Cisco Systems Interview Questions & Reviews in Milpitas, CA
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Updated Jan 11, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
Ratings are reflective of location and job title.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 11 ratings 
“Average” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 11 ratings
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| 1–10 of 11 Cisco Systems Interviews | Sort by |
Product Manager at Cisco Systems
Posted Jan 11, 2012
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2010 in Milpitas, CA (took 4+ weeks)
Had an initial phone screen that was very much like a consulting interview (market sizing, etc). 30 days later I was contacted again to interview for a different position. Only one round with 5 interviews including sales, engineering, but mostly product managers. One group interview where I presented a business problem to the PM leadership. The interview questions consisted of grilling on the product domain I would be working in (even though I had little background in it -- good thing i did my research), brainteasers (what's the TAM for dryers in the US), and how to sell questions ("sell me something in the room").
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
difficult. i had to refuse to get a modest pay increase
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview, a Presentation, an IQ/Intelligence Test, a Skills Test and a Personality Test.
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Helpful Interview?
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No
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Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
Posted Sep 3, 2011 — 2 of 2 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2009 in Milpitas, CA (took 4 weeks)
Cisco Recruiter called me that she is trying to fill a position for past several months and she thinks my profile on LinkedIn is perfect fit. I ask her to send job description. When she did and I reviewed, I said it is not perfect fit. She said, it is match - she suggested me to speak to Tech Leader. I spoke to Tech Leader and he did a phone screen as well. Then, after a week or so, I went for an in-person interview with 4 engineers... for about 4 hrs. Then, after another week, there was another in-person interview with 2 more engineers, 2 directors. Then, they made me an offer - negotiation, reference checks etc took another 2 weeks.
Interview Questions
Why do you need threads?
How do you detect stale db connections?
Can you do code review of this class from my code? (Interviewer shared code)
Design for several readers reading from queue and several writers writing into it
Details on how a web-app is developed
What happens end to end when user types a URL to view books on Amazon.com
Singleton - how to write for delayed instantiation but also thread safety
Negotiation Details
Their base salaries are usually lesser than start-ups. Don't compare base salaries alone and compare total package. I asked for a sign-on bonus as they mentioned they can't go higher in base salary. They offered 10k lower than what I asked but, gave that in sign-on bonus.
Bonus is big part of Cisco package. Every year employees get bonus based on their grade. E.g. a grade 10 employee has 15% as bonus target. Now, employees get anywhere from 0% to 300% of their bonus target, based on performance. i.e. if an extremely well performing grade 10 employee is there - he can get up to 45% of base salary bonus and poorly performing employee can get only 0%. So, there's reward to being good employee at Cisco, not just hard working but collaborative.
So, don't overlook bonus part when you get offer.
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Background Check.
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Helpful Interview?
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No
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Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
Posted Aug 5, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2010 in Milpitas, CA (took 3 weeks)
I had two phone interviews (one including the manager). After a week and a half, I was invited to have an onsite interview. The onsite interview consisted of 6 one-on-one meetings with members from the team including members from other teams (which included a hardware perspective and architecture perspective). Once the on-site interview was complete, I was told they were interested and they asked what amount I was looking for.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
Yes, they agreed to what I offered.
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and a Background Check.
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Software Engineering at Cisco Systems
Posted Aug 4, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2009 in Milpitas, CA (took 1+ week)
The interview process was pretty normal compared to other companies. Nothing strange that would make candidate think they are just trying to trick me or showing off, I got the feeling that they really want to see if the candidate to delivery software, rather than to see if where the candidate's limit is.
The manager was very friendly.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
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No
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Hardware Engineer at Cisco Systems
Posted Apr 28, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2010 in Milpitas, CA (took a day)
The hiring manager introduced his team and projects, then focus on tech questions. Most of our discuss was based on the projects and previous work on my resume.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
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No
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Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
Posted Feb 24, 2011
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2011 in Milpitas, CA (took a day)
The HR keeps asking about what courses I have taken in my graduate study. I list some courses about computer engineering. It seems she is not satisfied with that. And she asked me again about what other courses except the CS course ....
