Get a Job at Shopify: Interview Process and Top Questions

As one of the world's largest e-commerce platforms, getting a job at Shopify can be quite competitive.

Many applicants have described a lengthy interview process with a hiring rate as low as 0.3%.

The workplace requires confident and dedicated employees who

• thrive in a fast-paced environment,
• constantly learn and develop their craft,
• and solve complex problems under pressure.

The company has grown to approximately 10,000 employees since its founding 2006, and its positions are highly sought-after due to its fully remote work structure and casual environment.

Plus, the Shopify backend is built with Ruby on Rails, making it popular among developers who still use this framework.

If that’s the kind of environment you thrive in, keep reading!

We’ve compiled this interview guide with tips and advice based on the experiences of those who have already gone through the process.

Below, we break down the Shopify interview process and the top questions you should expect to answer if you're interviewing at Shopify!

What is the Shopify interview process?

Shopify’s interview process is fully remote and can take as long as 3 to 4 months to reach a hiring decision.

The interview structure varies depending on the position and team you’re applying for.

Shopify, as one of its grounding philosophies, thrives on change — so the process is unlikely to be exactly the same for every applicant.

Generally, most interviewees will face the following interviews:

• Recruiter Call (30 minutes)
• Life Story Interview (1 hour)
• Onsite Interviews (2-5 1-hour interviews on the same day or across multiple sessions)

With a company culture and interview process unique compared to most other tech companies (Shopify’s CEO famously said the company is “not a family”), it’s best to expect the unexpected.

Many candidates reported feeling caught off guard by some Shopify interview questions and exercises due to the casual and conversational culture at the company.

Still, it’s important to take the process seriously.

Spend some time familiarizing yourself with Shopify’s culture and values to best prepare for interviews.

There are technical and coding sessions, but other behavioral interviews are heavily conversation-based.

Shopify is looking for candidates who:

• Get shit done (GSD)
• Think independently
• Thrive in ambiguity and chaos
• Are eager to learn and develop their craft

New roles are listed every three months, so if you don’t see the job you’re looking for, check back regularly.

Additionally, Shopify has two separate ‘tracks’ for team members depending on a candidate’s experience and seniority level:

• Crafter Track — Crafters are individual contributors who execute and contribute to specific projects.
• Manager Track — Leadership roles tasked with managing a team to help meet Shopify’s overall goals and accomplish smaller team-based projects.

Step 1: Recruiter Call

The first step in the hiring process is a quick call with a Shopify recruiter. These usually last about 30 to 45 minutes.

For some roles, the recruiter interview is evaluative and designed to gauge:

• Your interest in Shopify
• Past experience
• Culture fit
• Qualifications for the role

Candidates applying for more technical roles reported getting a coding question during the initial recruiter call to solve on CoderPad.

These tend to be easy-to-medium difficulty coding questions, but more practical in nature than a typical coding practice question.

Make sure your resume is up to date before the interview begins.

Depending on the role, like UX, it can also be beneficial to prepare a portfolio with your greatest achievements to attach to your application. You may be asked to discuss specific projects in your portfolio during this or future interview sessions.

Step 2: ‘Life Story’ Interview

The 1-hour “life story” interview is a unique and notorious feature of Shopify’s interview process.

Casual and conversational in nature, this interview involves a series of behavioral questions about who you are and your past achievements to evaluate your decision-making processes and working style.

The recruiter will send you a Google Meet link ahead of time. Make sure to choose a quiet and comfortable place to do the interview.

Your responses in this interview can be as personal or technical as you want them to be.

Just make sure they touch on the following five key traits Shopify looks for during the Life Story interview:

• Impact: Do you make a big impact on others around you?
• Trust: Can you communicate authentically?
• Engagement: Do you invest in your work and life?
• Self-awareness: Do you know your strengths and weaknesses?
• Readiness: Are you qualified for the job you're applying for?

