Many stages: written essay, logic test, behavioural test, 3 technical interviews, talent interview. Dropped out at this stage as they were not able to directly hire from Italy and wanted a B2B.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Canonical (London, England) in Feb 2025
Interview
Rather poor. After the CV screen the next stage is answering ~27 questions. I wrote thousands of words in response. They rejected me - fair enough as I probably didn't have enough relevant experience. But there was no feedback. They just said 'we are not able to provide specific feedback to you', which is a lie because they rejected me for a specific reason and there is nothing preventing them telling me. They even had the gall to ask 'how should Canonical set about winning?' and couldn't even be bothered to give me personal feedback. Just realise that if you apply unsuccessfully, you're in part providing them with free consultancy services. They also boast that they 'are receiving circa 80,000+ applications per month'. I won't ever apply again - it's just a waste of time.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Who are Canonical's key competitors, and how should Canonical set about winning?
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Canonical in Feb 2025
Interview
A take home questionnaire that asks about how well you did in high school, then a Psychometric assessment that takes 45 minutes and values your speed and accuracy. None of this is relevant to any role needed. After wasting time for these assessments was told they receive over 80,000 resumes and with that many choices, they are moving forward with others. Why even bother then?
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Engineering experience
What is your own experience and ideas around infrastructure defined in code for large scale SaaS operations? What practices are needed to guarantee effectiveness as well as quality? What tooling do you enjoy/prefer working with? Why?
Describe your own experience on Site Reliability Engineering? What types of applications, systems or infrastructure have you managed? At what scale? What are the best practices that should be followed?
What is your level of expertise in Linux system administration, monitoring and debugging?
How familiar are you with Linux networking, including routing, firewalls, both on a local and global scale?
Are you a high quality Python coder? What processes / automation have you implemented in Python?
How do you review and make sense of large amounts of logs? What tooling do you prefer using?
What is your most senior role in a software SRE/IT Operations organisation? Describe your span of control, and the diversity of products, functions and teams you led.
Outline your thoughts on documentation and asset management in large-scale IT operations. What practices should teams follow?
Outline your thoughts on security in software operations. How should engineers be lead to improve their security posture and awareness?
Career development
Describe your most enjoyable role you have had in your career. What made it enjoyable?
Describe a time in your career that you found challenging. Why was it challenging? What changes did you make to meet the challenge?
Describe your approach and experience sharing knowledge with other engineers? Can you give examples of technical innovations you have successfully championed in your team?
What aspects of your performance do you think your colleagues would describe as extraordinary?
Education
We consider academic results in high school and university for all roles, regardless of seniority or department. To enjoy a long and varied career at Canonical, one would need to tackle problems that cannot be defined today! From engineering to marketing to operations and sales, we intensely value colleagues who are able to puzzle through difficult problems and find the optimal path forward.
How did you rank in your high school, in your final year in maths and hard sciences? Which was your strongest?
How did you rank in your high school, in your final year in languages and the arts? Which was your strongest?
Please state your high school graduation results or university entrance results, along with the system used, and how to understand those. For example, in the US, you might give your SAT or ACT scores. In Germany, you might give your scores 1-5.
What sort of high school student were you? Outside of class, what were your interests and hobbies? What would your high school peers remember you for, if we asked them?
Which university and degree did you choose? What other universities did you consider, and why did you select that one?
At university, did you do particularly well at any area of your degree?
Overall, what was your degree result and how did that reflect on your ability?
In high school and university, what did you achieve that was exceptional?
What leadership roles did you take on during your education?
Context
Outline your thoughts on the mission of Canonical. What is it about the company's purpose and goals which is most appealing to you? What do you see as risky or unappealing?
Who are Canonical's key competitors, and how should Canonical set about winning?
Why do you most want to work for Canonical?
What would you most want to change about Canonical?
What gets you most excited about this role?
Candidates applying for Senior Site Reliability Gitops Engineer roles take an average of 14 days to get hired, when considering 1 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 Senior Site Reliability Gitops Engineer according to 1 Glassdoor interviews include:
Presentation: 50%
Other: 50%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -