I recently went through an interview process with Canva China that raised concerns about how candidate time is valued.
After the first-round interview, I was given a take-home assignment estimated at 3–4 hours. In practice, it required significantly more time, taking up most of a full weekend. The initial guidance suggested that the assignment would be presented and discussed in a second-round interview.
After submission, there was no response for a week. When I followed up, I was asked to redo the assignment on the basis that it was “too simple” and did not sufficiently demonstrate the use of Canva Docs features. This feedback appeared to shift the expectations—from a presentation-focused assignment to a standalone document intended for offline review—without clear alignment communicated upfront.
I invested another weekend to revise and resubmit the assignment. Since then, I have not received any response for over two weeks.
While I understand that hiring processes can be selective, the combination of evolving expectations, repeated unpaid work, and lack of communication reflects a process that is neither efficient nor respectful of candidates’ time.
This experience felt inconsistent with the level of clarity and user-centric thinking the company promotes in its products.