What makes Canva interviews different
Canva's graduate process includes a take-home challenge. You get a brief, work on it in your own time, and then present what you did to the people you'd be working with. So part of the assessment is your work itself, and how clearly you explain it.
Outside engineering, Canva encourages candidates to use AI during hiring, including on the challenge, and asks them to be ready to explain how they used it: what they kept, changed or built on. It also says it's looking for your original thinking, so be ready to talk through your own choices.
Canva's biggest tip is to be yourself. It also suggests having examples of your past work ready, looking up the people you'll meet on LinkedIn, and bringing your own questions, because the interview is as much about you getting to know Canva.
Canva's about page describes its mission as "to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere". Think about how the role you're applying for would help with that. It gives you something concrete to say when you're asked why you want to work there.
Canva's values and what they mean in an interview
Canva's about page lists six values: be a force for good, be a good human, empower others, make complex things simple, pursue excellence, and set crazy big goals and make them happen. Five of them are below. The sixth has a note of its own after the interview steps.
Value 01
Pursue excellence
What to show
The results of your work, as well as the effort. "I worked really hard" says little on its own. "The project beat its target by 20%, and this is what I did differently" says a lot more.
How to prepare
Give each story a result you can state clearly: what changed because of what you did, with a number if you have one. If you can't say how a story ended, it isn't ready yet.
Value 02
Be a force for good
What to show
Thinking about the effect of your work beyond the money it makes. You don't need a CV full of charity work, but you do need a real answer.
How to prepare
Doing good is the second step of Canva's Two-Step Plan, covered further down. Talking in general terms about "making the world a better place" won't tell them much. Think of a specific time, in a job, a project or volunteering, when you thought about who your work affected beyond the task in front of you.
Value 03
Make complex things simple
What to show
This applies to how you answer as well as to what you've done. A clear, simple answer is a small example of it.
How to prepare
Try cutting each story right down: the situation in one sentence, what you did in two, the result in one. Then add back only the details the story needs. Leave out jargon, or explain it in plain words.
Value 04
Set crazy big goals and make them happen
What to show
Ambition with a plan behind it. The value's full name ends with "make them happen", so a big goal needs reasons and first steps too.
How to prepare
Saying "I want to build something a billion people use" is a start. Adding the problem you'd want to solve at that scale, and why, turns it into an answer. Practise saying what you want to achieve, why it's worth doing and what you'd do first.
Value 05
Be a good human
What to show
Kindness and respect for the people you work with. How you talk about past teammates and managers is part of your answer.
How to prepare
Watch for success stories that make other people look small, and failure stories that blame bad luck or someone else. Small things help: owning your part, being curious about other people's views, thanking the people who helped you, and stories where you made things better for someone else.
The Canva interview process
Canva's graduate program, Launchpad, runs for 12 months and is open to final-year students and people about two years into their careers. Its careers site describes four steps, though they can vary by role:
1
Canva catch up
After you apply online, you may be asked to do a short task first, such as a coding challenge for engineering roles or a video reel for marketing. Then you have a call with a recruiter about your goals and experience.
2
First interview
You meet people at Canva who work in your speciality. They'll tell you about the team, the day-to-day work and the difference you could make, and you can ask questions too. Have a specific, honest answer ready for why you want to work at Canva.
3
Take-home challenge
Canva sends you a brief to work on in your own time, and you present your work back. Read the brief closely, check your work before you send it, and be ready to explain why you made the choices you did.
4
Final interview
You meet several of the people you'd work most closely with, take them through your challenge, and answer behavioural questions based on Canva's skills framework. Practise presenting your challenge out loud, and time it. Canva also calls this another chance to ask your own questions.
This is the sixth value. Have at least two stories ready about helping someone else do better work. Group assignments, part-time jobs, tutoring and club roles are good places to look, even if nobody called it coaching at the time.
Canva's skills framework
In the final interview, Canva asks behavioural questions based on its skills framework. Its hiring page names four areas: craft, strategy, communication, and leadership and coaching. Have at least one story for each, plus a reflection for every story:
- Craft: work that shows you're good at the core of the job, such as code, a design, an analysis or a campaign
- Strategy: a time you decided what to work on and why, as well as how
- Communication: a time you explained something complicated so that someone else could act on it
- Leadership and coaching: a time you helped someone improve, or led something without having the title
- Reflection: Canva suggests the STARR method, which is STAR with a reflection at the end, so finish each story with what you learned or would do differently
Practise your answers out loud
Telling a story well takes a few goes out loud. InterviewZap asks you behavioural questions about your own experience, written from your CV and the job description you add, and after each answer you get a score and feedback on what was missing.
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Nine Canva interview questions to practise
Use the STAR method for the behavioural ones, and end each one with a short reflection. These are questions like the ones you might be asked, each linked to the value or skill it fits.
