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      Director Engineering Interview

      Apr 24, 2023
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      Mendoza

      Other Director Engineering Interview Reviews for Canonical

      Engineering Director Interview

      Apr 25, 2025
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Difficult interview

      Application

      I applied online. The process took 12 months. I interviewed at Canonical

      Interview

      Applied through LinkedIn, they sent me 20 questions to answer, each one I can write a book to answer! don't do that, they are absolute time wasters, you will get no feedback what's so ever, and they don't even send an email to say no, just keep waiting, when chased for a decision, they said we can not give you an answer, just wait!!!

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      Many questions about documentation and other software development management.
      Answer question
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Canonical (Mendoza) in Mar 2023

      Interview

      It all started like it was going to be a great experience. I got an email of the person in charge to find a good fit for me at Canonical. I had to write an essay of 10 pages answering to several open ended questions and then I had to ask 10 days after submitting that essay to hear about what happened. And I got a brief answer: "Sorry I did not come back to you. The position was filled a few days ago. Check if you want to apply to a different one" . When this person introduced himself first thing he told is that if this was not the right fit, he was still going to be in charge of finding a potential match.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      What kinds of software projects have you worked on before? Which operating systems, development environments, languages, databases? Would you describe yourself as a high quality coder? Why? Would you describe yourself as an architect of resilient software? If so, why, and in which sorts of applications? What software products have you yourself lead which shipped many releases to multiple customers? What was your role? What is your most senior role in a software engineering organisation? Describe your span of control, and the diversity of products, functions and teams you led. What is your proudest success as an engineering leader? Outline your thoughts on open source software development. What is important to get right in open source projects? What open source projects have you worked on? Have you been an open source maintainer, on which projects, and what was your role? this were the 1st ones... after the ones I just pasted I got like 30 more.
      1 Answer
      avatar
      Canonical response
      3y
      Hello. Firstly let me start by explaining we leave the length of the written submission open. It is entirely up to you to decide how much information to submit. Whilst we do indeed try our best to redirect applicants to the most suitable roles, in March we received 49,000 applications which made this more challenging. We have a team of circa 90 people involved in hiring and each written assessment is reviewed by at least one team member, and in many cases two. Each question set is unique to the role so questions do vary. In short we are trying to create a fair and equal playing field to allow all our applicants to demonstrate their skills for the role. As we hire across a global talent pool we see a big difference in length of resume. Some people will create a one page resume and others a five page resume. Obviously this makes it hard for us to compare skills fairly and hence how our written assessment was born. Our process is unique; we are looking for people to work on some of the hardest open source problems. To be great at this we need to be able to identify exceptional talent. We do take time to deeply understand skill sets, motivators, behaviours and intrinsic motivation to invite people to be part of our story. We have some phenomenal talent as a result which has created an exceptional culture of talent. We are sorry that you were not successful on this occasion. If you do see another role that you are interested in please do apply and we will be happy to re-consider you.

      Engineering Director Interview

      Apr 26, 2024
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      Declined offer
      Positive experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Canonical

      Interview

      Written assessment with many questions about career history, how to run teams and technical views. Aptitude test 4 interviews that covered tech, management and interpersonal skills. Then follow ups with leadership.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      Career history and technical architecture
      Answer question

      Director of Engineering Interview

      Sep 6, 2024
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      London, England
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Canonical (London, England) in Jan 2024

      Interview

      Initial screen went well. It was followed by a very lengthy, in detail 50+ essay questionnaire, including everything from my high school GPA to current situation. Zero feedback aside from an automated rejection letter. I requested feedback, received no reply.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      What was your high school GPA?
      1 Answer