Canonical is a notoriously slow company to interview for so it's no surprise that my process ended up taking around 4 months. On average it would take Canonical 11 days between completing a step (either a test or an interview) and coming back with the next steps.
There are four stages to the application process: The initial step is writing an essay about one's early school life where one answers questions meant to show character traits, from a heavily USA-flavoured perspective. In my case, there was also a coding test that was purposely made easier than the level I was applying for. This is done to see if the applicant is willing to "go above" and imagine further solutions to the stated task (admitted later by one of the interviewers)
While I did this, I have also experienced application processes where not following the assignment to the letter will instantly fail the applicant, so this is not a great start. It also seems to favour employees that can more easily be exploited to do more than they are paid for, so I do consider this decision a bit of a red flag.
The following steps rely heavily on tests from Thomas International, which may pose problems for some applicants as these tests have no accessibility options (font sizing is broken, no option for a dyslexic font, no contrast or dark mode options, etc.) aren't built with responsive design in mind and the timed tests rely on broken timing code making the allotted time randomly jump forward.
There are also problems with the Thomas linguistic tests, as they often use words that have opposing meanings in terms of dictionary definition versus common use, making it difficult (especially when on a timer) to correctly assess the intention behind some questions.
While I passed these tests, I don't applaud Canonical for using them as means of filtering out applicants when they are constructed this poorly.
The next step is the initial interview process. This step was completed much more quickly than the previous ones as the interview dates are scheduled in one go. The interviewers were all very pleasant and were surprisingly candid about the fact that the job description didn't actually match the job and that several steps in the application process are to test skills that won't be used in the actual job.
Several of the interviewers told me that I was extremely well qualified for the job and that they would hire me on the spot if it were up to them, but that I "unfortunately" had to talk to HR first before they could give me the offer they were sure I was going to get.
After one more Thomas International test, I moved on to the last stage of the application process, which is talking to HR, negotiating salary and such.
At this step, I was asked to describe my previous work experience and about halfway through the interview, the interviewer started to keep trying to get me to say something negative about my previous work-places. As I always try to have a good relationship with my coworkers and employers, I couldn't actually give much in the way of negativity and "confrontations", but did highlight some company processes that I thought could be improved at some of the places I've worked. This seemed to irritate my interviewer, who up until then had commended my answers for being thorough and thoughtful, and he became more and more confrontational in his tone.
When all questions were over, I tried to thank him for a good interview (after all, I do appreciate getting to reflect on previous work) and this too seemed to trigger him to keep asking me what I meant. I explained precisely that, that I enjoyed reminiscing and recontextualising, but his response was as if I had mocked him somehow. I didn't think too much of this at the time, as he might have just had a bad day or was in a hurry to get something else at work.
After this interview - where we also discussed salary (that I was told was perfectly within limits) - I was ghosted by Canonical. When I wrote them for a status update two weeks later (just over their average response time), I was told that I would no longer be considered for the position, with no further explanation.
Since Canonical very publicly prides themselves in "always" providing clear feedback when an applicant has made it this far in the process, I wrote back and asked for specifics that I might improve in order to apply in the future, but never received a response.
This was also one of two positions I had applied for - handled separately in their system - and the second application was never rejected, but my application status page was deleted shortly after my last email.
TL;DR: Canonical's test process is flawed; their application process is needlessly slow and they do not stand by their word in regards to providing feedback to the applicants, even after a four-month process. Even if you are told that you are basically hired, they might ghost you without explanation.
