I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Cisco (Bengaluru) in Dec 2009
Interview
Cisco mainly look for your knowledge on networking side, and should be good in C/C++ or whichever language you're being interviewed for.
Also you should be good on operating system concepts.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I didn't prepare much on networking when I went for the interview, so I found it difficult to answer some of the questions related to TCP/IP and networking.
But I was able to question properly on C programming and all and was able to clear the interview.
Standard panel, very simple leetcodes. reverse linked list kind of vibe s . I was literarly asked about how a linked list is structured and reversing it. there was almost no friction which I was shocked by one of the reason I did not accept
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.