Shopify's AI-enabled coding interview
Shopify has not published a description of its coding rounds, but its head of engineering has talked about AI in its interviews on the record, and candidate reports fill in some of the rest. This guide keeps those two apart.
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What is known about the real round
Pair-programming rounds are reported to allow your own AI tools when the recruiter confirms it. Accounts differ.
Shopify's head of engineering, Farhan Thawar, said on The Pragmatic Engineer podcast in July 2025 that its interviews embrace AI tools rather than ban them, and that he reviews generated code with candidates and asks what they would change. Prep guides describe candidates working in their own editor over screen share with the AI tools they normally use. At least one candidate reports being stopped from asking a model about the problem itself. We could not find a public Shopify statement, so ask before the round.
Formats change between hiring cycles. Ask your recruiter what your round will be, and see the policy tracker for other companies.
Format overview
On The Pragmatic Engineer podcast in July 2025, Shopify's head of engineering, Farhan Thawar, said its interview process embraces AI tools rather than banning them, and described reviewing AI-generated code with candidates and asking what is wrong with it and what they would change.
Prep guides built from candidate reports describe pair-programming rounds where candidates use their own editor and the AI tools they normally use, over screen share. At least one candidate reports being stopped from asking a model about the problem itself, so accounts differ.
What is evaluated
- Judgement about generated code: what is wrong with it and what you would change (described by Shopify's head of engineering).
- Driving the AI tool rather than being driven by it, plus design, readability, testing and communication (reported by prep sites, not confirmed by Shopify).
Example task types
- Building something working with an AI tool beside you (reported).
- Reviewing and critiquing generated code (described by Shopify's head of engineering).
What gets scored in practice
Every Placed round ends with a report that scores each rubric criterion from 0 to 10, including how you prompted the assistant and checked its output. On Pro, each score comes with the moment in your session it is based on. How grading works.
Where people lose the round
- Assuming the rules without asking.
Accounts of what is allowed differ. Ask your recruiter which tools you may use and for what, in writing if you can.
- Letting the assistant choose the structure.
Decide the design yourself and say it out loud, then ask the tool for pieces of it.
- Skipping tests because the code looks right.
Write or run tests as you go. Generated code that looks right is exactly what you are expected to question.
A prep plan: three sessions before the real one
- Set up the editor and AI tool you will screen-share, and run one practice session in exactly that setup.
- Sit two single-problem AI rounds on Placed and read the Human Judgment score in each report.
- Do one classic coding round with no assistant, in case your round turns out to restrict it.
Questions people ask
Does Shopify allow AI in coding interviews?
Shopify's head of engineering said in July 2025 that its interviews embrace AI tools rather than banning them. Candidate reports say pair-programming rounds allow your own tools when the recruiter confirms it, but accounts differ, so ask before the round.
Has Shopify published its interview format?
Not that we could find. What is known comes from its head of engineering speaking publicly and from candidate reports.
Keep going
- The AI-enabled coding interview: how to prepare, with every company guide in one place
- Shopify practice pack, 4 Placed rounds in order
- Meta's AI-enabled coding round
- Google's code comprehension round
- Canva's AI-assisted coding interview
Sources
Placed is not affiliated with Shopify. Company names are used to describe publicly reported interview formats.