“We’re really looking to get to know the person that we’re talking to, and through that interview, we’re looking for specific qualities around self-awareness, indications of impact and engagement in people’s past roles … really those kinds of non-tangible skills that will kind of predict if we think someone’s going to be successful with Shopify.” — Holly Fortier, Recruitment Lead for Shopify UX

How to Prepare

Before the interview, reflect on your past experiences and practice telling a few different stories that reflect the traits Shopify is looking for.

This interview may also include a review of your portfolio or your past work or projects. You may also have the opportunity to provide a visual aid, which can help you display your storytelling chops.

Come prepared with a couple of specific examples of past projects you worked on try to touch on:

• What problems the project solved
• What processes you used to complete the project
• Problems you encountered and how you overcame them
• Things you may have done differently
• What you learned

It is also beneficial to learn more about the latest developments at Shopify and the team you’re applying to.

Try downloading the Shopify app as a customer or merchant to familiarize yourself with the user experience and think about what you would improve.

Read Shopify’s engineering blogs and listen to its UX team podcast to learn more about your future working environment and culture.

Step 3: On-Site Interviews

The on-site interviews for Shopify depend heavily on the role and team to which you’re applying.

Shopify's on-site interview are both technical and behavioral. They can be spread out over several weeks or in a single interview loop with 3 to 5 sessions lasting about 40 to 90 minutes each.

Technical Roles

There are different types of technical on-site interviews at Shopify, such as:

Coding Exercise

Technical candidates are given 40 minutes to solve a coding problem in the programming language they’re most comfortable with.

Before the interview, you’ll be given a CoderPad link where you will be paired with a Shopify developer who will answer any questions you may have or offer feedback throughout the session.

You may also use other resources like documentation or a search engine to help you during the interview.

Pair Programming

Technical candidates do a pair programming session with a Shopify developer. The co-working exercise lasts for 75-90 minutes.

You will be writing the code throughout this session, but your Shopify teammate will work with you on the solution and ask you questions throughout the process.

This interview is conducted via Google Hangouts.

Technical Deep Dive

This is a 60-minute conversational interview conducted via Google Meet in which your interviewer will ask about your impact on past roles or projects.

Product Management Roles

Candidates applying for product management positions generally face three types of interviews during an onsite interview loop and meet with 3 to 5 team members for an hour each session.

Although these interviews touch on technical concepts, they are highly conversational and more product-focused.

Generally, these are the three formats used during the onsite interview loop:

1. Thought Leadership Interview: Shopify will ask you to think about the big picture in this interview. What's your take on the market? What's your proposed product vision for some Shopify products?
2. Case Study Interview: You'll be presented with a 1-paragraph challenge and asked to use a whiteboard to work through solving the problem.
3. Dev/UX Interview: You'll meet with two individuals — one from engineering and one from UX — to discuss your background and ideas.

What are the top Shopify interview questions?

Besides the coding and pair work interviews, Shopify’s interviews tend to be heavily conversational and behavioral.

Be prepared to talk a lot about yourself and your previous experience and practice a few stories ahead of time.

Behavioral

You’ll face a lot of “tell me about a time when…” questions, especially during the Life Story interview.

• Why do you want to work at Shopify?
• What interests or side projects do you have outside of work?
• What would you do if another member of your team had strong opposing opinions?
• Tell me about your journey as a [programmer, product designer, etc.].
• Give me an example of a time when you successfully worked with a challenging customer.
• How do you connect with and support those around you?

Coding/Pair Programming

There aren't any trick coding questions at Shopify. You should be prepared to answer common data structures and algorithms questions like:

• Arrays
• Graphs and trees
• Hash tables

Some common coding questions you might encounter are:

• Given an array of integers, find the length of the longest subarray with sum equal to zero.
• Implement a function to perform a binary search on a sorted array of integers and return the index of a given target value.
• You are given a piece of code that is supposed to merge two sorted linked lists into one sorted linked list, but it contains bugs. Identify and fix the bugs.

