I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Canva (Sydney) in Feb 2021
Interview
- 30 mins call with a Recruiter. Went through my previous experiences, questions like "Why Canva" etc. Followed by a few JS theoretical questions and showed few JS code snippets. Negotiated and fixed the salary on a lower side :(
- 1 hour call with an Engineer. One simple JS exercise.
- 3 Hours (3 Technical rounds, 45 mins each and 1 Values round, 30 mins).
Really enjoyed (and nailed) my 2 technical + values round (Everyone so nice in these 3 rounds).
But this 3rd technical round was so demotivating and the most unprofessional & negative interview experience of my life. There was a medium level LeetCode type question. I almost solved the question but got stuck at a point. As I was debugging, this person started asking me some weird questions and gave me a bad look when I tried answering them. I mean it looked like he wanted me to fail (Its given on Canva's website that they want people to shine and not to fail). He made me so nervous that I failed to debug the problem. Moreover I came up with an O(1) space solution but he wanted an O(n) space stack solution (Problem can be solved using both the approaches). I mean who does that? I came up with the optimized solution and he wanted an unoptimized solution? Lol. It was just a one line mistake. Only one line. Interview ended, and it took me only 2 mins to fix that issue afterwards.
Result: Rejected and because of this 3rd round (Recruiter gave me the feedback afterwards). I mean because of only one line mistake I got rejected. One line. I shared my thought process, explained the approach, but NO. I got rejected because of that one line. He also told me earlier that its completely ok if we are not able to solve this completely, just explain the approach. But NO, they want the answer anyhow. If there is a single line of mistake, BOOM! you will be rejected. Moreover my solution was way more optimized than his solution.
Does it prove that I am not a good Frontend Engineer? Sorry you guys were wrong. I have a strong DS/ALGO background and I am a good Frontend Engineer but companies should realize that people do get nervous during the interviews (because of these types of Interviewers) and sometimes their solutions are better than the Interviewer's solution.
Canva's interview process is so broken (Because of these types of Interviewers). That's why no local candidate works for them and they always hire people from outside on Work Visa (I think Work Visa is way worse than the Australian PR. No benefits, nothing. Try getting a PR instead). Canva is a nice company and I ll love to apply back but not sure if I will because of such interviewers. You can read all other interview experiences here on Glassdoor. Almost everyone had a negative experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
People already posted all the questions here (from all the rounds).
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Canva (Sydney) in Dec 2025
Interview
1. Recruiter call, 2. AI-assisted interview, 3. Final around with 3 interviews: pair-style interview, software architecture, culture-fit interview
Everyone at Canva was so welcoming, warm, and helpful throughout the process. Communications were not as quick due to the holidays, but HR kept me updated throughout my whole journey till the offer phase.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Canva (Melbourne) in Sep 2025
Interview
First interview is a 30 min phone screening, second interview is an AI-Assisted interview with a broad question and you need to handle scoping and development.
Final interview is a 3 part interview in a day, 1hr javascript only programming, 1hr system design and 1hr behavioural inteview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Build Canva (but up to developer to define scope, e.g. drawing on a canvas with text creation).
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Canva (Auckland, ) in Apr 2025
Interview
1) 1 hour call with People Researcher : 1st round screening is just a chat
2) 1 hour DSA recorded interview with an Engineer from Canva, it's a pair programming type of exercise where you are asked to solve a problem and talk through your solution
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