Crushing the Shopify Software Engineer OA: Tips for the Tough Paint House Challenge!

shopify | Software Engineer | Interview Experience

Interview Date: Not specified
Result: Not specified
Difficulty: Not specified

Interview Process

I applied for an internship at Shopify and received an automated Online Assessment (OA) the next day. This year’s OA seemed more challenging than previous years. It consisted of two parts:

  1. Personality Test: This part included self-assessment questions similar to MBTI, with no time limit.
  2. Logic Test: A timed section with 40 questions to be completed in 20 minutes, which was quite tight.

The second part was conducted on CoderPad and included three coding questions:

  • The first question was a 45-minute dynamic programming problem similar to the “Paint House” problem.
  • The second question required a simple string manipulation to be completed in 10 minutes using C++.
  • The third question also had to be completed in 10 minutes using Ruby, where I was given a list and a letter and needed to output any words in the list that contained the letter.

Technical Questions

  1. Dynamic Programming: Paint House Problem
  2. C++: String Manipulation
  3. Ruby: List Filtering by Letter

Tips & Insights

Be prepared for a challenging OA, especially with time management for the logic test. Familiarize yourself with both C++ and Ruby, as you may need to demonstrate proficiency in both languages.