Interviewer said we'd have 20 minutes to talk. He called about 10 minutes late. He asked me a couple boilerplate questions about why I was interested in the position. Finally he concluded with "All right that all sounds like it lines up." Then he proceeded to send me a 1 hour, timed, hackerrank quiz in C++. He never let me get a question in and he was well aware I have almost a decade of experience in the industry but have been programming in C. After the quiz he followed up and said he'd be in touch. He never followed up and my application went to 'no longer under consideration.' Obviously I did not complete the quiz to his liking. I sent him a follow up email explaining I'd love to go over the quiz on the phone and explain that I have experience with C++ but it hasn't been my recent focus. There was no response. In general I think this company seems interesting, but the entire process felt robotic and distopian. Their number 1 priority seems to be programming language. A new grad would have probably passed the quiz with flying colors but someone that has spent a decade in the domain with a different language was overlooked. He never asked how proficient I was with graphics algorithms and control laws and the quiz was a tic tac toe game. They're building a robot, not completing a timed-trial of C++ syntax. I wish the company the best, but I think they will lose out on a lot of brilliant engineers that are a great cultural fit to their company using this method of recruiting. They will hire people that look good on paper but are really just proficient with syntax prior to starting the job. It yields a feeling of disrespect and wasted time.

I will say this, Canvas has some of the nicest and smartest people working there as of now. However, my time being interviewed was pointless and wasted. Before I explain why, let me describe the themes I catched throughout the interview process. I had three rounds of interviews, which spanned about three weeks. The first round was a C++ problem online, with a followup call to discuss your solution to the problem if they like it. The second round was a phone call with the founder, and it was a 30-40min behavioral interview. The founder mention that due to their timing as a start-up, they can only pay 80-90% market rate of your expected salary, but you'll get company equity. I was a little concerned when I first heard this, but his overconfident nature at the time tried to assure that one should not worry about this... I tried to feel the same... The third round was a scheduled on-site interview. When I arrived, no one expected me to come before it took a few minutes before they realized I scheduled an interview with a person that day, to which this person wasn't even there. They eventually organized themselves, and I spoke with four people. The first person asked general knowledge computer science questions. The second person gave me a puzzle to solve, and we worked on it together. The third person asked for me to fix an opencv problem, and to come up with an function that blurs images. The fourth person gave behavioral questions, for the most part was the same questions as the second phone interview. He was really kind, but he was really substituting for someone else who was missing. Technically there was suppose to be a fifth person, but he was not there; but what can I expect by now. Going back to why I believe this process was a waste of my time, one of the interviewers on site at one point paraphrasing what he bluntly said, "seeing as we're a startup, there may be times that your position could become unnecessary and to 'keep and open mind'" Well if this was already decided, why am I even here at this point!? To this day, a month after my on-site interview, I have yet to recieve any communication. Take aways from this company: Yes it is startup, and it is understandable for certain limitations both financial and skill wise. However, lack of organization during the hiring process remains unacceptable to any real company. To the company itself, don't kid yourself if you're hiring if your interviewers will just say look elsewhere, after making it through the rounds. And most importantly, follow up with your candidates, even if it's a rejection, from a courteous point of view .