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Cisco Systems Software Engineer Interview Questions & Reviews
Getting the Interview 91 Interviews
Interview Experience 78 Ratings
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
No Offer – Interviewed in Boxborough, MA Nov 2008 – Reviewed Dec 5, 2012
Interview Details –
On-campus interview was entirely behavioral, with hardly any technical questions. It was almost too easy to be true.
The on-site interviews, there were three in total, were hardly different in that they were more interested in selling the company and the location to me instead of asking me any technical questions. There were a couple of brain teasers, but nothing beyond that.
Interview Question – If you have a square room with no roof, and you had four flagpoles you had to plant on the walls so that each flagpole touched two walls, how would you do it? View Answers (3)
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
Accepted Offer – Interviewed in San Jose, CA Jul 2008 – Reviewed Nov 6, 2012
Interview Details – Friend refer->phone interview->4-5 people interviews on site->give offer
Interview Question – Can you describe how BGP works? Answer Question
Negotiation Details – Yes, but not much when you negotiate.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
Accepted Offer – Interviewed in San Jose, CA Nov 2010 – Reviewed Aug 27, 2012
Interview Details – College recruitment. Interviewed by senior managers. Questions related to experience, side projects, interests, etc. Questions on OO programming (inheritance etc).
Interview Question – What was the toughest project you worked on recently and go you explain in detail.. Answer Question
Negotiation Details – Did not negotiate
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
Accepted Offer – Interviewed in San Jose, CA Sep 2008 – Reviewed Aug 20, 2012
Interview Details – Initial two phone interviews
Interview Question – Some complex data structure questions. (not unexpected, but was fairly complex) Answer Question
Negotiation Details – Almost no negotiation.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
No Offer – Interviewed in San Jose, CA Apr 2012 – Reviewed Aug 18, 2012
Interview Details – The Interview process was standard, there were no big surprises in terms of interview questions. Overall interesting experience.
Interview Question – There were some algorithm and data structures oriented questions. Probably messed up a lot but they care about your thinking process more than the solution. Answer Question
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
Accepted Offer – Interviewed in Austin, TX – Reviewed Aug 4, 2012
Interview Details –
Cisco held an information session on campus at UT and reviewed CV/resumes to choose who they would interview the next day.
Back to back interviews were held with two different engineers.
A few weeks later one of the recruiters called to tell me an offer would be extended to me.
Then things were turned over to HR.
Interview Question – If you disagreed with your manager and felt they were doing something wrong, how would you handle it? Answer Question
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
No Offer – Interviewed in San Jose, CA Apr 2012 – Reviewed Jun 12, 2012
Interview Details –
One of my former lab-mates ( from the University) referred me for a position at Cisco; I didn't even know what the position was (he thought it was a perfect fit for me). I got a call out of the blue (on a Saturday) from a person from Cisco, and asked whether I have time for an interview at that time. Unfortunately, I was travelling, and asked him whether we could prearrange a time, so that I could make myself available. He was willing to do that, but, he wanted to have the interview within the next couple of days. So, we scheduled it for the next day.
During the interview he first asked me about my PhD research work. That went on for about 15min. He seemed mildly impressed (I think). Then he moved on to few behavioral, and technical questions. The technical questions were from Algorithms and DS, C/C++, OOP and Networking. Apart from couple of questions, I did well in the rest. The most difficulty I had was understanding the thick accent (South East asian, I think) my interviewer had. But, he was really friendly.
Finally he went through my resume and asked me several questions about my experience and background. I thought he got more interested in my after that round, since according to him "I have an impressive resume".
The whole interview went on for about 1hr, and he concluded by asking to contact him in about couple of weeks, if I didn't hear from him or Cisco. I followed up the interview by sending a thank you email to my interviewer; he once again asked me to contact him if I didn't hear from him soon.
But, even after repeated emails (after waiting for 3 weeks), I am yet to hear back from him or Cisco. Overall, I had a positive impression about the interview (even though they called out of the blue, and asked me to interview in a hurry ~ I haven't had that experience with any other company). However, not getting back to me with their decision (don't care what it is), is really unprofessional for a company like Cisco. I don't think I would consider Cisco in the future, even though I am in the Networking field.
Interview Questions
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What is your greatest weakness?
Follow up: What other weaknesses do you have? View Answers (2) - What's your ideal job/work environment? View Answer
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
Accepted Offer – Interviewed in San Jose, CA Feb 2010 – Reviewed Jun 6, 2012
Interview Details – Initially I went to the career fair in my university and got my 10 minute in person interview with one of the recruiters. Next I got a phone call for another on campus screening interview which was pretty easy considering, my interviewer was not paying any attention to anything I was saying, he just asked me questions straight from my resume and was chatting away on the chat client on his laptop. After that I got invited for onsite interview which took whole day, Cisco flew me to the San Jose where for 1 straight day I had 5 behavioral interviews and 1 technical. Overall technical questions were stupid easy, like what is AJAX, etc.
Interview Question – What is AJAX? Answer Question
Negotiation Details – After the interview I got an offer about 14 days later. Should ahve negotiated for more money. :/
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
No Offer – Interviewed in San Jose, CA May 2012 – Reviewed Jun 4, 2012
Interview Details –
First sent me blank google doc. asking me to write code on it so that they can check the status of my answering. Questions asked were basic but I didn't prepare at all, my major is more like EE...
Q1, how to do binary tree search.
Q2, How do two different Threads share information.
Q3, how to insert thread
Interview Questions
- Binary tree search Answer Question
- How do two different Threads share information. View Answer
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Software Engineer at Cisco Systems
No Offer – Interviewed in San Jose, CA Nov 2011 – Reviewed Apr 2, 2012
Interview Details –
got the interview through a referral. the interview process consisted of a technical onsite interview with five people.
First interviewer was very thorough and went through everything on my resume and asked me many questions on extra activities and not on coursework.
Second interview was a skills test and comprised of questions like diffrence between a mutex and semaphore. which data structure to use in what situation etc.
Interview Question – Describe oakley key exchange protocol Answer Question
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
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