Cisco interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview
SDE - 1
Cisco
2 rounds | 5 Coding
problems
Selected Interview preparation journey
Journey
I started preparing for my placement from the starting of the B.Tech. Getting into one of MNCs in India was my dream, and I researched about it a lot like What are the most essential topics fro FAANG Interview?, How should you approach your graduation if you want to make it count?, etc. I practised DSA continuously for three years, and I thought I had a great base for them but I was not selected into any of companies in FAANG. After all, I got a chance to serve for Cisco.
Application story
It was the peak placement season, and every student of 4th year were waiting for any company to visit the campus. I was informed that Cisco was going to visit our campus. I was more than happy for it because I got rejected by many companies before this, and I started to practice for it. As I got 20 days to revise everything, so I did 120 question DSA sheet and revised some basic concepts. I went through interview process, and finally I was selected at last.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I think I was on point with my coding solutions to the questions asked in the interviews. I provided the optimal solutions and I was giving correct explanations to some theory questions asked.
Preparation
Duration: 5 months
Topics: Data Structures and Algorithms, Machine Learning, Basics of Database Management System and Operating System, Aptitude.
Try to do as much as Data structures related questions as practice made a man perfect. If you have already done similar types of questions then you will get a solution approach very fastly during the interview. Also, Coding ninjas have a big hand in making my selection.
Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: 7.5
Keep resume short and up to the point and try to keep it on a single page.
Interview rounds
01
Round
Easy
Online Coding Test
Duration90 minutes
Interview date30 Jul 2019
Coding problem2
This round consist of 2 coding questions and they were of good level based on strings and dynamic programming.
1. Longest Unique Substring
Moderate
30m average time
65% success
0/80
Asked in companies
Return the length of the longest substring consisting of unique characters.
eg: abcabcdb ------> 4 4 corresponds to abcd
aaaaaxxxxxxwyzzzzzxxxxx ------> 4 4 corresponds to xwyz
Problem approach
- I solved this question using a sliding window concept and taken a map while traversing the string to check if any repeated characters appear or not.
2. Arithmetic Operators
Given an arithmetic expression containing '+', '-', '*' operators, generate a string by placing parenthesis in the given expression which will return the the maximum possible value of that expression.
eg: I/p -------> 8+4*2 O/p ------> ((8+4)*2) corresponding to a max value of 24
I/p -------> 5-8+7*4-8*9 O/p ------> (5 - ((8 + 7)*(4 - (8*9)))) corresponding to a max value of 1025.
Problem approach
I solved this question using recursion by putting bracket at all possible places and evaluate the answer through recursion and found the maximum out of them.
02
Round
Easy
Face to Face
Duration20 minutes
Interview date2 Aug 2019
Coding problem3
1. Left View of Binary Tree
Moderate
30m average time
60% success
0/80
Asked in companies
Given a Binary Tree, print left view of it. The left view of a Binary Tree is set of nodes visible when the tree is visited from the left side.
Problem approach
I did level order traversal and then printed the first element of each level.
2. Minimum From Bag
Suggest the best way to get the minimum (at any point of time) from a bag in which numbers are being inserted and removed continuously.
Problem approach
- I answered, "using a heap" as log N is the complexity to add or remove from the heap.
3. Kruskal's Algorithm
Moderate
34m average time
0/80
Asked in companies
Given an undirected graph, find the Minimum Spanning Tree.
Problem approach
I explained Kruskal’s algorithm to find the Minimum spanning tree with an example of a graph. He was satisfied by my approach and gave a smile through which I got the idea that I will be selected for the company.
Here's your problem of the day 
Solving this problem will increase your chance to get selected in this company
Skill covered: Programming
Which operator is used for exponentiation in Python?
Choose another skill to practice
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