Shopify

Software Engineer (Internship) Interview Experience - Toronto, Canada

January 1, 2019

Neutral ExperienceNo Offer

Process

The interview process is divided into three parts:

Home-based programming challenge
"Life-story" interview
In-person technical interview

I participated in the first two for an iOS developer intern position. The challenge was open to everyone. You should create an iOS native application to fetch JSON data from a REST API and display it in a proper format to the user.

One week after the submission deadline, HR contacted me to schedule the life-story interview.

The life-story interview took place via an online video platform. I spoke with the recruiter for about 40-50 minutes about my life from school until the present moment. It was a casual conversation without any bias.

Unfortunately, a week later, the person I spoke with called me and informed me that there were more experienced candidates, and they were moving forward with them.

Questions

Describe your whole life story, from school to the present moment.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 20 interview experiences for the Shopify Software Engineer (Internship) role in Toronto, Ontario.

Success Rate

50%

Pass Rate

Shopify's interview process for their Software Engineer (Internship) roles in Toronto, Ontario is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive90%

Neutral10%

Negative0%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Shopify's Software Engineer (Internship) interview process in Toronto, Ontario.

Shopify Work Experiences

Fun atmosphere but slow pace and limited guidance

Software Engineer (Internship) • Former Employee

Pros: It was a fun intern class, basically a summer camp.

Cons: There was a slow pace of movement and not much solid guidance.

Fun atmosphere but slow pace and limited guidance

Software Engineer (Internship) • Former Employee

Pros: It was a fun intern class, basically a summer camp.

Cons: There was a slow pace of movement and not much solid guidance.

Great employer with flexible hours, limited ownership

Software Engineer (Internship) • Former Employee

Pros: Great employer with a lot of benefits and flexible working hours as long as you got the job done.

Cons: There was less ownership than I'd like, but it was ultimately down to the fact that it's such a large company.

Great employer with flexible hours, limited ownership

Software Engineer (Internship) • Former Employee

Pros: Great employer with a lot of benefits and flexible working hours as long as you got the job done.

Cons: There was less ownership than I'd like, but it was ultimately down to the fact that it's such a large company.

One of the best places to work in Canada

Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: Great culture, great people, wonderful perks, and a beautiful office (Toronto). Absolutely love working here.

Cons: Recruiting is broken. I wish it was more transparent. It feels a bit embarrassing to be fairly high up on the ladder (staff engineer) and not have your referrals matter. Meanwhile, I interview candidates sourced by recruiting that are subpar, where my interview rejection rate is probably over 70%. It's not just me; it's an opinion that is shared by many in the company.

One of the best places to work in Canada

Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: Great culture, great people, wonderful perks, and a beautiful office (Toronto). Absolutely love working here.

Cons: Recruiting is broken. I wish it was more transparent. It feels a bit embarrassing to be fairly high up on the ladder (staff engineer) and not have your referrals matter. Meanwhile, I interview candidates sourced by recruiting that are subpar, where my interview rejection rate is probably over 70%. It's not just me; it's an opinion that is shared by many in the company.

Fun atmosphere but slow pace and limited guidance

Software Engineer (Internship) • Former Employee

Pros: It was a fun intern class, basically a summer camp.

Cons: There was a slow pace of movement and not much solid guidance.

2.0
Fun atmosphere but slow pace and limited guidance
Software Engineer (Internship) • Former Employee
Toronto, ON
July 30, 2026
Pros: It was a fun intern class, basically a summer camp.
Cons: There was a slow pace of movement and not much solid guidance.

Great employer with flexible hours, limited ownership

Software Engineer (Internship) • Former Employee

Pros: Great employer with a lot of benefits and flexible working hours as long as you got the job done.

Cons: There was less ownership than I'd like, but it was ultimately down to the fact that it's such a large company.

5.0
Great employer with flexible hours, limited ownership
Software Engineer (Internship) • Former Employee
Toronto, ON
May 16, 2026
Pros: Great employer with a lot of benefits and flexible working hours as long as you got the job done.
Cons: There was less ownership than I'd like, but it was ultimately down to the fact that it's such a large company.

One of the best places to work in Canada

Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: Great culture, great people, wonderful perks, and a beautiful office (Toronto). Absolutely love working here.

Cons: Recruiting is broken. I wish it was more transparent. It feels a bit embarrassing to be fairly high up on the ladder (staff engineer) and not have your referrals matter. Meanwhile, I interview candidates sourced by recruiting that are subpar, where my interview rejection rate is probably over 70%. It's not just me; it's an opinion that is shared by many in the company.

5.0
One of the best places to work in Canada
Staff Software Engineer • Current Employee
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
March 4, 2020
Pros: Great culture, great people, wonderful perks, and a beautiful office (Toronto). Absolutely love working here.
Cons: Recruiting is broken. I wish it was more transparent. It feels a bit embarrassing to be fairly high up on the ladder (staff engineer) and not have your referrals matter. Meanwhile, I interview candidates sourced by recruiting that are subpar, where my interview rejection rate is probably over 70%. It's not just me; it's an opinion that is shared by many in the company.

Shopify Interview Questions

Walking Robot Simulation

Simulate a robot's movement on an infinite grid based on a sequence of commands and obstacles. Determine the square of the robot's final Euclidean distance from the origin.

ArraysGreedy Algorithms

LRU Cache

Design a data structure that acts as a Least Recently Used (LRU) cache. Implement methods to get and put key-value pairs, evicting the least recently used entry when the cache is full.

Design In-Memory File System

Implement an in-memory file system with basic operations like creating directories, adding files, and listing contents. The file system should support path-based navigation.

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