I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Shopify (Montreal, QC) in Apr 2022
Interview
1. A preliminary call where they ask basic stuff such as what do you want to do, they ask a bit about compensation.
2. The life story: This is where the real interview begins. This is a one hour discussion about your past experiences, your life... They do not read your resume, they just try to know you better around a casual discussion.
3. Coding exercise: A 45 minutes coding exercise where you can choose the language of your choice and you also have access to internet or any resources you may want. This is a pass or fail kind of exercise so, from what I understood, you need to provide a working solution. At that stage they don't really care about the tests or how you get there, as long as it works.
4. Pair programming session 1: a more complex exercise. The goal here is to see how your work. Even if you do not provide a working solution that's fine as long as you can articulate your thought process. This is a 75 minutes long exercise where you can choose the language of your choice and ask any question or look on the web.
4. Pair programming session 2: Same thing, different exercise.
5. The Deep Dive: 1 hour long discussion where you have to explain a project you've been involved in. You need to know the in and out about it and be ready to discuss details, trade-offs, technical decisions...
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Other Senior Software Developer Interview Reviews for Shopify
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