Cisco Systems Interview Questions & Reviews in San Jose, CA Area
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Updated May 23, 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 144 ratings 
“Average” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 144 ratings
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| 41–50 of 144 Cisco Systems Interviews | Sort by |
Systems Engineer at Cisco Systems
Posted Sep 30, 2011
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2010 in Santa Clara, CA (took 4+ weeks)
There was an initial phone interview with an engineer that asked a few questions about my resume and technical skills. We chatted about the position and if I was interested, I was, he explained the interview process and gave me some materials I should read up on.
There was another phone screen with an engineer that was about 15 minutes long. I passed and got an in person interview
I met with 4 employees total including the manager. I was asked to solve a simple programming problem on the white board while the interviewer grabbed some coffee. After that I was quizzed on my technical abilities including Linux commands, architecture, networking, osi model, etc..
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Skills Test and a Background Check.
More Cisco Systems Systems Engineer Interviews
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Mark at Cisco Systems
Posted Sep 22, 2011 — 2 of 2 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Apr 2009 in San Jose, CA (took a day)
Pretty clear that the manager had already made up his mind on choosing someone else and I was just being interviewed to appease my friend who had arranged the interview. I would have loved the job but was passed over which may been a good thing because they closed the business unit and fired everyone five months ago.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Hardware Engineer at Cisco Systems
Posted Sep 23, 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 Jun 2009 in San Jose, CA (took a day)
Initial interview with a college recruiter, then on campus invitation, tour, presentations and interview with 5 different team managers. The campus was decent and they had a good presentation on the new and upcoming things being worked on. There was also a panel with past year hire-es and there experience in that year.
Although i applied for a hardware position, i was actually somewhere in between hardware and software so things didnt go that well.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Skills Test.
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Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
Posted Sep 3, 2011 — 4 of 4 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?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Engineering Manager at Cisco Systems
Posted Aug 26, 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 Jul 2011 in San Jose, CA (took a day)
Phone Interview lasted 30 minutes
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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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Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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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Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Program Manager at Cisco Systems
Posted Jul 25, 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 Jul 2011 in San Jose, CA (took 2 days)
Initial phone interview with the hiring manager.
Follow-up phone interview with the hiring manager's director.
Awaiting in-person interviews.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
Posted Jul 18, 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 May 2011 in San Jose, CA (took 2 weeks)
Applied online.
Initial phone screening for 2.5 hrs. Discussions involving OS concepts, DS, algorithms, resume based projects, some amount of behavioral.
Scheduled second round involving a series of 4 webex interviews on the same day.
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a Group/Panel Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Communications Manager at Cisco Systems
Posted Jul 9, 2011
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2010 in San Jose, CA (took 1 week)
I was contacted by a recruiter. Had a phone interview with her, and then one with the hiring manager. Then I was invited for in-person interviews, and interviewed with 8 people in one day. Two of the interviews were telepresence. I was supposed to have a half hour break for lunch, but the interviews ran over so there was no time to eat and no one offered to talk over lunch. Lesson learned: take a snack with you because you might be a little weak by the end of the day. It was intense, but they did hire me. I got their offer just a couple of days after the interviews.
Interview Questions
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?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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