I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Shopify (Montreal, QC)
Interview
Usual Shopify interview
- 1 code screening
- 1 life story
- 1 design
- 2 code pairing
I have nothing but positive things to say about my interviews. First step was the code screening, I was given a very easy problem and my interviewer was very clear about his expectations, it took me 10 min to finish. After that I had the life story interview with a recruiter, we just talked about my past experience during 1h, it was a nice chat.
After the life story I made it to the last 3 interviews: a system design interview called “deep dive” where you will discuss with the interviewer the architecture of a system you know really well. You should prepare for this interview, since you will only have one hour and you’ll want to explain very clearly your system of choice. Then I had 2 pair programming sessions where I was given 2 different problems to solve, it’s not a requirement to finish your solution before the end of the interview but I was able to finish both problems and write tests. I got an offer the next day.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Regular coding questions, leetcode level from easy to medium
I passed LRU cache coding in first interview
I had four more interview.
1. pair coding again LRU cache I did what I did in previous one
2. system design I desinged staff level architectire
3. Technical deep dive I explained my current technical structure
4. life story he asked what we talked first screening
I got rejected .
Important part All I had interview was native speaker. None has accent.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Library Rare Books
Goals
Design the core systems to drive check-in and check-out flows. It should involve a web app (schema/APIs), a job system, and a file storage system.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Shopify in Apr 2026
Interview
I recently completed the interview process at Shopify, which spanned about three weeks. The stages included an initial online cognitive assessment and a pair programming round, followed by a virtual onsite featuring a second pair programming session, a technical deep dive, system design, and a "life story" interview.
Overall, it was an excellent experience. The interviewers were professional and highly engaged throughout. I found the technical problems to be very practical, and notably, the use of AI coding tools was encouraged during the pairing sessions. While the system design requirements were quite lengthy, the complexity was manageable as long as you remain calm, think out loud, and clarify expectations early on.
Had an initial recruiter call, very friendly. Then had a life story interview, very friendly casual conversation as well speaking about past work experiences and how it led to where I am. Was scheduled for a 75 mins coding round, but I dropped since I landed another offer
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
More about why are you interested in Shopify and how I work
Senior Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Shopify with 2.6 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 35% positive. To compare, the company-average is 45.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Senior Software Engineer roles take an average of 31 days to get hired, when considering 51 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Shopify overall takes an average of 33 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Shopify as a Senior Software Engineer according to 51 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 31%
One on one interview: 24%
Skills test: 17%
Presentation: 11%
Personality test: 6%
Background check: 6%
IQ intelligence test: 4%
Other: 1%
Drug test: 1%
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