SDE - 1

It was a standard MCQ + coding test, which seemed geared mostly towards the CSE fundamentals, with special focus on networking, given cisco's background. It was also a bit more time-constrained than the usual/other tests I attended for other companies during the same time. The test happened during the evening, and was pretty intense due to the time-constraint.

This was a coding-cum-technical round, where a major part of the discussion revolved around my previous experiences, and the projects that I had listed in my resume. It was filled with technical cross-questioning around the points that I mentioned regarding my work, and also a lot of discussion regarding the technologies involved in the same. Towards the end, I was also asked to code solutions for some of the problems that interviewers asked, and also some testing around system-design principles, based on a real-world scenario. The interview happened around 9AM, and went on for around 75 minutes.

This round was with the hiring team's manager. It happened in afternoon. The initial discussion was mostly around what cisco is all about, what its trying to do these days, and how the team hiring right now fits into that. I also used this chance to clarify a few doubts I had about the level of exposure and the tech stacks I could expect to encounter. After that, the discussion moved towards the networking basics, with a helthy amount spent around the TCP/IP suite and the IP addressing fundamentals. Finally the round concluded with a logic puzzle.

This was a very quick round with the HR lead of the hiring team at cisco. This interview happened after just 15 minutes of the manager round. In it, he asked me about why I'm interested to join cisco, do I know who the competitors of cisco are, etc. It was not a long round, and we wrapped-up the discussion with a salary-structure breakdown, that a candidate can expect to receive, if selected.