And she also asked why cisco, why chose cisco and why should cisco need me
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
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Software Engineer IV at Cisco Systems
Posted Sep 17, 2010
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2010 in Milpitas, CA (took 6 weeks)
After initial screening from HR, it took almost 1 week to get the phone interview from Hiring Manager. And after 5 days they asked for the in-person interview. Mine interview schedule was as below,
1. HR Screening (20 mins)
2. Hiring Manager Phone Interview Technical (1 hr)
3. First Round in person interview Technical, met with 3 Senior Engineers, 1 Technical Lead, 1 hirining manager (4:30 Hrs)
4. Second Round in person Interview technical, met with 4 Senior Engineers, 1 hiring manager, 1 other manager, 1 hiring manager's manager (6 hrs) [though this was planned to be a 5 hrs interview, my hiring manager kept throwing problems at me as he was the last interviewer, it took 1 hour to solve and discuss the last problem what he gave to me. He himself took 1:30 hrs of interview :) meanwhile he kept asking if I am ok for another 15 minutes :) ]
5. Origin Country Background check since my passport was not US passport (asked for documents)
6. Background check in US (asked for documents)
7. Employment Verification and employment background check (hiring manager contacted 4-5 references by phone)
8. Negotiation (took 3-4 days in negotiation itself)
9. Acceptance of offer
10. H-1B Visa transfer
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
You can always negotiate once the hiring manager has an offer for you. They always try to come up with the smallest possible number first for you but they always go higher so try your best for negotiation.
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Presentation, an IQ/Intelligence Test, a Skills Test and a Background Check.
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Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
Posted Aug 13, 2010
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Dec 2009 in Milpitas, CA (took 2 days)
School Job Fair: talked to the recruiter, discussed previous work experience and asked him to pass along my resume to be considered for interview
1st interview: On campus interview after the job fair. It was a 30 minute screening interview.
2nd round interviews: On Cisco campus in San Jose. All people interviewing for choice went through three back to back interviews with hiring managers. Each interview was approximately 30 minutes. Most questions were question-answer type questions rather than coding problems. More emphasis was put on discussing previous work experience.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
HR called with the offer. It sounded like it was non-negotiable, but others with a competing offer were able to negotiate
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Background Check.
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WW Controller at Cisco Systems
Posted May 27, 2010 — 0 of 1 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2010 in Milpitas, CA (took 4 weeks)
This is the 3rd time in 2 years I have gone through rounds with Cisco for a Finance position. This time was par for the course. Process lasts over 4 weeks. Round of detailed written information, phone screen with recruiting, phone interview with hiring manager, 2 rounds of at Cisco office 1-1 interviews (2/3 of the day per each). Interviews were fair, nothing earth shattering. Communication throughout the process is the worst. Constantly had to badger recruiting and the hiring manager. Recruiting responded, hiring manager not so much. I was told that I was in the lead for the position. Kept following up repeatedly. Feedback was dismal still. Ultimately I was tired from me having to constantly ask for feedback, so I put it back on Cisco saying essentially contact me when you are ready. Never heard anything from them again. Overall experience I clicked as neutral, but I am really somewhere in between negative & neutral (neutral on the interviews themselves, negative on the communcation or lack thereof).
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Engineering at Cisco Systems
Posted Jan 4, 2010 — 2 of 2 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2008 in Milpitas, CA (took 2 days)
Had couple telephonic conversations about my resume, interests, and to improve my understanding about the position, reporting and the company. Questions on my resume and interests were pretty standard like - What different technologies I have used, Why I wanted to move, What I'm looking forward to work on, My dream job in next 5 yrs, My educational interests etc.
On site interviews were all 1:1 with 4 sr.engineers, 2 dev managers, 1 qa manager, and finally a Sr.Director. Interview was pretty technical and grilling. People were really nice. They were looking at my approach than the exactness of my answers. Their questions were highly adaptive and deeply conceptual.
Interview Questions
What design changes would you suggest to improve the routing-speed?
(After I gave out an answer - )
What else are the alternative ways (Good or Bad) of achieving this? Give the major pros and cons or those approaches.
Something like - A mouse and xxx (maybe tortoise) started running in opposite directions on a 100 mile highway. Mouse made stops for this and that, and some numbers for times-spent. These numbers are some relative to those of tortoise too. The final question is how many times would the mouse have ran each way, before the tortoise completed one round.
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Presentation, an IQ/Intelligence Test, a Skills Test and a Background Check.
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