I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1+ week. I interviewed at Cisco (San Jose, CA) in May 2008
Interview
My opinion is limited obviously to the one experience I have had. My first contact was with the recruiter. The recruiter was very friendly and gave me a good overview of what the team did and what the job role was. He sent me the detailed job description which helped me prepare for the interview. It was followed by a 30 minute phone interview. Onsite interview soon followed - which was fully technical - "C" coding questions and OS and Networking questions and some design questions -- all of above average difficulty level.
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.