I applied through university. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Cisco (San Jose, CA) in Jan 2010
Interview
I submitted my resume through Cisco.com for a Software Engineering internship position. It took about a month for them to contact me back. The recruiter called me for a phone interview, the questions were pretty easy. It's more of a review of my resume and background. I was called into an onsite interview about a week later with the hiring manager. The questions were pretty easy, I guess it was because I was applying for an internship position. He asked me basic PHP questions, how does web application works, some networking fundamentals and some design questions. Then, I was interviewed individually by the entire team and extended team. It was a pretty long 5 hours interview. The interviewer were really nice and took a lot of notes during the interviews. You should really study and prepare for the interviews in both technical and soft skills questions. They offered me the internship about two weeks later.
They care about your skills, rather than your background. They have a template which they provide and you got to fill that, everyone is provided a unique number. You are instructed not to disclose any of your personal details in the due course of your interview.
The interview process was two rounds. The first round was a behavioral interview. Straightforward questions, like tell me about the most technically challenging project you have worked on. The second round was a system design interview.
I applied online. I interviewed at Cisco in May 2026
Interview
Series of 4 interviews, First screening with HR Recruiter, reviewed resume and qualifications, second was hiring manager, reviewed experience and skills. Technical interview with team as a panel type interview, Last with hiring Director.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Technical questions on networking. Experience with work enviroment