Questions 1–9 · Canva practice questions
Question 01
"Tell me about a time you set an ambitious goal and achieved it. What did you do that others wouldn't have?"
What to show
Set crazy big goals and make them happen: a goal that stretched you, and what you did to reach it.
How to answer it
Choose a goal that was a real stretch, rather than "I aimed for a Distinction and got one". Say what made it hard, what you did beyond the usual approach, and what the result was. Then answer the last part of the question directly: what did you do that others wouldn't have? It's easy to skip that part, so give it a clear sentence of its own. If other people helped, say so, and be clear about which part was yours.
Question 02
"Describe a time you made someone else's work much better. What was your role?"
What to show
Empower others: helping the people around you do better work, as well as doing your own.
How to answer it
Say what the other person was stuck on, what you did (coaching, feedback, clearing a blocker or sharing what you knew), and what they could do afterwards that they couldn't before. Keep the focus on what improved for them, and don't claim credit for their work.
Question 03
"Tell me about a time you worked out what a user or customer really needed, when it was different from what they asked for."
What to show
Looking past what someone asks for to the need behind it.
How to answer it
Say what was asked for and what made you think the real need was different. Then say how you found out, what you delivered and how it was received. A group project, a customer-facing job or a volunteer role all work, because the skill is listening and asking good questions, which you can show in any setting.
Question 04
"Give me an example of a time you simplified something that others were overcomplicating."
What to show
Make complex things simple: seeing a simpler way, and getting others to use it.
How to answer it
Say what was too complicated and why. What did you notice that others had missed, and what did you cut or change? It could be a process you shortened, a document you rewrote or a problem you explained differently to a team that was stuck. Give a clear before and after, so it's a story about something you did, rather than an opinion.
Question 05
"Tell me about a time you failed. What specifically went wrong, and what did you do differently afterwards?"
What to show
Owning a failure, and changing what you do because of it.
How to answer it
Choose a real failure that had consequences, and own it without making excuses or blaming anyone. Then say what you do differently now, as a specific habit. "I learned to communicate better" is vague. "I now agree the format with whoever's reviewing my work before I start" is something they can picture.
Question 06
"Describe a time you worked with people from different teams who had different priorities. How did you get them to agree on a way forward?"
What to show
Communication, and leadership: getting people who want different things to agree on a plan.
How to answer it
Say who was involved, what each group wanted, and what you did to find a way forward. A good answer shows you understood the worry behind each person's position, and found a plan that dealt with those worries. Say what you learned about each group's concerns, and how it changed the plan.
Question 07
"Why Canva? Why not another fast-growing tech company?"
What to show
Specific reasons for wanting Canva, rather than any tech company.
How to answer it
Be specific. If you've used Canva for anything (a presentation, a poster, a social post), say what it does well and where you'd like to help improve it. If the Two-Step Plan means something to you, say why in your own words. If your answer would work just as well for another tech company, make it more specific. Naming the team you're applying to, and why, is one way to do that.
Question 08
"Tell me about something you built or made that you're proud of."
What to show
Craft: what you care about in your work, and what "done well" means to you.
How to answer it
Choose something you made with care, where the quality came from you. Say what it was, why you're proud of it, what was hard and what you'd do differently now. It doesn't need to be big. An honest, specific answer about something small tells them more about your standards than a vague answer about something impressive.
Question 09
"How do you seek out and use feedback to improve your work?"
What to show
Asking for feedback instead of waiting for it, and then using it.
How to answer it
Saying "I love feedback" doesn't answer this. Describe how you go about getting it: who you ask, when, how, and what you do with what they tell you. Then give one example of feedback that changed how you work. Your example should show you asking for feedback, as well as receiving it. Something as simple as asking your manager what would have made a piece of work better counts.
What to know about Canva before your interview
Canva suggests getting to know the company, and the people who'll interview you, before you go in. Start with these:
- The product: Use it properly and form your own view of what it does well and what could be better. It helps most for design, product and marketing roles, but an opinion you've formed yourself is useful in any role.
- The Two-Step Plan: Canva says step one is to build one of the world's most valuable companies, and step two is to do the most good it can. In 2021, co-founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht pledged the vast majority of their equity, then 30% of Canva, to doing good through the Canva Foundation. Canva has also joined Pledge 1%, committing 1% of its equity, profit, team time and product.
- The founding story: Canva launched in 2013. Its co-founders are Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams, and Perkins has often talked about being turned down by more than 100 investors before Canva raised money.
- The scale: Canva's about page says it has more than 220 million monthly active users in 190 countries, and it's available in more than 100 languages.
Have a true story ready for each value and each part of the skills framework. Then say each one out loud a few times, so on the day it sounds like you're remembering it rather than reciting it.