The entire process was quite long. I'm ok with that because it allowed me to show what I know / can do. Also, the initial written interview, even though it's a lot of work to fill in, is a great starting point for the conversations. However, as I got towards the HR ("talent team") interview and the final interview with the hiring lead there were repeated questions about lowering my expected salary. I had already asked for an amount that was at the lower end of the IT salaries in my country, which apparently was still too high for Canonical. I wasn't prepared to go lower, which I assume is why I didn't get an offer in the end (the salary they had suggested would have been below the legal minimum for employees in my country, however that limit doesn't apply for freelancers which is what I would have been because Canonical doesn't have a legal entity here). My takeaway is that it only makes sense to apply for Canonical if you're i) desperate, ii) an open-source fan who doesn't care at all about earning money, or iii) from a rather low-income country. I've now signed with a different company for a salary that's about 2.5 times what Canonical had suggested.