I found someone on LinkedIn to refer me to Shopify. Given how the job market is right now, if you can get a referral, just take it. The day after the referral I got an email for an HR interview.
The OA was a personality test plus some basic math questions and spot-the-difference puzzles, using the Criteria CCAT question bank. 40 questions in 40 minutes. Not hard, felt more like an IQ test than coding — I just barely ran out of time and guessed on the last two questions. Still passed.
I got the feeling Shopify cares a lot about behavioral questions (BQ). What I mainly did to prepare was summarize the content about Shopify's company culture and what the CEO has said, which HR had sent over in the email.
Then we went through my education and work history, why I left my previous companies, and why I chose those companies in the first place — for every job, they asked what I did there and why I left.
During the interview they also recorded a transcript, saying it would be fed into an AI for analysis. They also asked why I studied computer science, asked me to introduce my projects, and asked how I communicate with different people on a project, especially people who aren't technical. Also, since Shopify's culture is about inclusion and diversity, they asked: "What would you do if you don't like a product that a merchant is selling?"
The overall process felt pretty relaxed. It was done over Google Meet. They also asked about salary expectations and the notice period for my current employer, and gave an overview of the next round — pair programming and system design.
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