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      Canonical

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      Software Engineer Interview

      Sep 20, 2023
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      London, England
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied online. The process took 6 months. I interviewed at Canonical (London, England) in Jan 2022

      Interview

      As you may have gathered from other accounts here, this was the most absurdly protracted interview process I have ever experienced. From start to finish this process took over 6 months! The essay they want you to write asks all sorts of strange questions, including details about your time in school. I don't object to the psychometric and IQ-like tests, and the take-home exercise was fairly open-ended but not too dissimilar from other interview tasks I have done in the past. The interviews themselves were fine. After interviews spanning 3 months, including an HR interview where salaries were discussed (the figure I quoted was equal to my current salary, and the HR representative seemed a little taken aback), I emailed after two weeks of waiting and was told the position was now closed. Nearly a month later I was contacted and told the position had apparently opened up and that they wanted to proceed with the final interviews. I took this as a positive sign and proceeded. The final interview seemed to go well, and I was told I would be contacted within a week with a decision. Two weeks later I followed up by email and was told they were still interviewing candidates. A few weeks later I had still had no contact and had pretty much given up on them. Today, three months later, I receive an email informing me that the position has been closed and that this "bears no reflection on your resume and experience". Needless to say, I was not impressed by this interview process. Canonical seem to not only be wasting candidates' time with their disorganised and inefficient process, but their own time as well. I recommend they rethink the way they are doing things to eliminate unsuitable candidates earlier in the process for everyone's sake.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      If your school friends were asked how they remembered you, what would they say?
      Answer question
      1

      Other Software Engineer Interview Reviews for Canonical

      Software Engineer Interview

      Jul 9, 2026
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      Phoenix, AZ
      No offer
      Positive experience
      Difficult interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Canonical (Phoenix, AZ)

      Interview

      Brutally long and difficult. They take their time so only apply if you have time and are dedicated to open source tech. That being said they are very communicative so if you have any questions its not such a black box.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      They'll ask for specific niche aspects of coding languages to check if you actually use them day to day.
      Answer question

      Software Engineer Interview

      May 13, 2026
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Canonical

      Interview

      It's an extremely long process that includes standardized tests, take home assignments, and several rounds of interviews. It was at least 5 rounds long and you interview across different teams.

      Software Engineer Interview

      May 12, 2026
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      London, England
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied through other source. I interviewed at Canonical (London, England)

      Interview

      They have a really long, tiring interview process. The first round was a written interview where I had to answer like 15 questions. Then a coding interview with 1 hour time that I could do anytime for 2 weeks. Then I had to take a personality test and they totally ghosted me.

      Canonical interviews FAQs

      • Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Canonical with 3.2 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 16% positive. To compare, the company-average is 14.9% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
      • Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 53 days to get hired, when considering 155 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Canonical overall takes an average of 51 days.
      • Common stages of the interview process at Canonical as a Software Engineer according to 155 Glassdoor interviews include:

        Personality test:  19%

        Skills test:  19%

        IQ intelligence test:  17%

        One on one interview:  16%

        Phone interview:  12%

        Other:  7%

        Presentation:  3%

        Background check:  3%

        Group panel interview:  2%

        Drug test:  1%

      • Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -

        1. Software Engineer(96) ;
        2. Engineering Manager(20) ;
        3. Sales Development Representative (SDR)(14) ;
        4. Senior Software Engineer(12) ;
        5. Sales(11) ;
        6. Director(8) ;
        7. Manager(8) ;
        8. Product Manager(8) ;
        9. Technical Support Engineer(8) ;
        10. Software Developer(6) ;
        11. Software Engineer I(6) ;
        12. Project Manager(5) ;
        13. Sales Executive(5) ;
        14. Cloud Operations Engineer(4) ;
        15. Engineer(4) .


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      Jobs at Canonical

      65 jobs in United States
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      ·
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      ·
      £43K - £72K /yr
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      Ubuntu Core Software Engineer
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      ·
      £50K - £92K /yr
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      Web Frontend Engineer - JS, CSS, React, Flutter
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      ·
      £48K - £70K /yr
      (Employer provided)
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