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      Canonical

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      Related searches: Canonical reviews | Canonical jobs | Canonical salaries | Canonical benefits
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      Software Engineer Interview

      Dec 27, 2024
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Canonical in Dec 2024

      Interview

      I recently went through Canonical’s interview process for a Software Engineer position. Overall, be prepared to invest several hours across multiple months. Despite receiving strong feedback on most assessments—they mentioned my scores were higher than the majority of applicants—and passing all but the final interview, my candidate profile was suddenly removed (404 error). When I followed up, the hiring manager simply replied that I hadn’t passed the last interview. In addition, Canonical required extensive proof of academic achievements in Math and Physics—going back as far as my middle and high school days over 20 years ago—which felt excessive and somewhat unusual for a senior-level position. From day one, they also declined to share any salary range. Initially, they mentioned both direct hire and contractor options, which was important for me due to local tax implications. However, once I reached the HR stage, I was told contracting was not an option. This directly conflicted with what had been discussed earlier and led to confusion. Here’s an overview of the steps involved: Assessments - Written interview - Online technical assessment (multiple-choice questions + two coding challenges) - IQ assessment - Behavioral assessment Early Stage Interviews - Linux interview - Cross-team manager interview - Python interview - HR interview Late Stage Interview - Director interview These steps combined took a significant amount of time, and the final rejection felt abrupt. This has been my experience, but your mileage may vary. If you decide to proceed with Canonical, be prepared for a detailed and potentially lengthy process.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      - A bunch of Linux commands - What is Python comprehension - What does the zip function do in Python? - DevOps questions
      1 Answer
      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
      Ubuntu Core Software Engineer
      London, England
      ·
      £50K - £92K /yr
      (Glassdoor est.)
      View job
      Software Engineer - Data Infrastructure
      Douglas, Scotland
      ·
      £47K - £67K /yr
      (Glassdoor est.)
      View job
      Web Frontend Engineer - JS, CSS, React, Flutter
      Douglas, Scotland
      ·
      £48K - £70K /yr
      (Employer provided)
      View job
      Software Engineer, Sustaining Engineering
      Douglas, Scotland
      ·
      £41K - £74K /yr
      (Glassdoor est.)
      View job
      Python Software Engineer, Commercial Systems
      Douglas, Scotland
      View job
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