I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Cisco in Jan 2017
Interview
Got a call from HR for a weekend walk-in. Around 30 people with experiences starting from 2 - 8 years came for the walk-in. First round was written test on c/data structures, networking and OS concepts. Some 10 people cleared the first round. All these 10 people were interviewed at the same time for the first round. First round was on basic c questions and questions on arrays/strings etc. Second round is on DS- stack/queue/linked list/tree etc. Third is bit of puzzles on math and few questions on c programming. Fourth round is on Networking concepts like L2/L3 stuff along with a simple queue program. 5th round is managerial round - mostly concentrated on behaviours aspects. And finally at 5PM, manager said you are selected and hr will call you. Overall experience was good while being interviewed.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Queue/
Binary search tree
Addition without using arithmetic operators
Puzzle related to math
Program for permutations of a string
Some program related to algebra concept
L2/L3 basics
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Cisco (Chicago, IL)
Interview
March 13th; Took a hackerrank exam, 3 easy-med leetcode DSAs. One was rotating a matrix and the other was a binary search. And the third was a basic sql. Did not hear back until July.
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
I applied online. I interviewed at Cisco (Bengaluru) in Jun 2026
Interview
The interview started well and covered backend concepts, Java, system design, and coding. I answered the questions confidently and had a positive interaction throughout.
After receiving the rejection, I spoke with HR to understand the feedback. I was informed that the interviewer believed I was looking at answers during the interview. This came as a surprise because I was not referring to any external material. I have a habit of looking away while thinking or recalling concepts, which I believe may have been misunderstood.
I wish this concern had been raised during the interview so I could have clarified it immediately. If there are concerns about a candidate’s behavior, discussing them in real time or asking for a room scan can help avoid misunderstandings.
Overall, the interview questions were fair, but I feel my evaluation was influenced by this misunderstanding rather than my technical performance.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Sort a nearly sorted array. I was asked for an optimal solution and discussed the time and space complexity.