Nothing bad to say
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