I applied through university. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco (Chapel Hill, NC) in Jan 2019
Interview
You apply, You get an initial interview, From there you get a second interview, and then you are either confirmed or denied the position. The applications and communications are done over their website, but this was specifically PRE-COVID.
The interview itself well, it was very well done, it was easy and smooth in terms of the people who interviewed me.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
There were a few diagrams that asked explicitly data flow across multiple systems. Between different systems, different IP values were shown. You had to know
1. How the data was being transferred between systems (pathing)
2. What some of these IP values meant (there were more than one per machine)
3. just explaining times in your life about various events or something along those lines. Times you had to be professional I believe? I don't quite remember the third question. They were very kind.
It's a one hour long panel interview with two to four engineers. The interview contained behavioural questions, resume walk through, python and c implementation, c trivia questions, os concepts, debugging.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Cisco in Feb 2026
Interview
Applied 1/14, prescreening with recruiter 1/29, interview with hiring manager 2/9, offer 2/13
Very easy interview and manager was super nice! Mostly was just asked about the projects on my resume with a couple problem-solving questions surrounding my projects.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you prove your product's safety to the user? (Essentially asking my testing process)
I applied online. I interviewed at Cisco (San Jose, CA)
Interview
The interview has two rounds:
Round 1 focuses on solving DSA problems within 45 minutes, testing logic, efficiency, and coding skills.
Round 2 involves resume screening and project discussion, where you explain your contributions, technical decisions, challenges faced, and overall understanding of your work.