Product Design/Strategy

If you’re applying for a product-centric role, stay up-to-date on the latest product developments at Shopify by reading its blog and news page.

Get familiar with its products by using them yourself.

Some typical product-related questions are:

• Tell me about a time you were responsible for a product from beginning to end. What challenges did you encounter and how did you overcome them?
• You’re the CEO of Shopify. What should we focus on next?
• Shopify wants to help merchants be more successful. What will you do to achieve this mission as a PM at Shopify?
• How would you improve Shopify for new merchants who have difficulty sourcing products to sell?

User Experience (UX)/Design

User Experience/design candidates will be asked to go deep into a few previous experiences included in their resume or portfolio.

Ahead of time, choose a couple of representative achievements that you think best illustrate your thought process and think through the following factors Shopify will be looking for:

• The user problems your project solved
• Which UX processes you used
• Other options you explored, and how you settled on this one
• Constraints you worked under
• How you collaborated with team members
• Data on the benefits/business value it created
• Things you might have done differently in retrospect

Other UX questions you may face include:

• What do you enjoy most about working in design?
• Have you revisited your key success metrics since successful launches? Have they changed or remained the same?
• How have you navigated compromises or trade-offs when working with a team?

Machine Learning and Data Science

• Explain the bias variance tradeoff.
• Design a monitoring system for Shopify.
• Design a recommended products page for Shopify.
• How would you evaluate the impact of fake products on users?
• Tell me about your proudest project.
• Python questions.
• SQL questions.

Shopify Interview Loops Explained

When interviewing for Shopify, you may encounter an interview loop standard to other tech companies, or a series of individual onsite tech and behavioral interviews as reported by some candidates.

Technical Roles

Coding Exercise

During the initial phone screen or onsite coding interview, you may be asked to solve a few coding questions. Unless specified, you can code in whichever language you’re most comfortable with.

Front-end candidates are expected to solve problems in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

While backend or full-stack candidates should have a basic understanding of Ruby and Ruby on Rails.

Data science candidates should have a strong SQL and Python background and will be asked to use these languages in exercises.

Knowledge of React Native is also a plus. Review Shopify’s Ruby Style Guide and introduction to Ruvy to better prepare.

Shopify’s engineering blog is a rich resource to help prepare for coding, programming, and engineering-style questions.

To ace this interview, don’t be afraid to ask as many clarifying questions as you need to solve the problem.

Your interviewer is there to help you. Make sure to run the code periodically throughout the exercise so you can fix any bugs before your time is up.

Pair Programming/Work Session

During the pair programming session, one person — that’s you — serves as the driver who writes the code.

Your interviewer is the observer who will review your process and answer any questions you may have.

Pair programming is a frequent mode of work at Shopify, so interviewers will be paying close attention to your communication and group work skills during this session.

Make sure to talk through the decisions you’re making and why. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Most important is that your final product works effectively, so don’t rush to the finish line with a sloppy solution.

Technical Deep Dive

This is a 60-minute conversational interview about your past technical roles and projects.

Interviewers are looking to learn more about your past successes and impacts in previous similar roles, and how you could bring that success to Shopify.

Before the interview, think of a couple of examples of past project successes. Practice crafting a story or narrative about how you achieved those successes, what challenges or failures you encountered along the way, and lessons you learned when overcoming problems.

Don’t choose to talk about a solo or independent side project.

Anecdotes in which you played a leadership role or helped lead a team to complete a group project are particularly valuable since you will be working closely with cross-functional teams at Shopify.

Consider the following as you’re discussing past project experience:

• Business impact
• Architecture setup
• Technical decisions
• Trade-offs and alternatives considered
• Successes

UX/Design roles

UX/product design roles at Shopify face 3 to 4 hours of on-site interviews during a final interview loop in which they will meet members of the UX team and learn more about the team's current plans and goals.

Candidates will face both casual, conversational interviews, and technical interviews during this round.

Similar to other technical roles, UX candidates will also do a pair work session that the team calls a "problem-solving duet" interview in which the candidate works closely with a current Shopify designer on an interaction design problem.

This exercise is designed to show interviewees your raw thought process and approach to problem-solving and teamwork.

"There aren’t any gotchas. It’s not like we’re sitting there with a chalkboard kind of making sure that people have said things to us or have said the right answer. It’s really just about how they kind of tackle this problem with someone on our team." – Holly Fortier, Recruitment Lead for Shopify UX

Product Management Roles

Product management candidates will face a different interview loop compared to other more technical roles.

Though you will not be asked to code during these interviews, familiarity and experience with technical skills will be critical to your success during the interview and on the job.

As a PM candidate, you will face the following topics during the PM interview loop:

Product Strategy

Product strategy all about high-level thinking in an environment of rapid change and uncertainty.

How can you use analytics and product sensibilities to devise a strategy for the product moving forward?

Analysis

Analytical questions involve reasoning with data, something you will be doing on the job regularly.

Can you understand the tradeoffs of certain metrics? Measure the success of KPIs? Run A/B tests?

The key to nailing these types of questions is starting broad and then going deeper into actions and metrics.

Product Design

Design thinking questions start with an ambiguous problem and ask you to devise a solution by using skills like user empathy, product vision, and design sensibilities.

One tip for answering these questions effectively is to always mention tradeoffs.

Working with a Team

Effectively working with and leading a team is a core requirement of any management position, but especially at Shopify, where you’ll work with a cross-functional team in an ambiguous and rapidly changing business environment.

Come prepared with plenty of anecdotes of how you worked successfully in similar environments in the past.

Shopify Interview Tips

• Be yourself. Shopify is all about hiring individuals — not resumes. Interviewers care less about the name of the school you went to and more about your experiences and achievements. Don’t be afraid to get personal during the Life Story interview; this will show interviewers who you are, but also how you interact with others. There is also no dress code; come as you are and dress in a way that makes you feel the most comfortable and the most “you.”
• Show your willingness to learn and grow. Shopify’s environment can be fast-paced and chaotic; you might find yourself making decisions on your own and making mistakes. At Shopify, those who thrive in chaos are highly valued; it shows they are willing to learn and grow quickly. You might feel frequently like you’re working outside of your comfort zone. If this doesn’t sound like a comfortable environment, you might want to reconsider applying for a job with Shopify.
• Tailor your application specifically for Shopify. You might be used to copy-and-pasting your standard resume and cover letter when applying for jobs. But candidates who tailor-make their application for Shopify – for example, detail why they're curious about working for Shopify in application materials or a cover letter – stand out to recruiters, who can easily tell when you put in that extra effort.
• Relax. Some candidates reported feeling caught off guard by questions during the Life Story interview or the difficulty level of certain coding questions during the technical interview rounds. Your interviewer will not throw trick questions about you. Relax and take the process seriously.

"If someone either through our interviews or even kind of through their application can tell us why they’re genuinely curious about working here, why they want to spend most of their time during the day with the company, and how our mission to make commerce better for everyone really resonates with them, that’s something that can take a mediocre interview kind of across the line to say, wow, this person is genuinely curious. Let’s see what else they have to offer." – Holly Fortier, Recruitment Lead for Shopify UX

FAQs

Can I apply to Shopify again if I didn’t get the job the first time?

Shopify recommends waiting at least 6 months to 1 year before reapplying. New jobs in various roles are posted every 3 months.

Does Shopify offer internships and early career opportunities?

Yes, Shopify offers 3, 4, and 8-month paid engineering internships for students and new grads.

Are Shopify interviews in person or virtual?

Shopify is now a digital-first company, meaning you will interview and work from wherever you are. Many of Shopify’s employees are concentrated in certain core areas so they can meet in real life several times a year.