Cisco runs a knock-out funnel that starts with a timed HackerRank or Mettl assessment mixing a heavy MCQ block (computer networks, OS, DBMS, aptitude, and for hardware-leaning campuses digital electronics and microprocessors) with one or two coding problems. Survivors go into a same-day chain of interviews: one or two technical rounds that are equal parts DSA and core-CS/networking plus a line-by-line walk of the candidate's resume and projects, then a managerial round that is mostly situational and project-depth questions, and finally a short HR round that Cisco brands 'ETR Connect' for early-career hiring. Compared with pure product companies the DSA bar is moderate (arrays, linked lists, trees, one DP or graph question) while networking depth (OSI, TCP/UDP, routing, subnetting, DNS) is disproportionately important, especially for the Consulting Engineer / Technical Consulting Engineer track.
These 20 writeups cover software engineering, network engineering, technical support and other roles, India-dominant, one US TAC account. 14 of them were posted under a pseudonym (Reddit, GeeksforGeeks or forum handles), so we could not verify the authors’ identities.
Typical rounds
4.22-6 range
Outcomes shared
9/3offer / not
Most common round
Technical
Sources span
2019 - 2025
Most frequently reported · Behavioral(19), Data structures & algorithms(16), Past projects(16), Aptitude(15), Networking(15)
Cisco Systems’s official process
Cisco describes six phases (learn, search and apply, connect, prepare, interview and assessment, offer). It says the recruiter tells candidates what to expect because the loop varies by team and role, that some positions require a pre-employment assessment through a testing partner, that engineering roles typically pair a behavioral interview with a technical one such as a coding assessment while other functions may use a writing assessment, and that most interview processes finish within 2-3 weeks with an application response targeted at 7-10 days.
A timed HackerRank test with a short MCQ block spanning electronics, networks, aptitude and data structures, plus two coding problems. Roughly half of a 330-strong cohort cleared it.
Three panellists ran a 25-minute session: a project walk-through, a comparison of two tree-like structures the candidate had used, a logic puzzle, two whiteboard-style coding problems on linked lists and arrays, and a couple of basic database queries.
Covered · Trees, Data structures & allocation, Past projects, SQL, Puzzles
3
ManagerialHiring manager
A 40-minute conversation with a supply-chain manager covering the technical panel's feedback, projects, hobbies, motivation for Cisco and career direction, ending with the candidate's own questions about the role.
Covered · Past projects, Behavioral, Domain knowledge
4
HRFinal
A checklist-style formality on internship availability, five-day working, higher-study plans and willingness to be based in Bangalore.
Two sections: a large MCQ block on core CS subjects plus aptitude, and a DSA section with one dynamic-programming and one graph problem. The candidate credits the MCQ section for the shortlist.
Forty-five minutes with a software engineer, mostly on a prior internship and each resume project, then one string-frequency coding problem. Skipping clarifying questions produced a wrong output and the round pivoted into how the candidate debugged it.
Covered · Past projects, Arrays & strings, Debugging
3
Hiring managerHiring manager
An engineering leader probed networking protocols and their uses, asked which structure would back an employee database and the cost of each operation, then set an open design task for a photo-sharing app plus a follow-up on latency in distributed systems.
Covered · Networking, Data structures & algorithms, System design, Scalability
4
ETR ConnectFinal
A ten-minute casual call with Cisco's Emerging Talent Recruitment team on internship availability, stipend and duration. The offer mail arrived about two hours later.
Software Engineer / Data Engineer (on-campus 2022)
New grad
Received an offer4 rounds
1
Online MCQ test (60 min)Online assessment
Twenty-five MCQs weighted towards quantitative and logical reasoning, with a technical tail on networks, OS, linked lists and C output questions. Twenty-seven students advanced.
Covered · Aptitude, Networking, Operating systems, Data structures & algorithms
2
TechnicalTechnical
Roughly three-quarters of the 75-minute round was spent dissecting the candidate's SQL and ML projects, including exception handling and scenario variations, before short recursion and linked-list coding tasks and standard OS questions.
Covered · Past projects, SQL, Operating systems, Data structures & algorithms, Debugging
3
ManagerialHiring manager
Scenario questions on managing work and resolving team conflict, software-engineering process questions, plus a line-by-line pass over the resume.
Software Engineer / Data Engineer / Site Reliability Engineer (on-campus 2023)
New grad
Outcome not shared4 rounds
1
Online assessmentOnline assessment
Forty MCQs at intermediate difficulty plus a single coding question restricted to C, Java or Python. Around thirty of six to eight hundred candidates advanced, split across the three role tracks by score.
Track-dependent: the data track was almost entirely DBMS and query writing, the software track mixed projects, DSA and core subjects, and query writing appeared there too.
Covered · DBMS, SQL, Data structures & algorithms, Past projects
3
ManagerialHiring manager
Scenario-based behavioural questions with follow-ups back into core subjects, and for some candidates more query writing.
Covered · Behavioral, SQL, Domain knowledge
4
ETR ConnectFinal
Basic questions, job-location preference and an explanation of the role, followed by the candidate's questions.
No coding, since the online test had already covered it. The interviewer probed networking and cloud, then settled on CPU scheduling and memory management before moving to OOP concepts and reading code fragments for correctness.
A senior engineer set a game-theory style optimisation problem and pushed for a better complexity, then a binary-search-on-answer style allocation problem.
Effectively a CV scrutiny round: the interviewer went through every project and experience, dug hard into a cloud face-API project and into generative models, and coached the candidate on how to represent skill levels on a resume.
Covered · Resume deep-dive, Past projects, Domain knowledge
4
Technical (20 min)Technical
A short round with one probability question and one puzzle, wrapped up quickly.
Covered · Puzzles, Aptitude
5
HR (30 min)Final
A relaxed conversation focused on the second page of the CV, previous internships and background.
Fifty questions in an hour spanning aptitude, data structures, microprocessors and classic puzzles. About ten students went through to the single interview round.
Covered · Aptitude, Data structures & algorithms, Puzzles, Domain knowledge
2
Technical face-to-face (60 min)Technical
Ten minutes on interests and projects, ten on information-retrieval and ML electives, then a balanced-BST construction problem to explain and code on paper, a graph-algorithms discussion covering shortest paths and negative edges, and C++ language internals including virtual dispatch. Closed with short motivation questions. No networking was asked.
Covered · Past projects, Trees, Graphs, OOP, Behavioral
Fifty questions split between aptitude, C plus networking plus data structures, and a hardware block on digital electronics, BJT, CMOS and microprocessors. The cutoff was high, so speed mattered as much as accuracy.
Covered · Aptitude, Networking, Data structures & algorithms, Domain knowledge
2
Technical (60 min)Technical
Projects and their underlying algorithms, then a long OS block on deadlock, context switching, threads and synchronisation, a networking block on TCP versus UDP and what happens when a URL is requested, and a linked-list sorting implementation the candidate then had to review for corner cases.
A production manager opened with HR-style motivation questions, revisited the previous round's topics, then set a sliding-window averaging problem where the interviewer specifically asked why starting from brute force was useful, followed by design questions, a trie implementation and hash-map and heap internals.
Introduction, family background, relocation, handling personal conflict, strengths and weaknesses, and internship availability. The candidate hedged on the internship timing and was not selected.
Five coding problems in ninety minutes in a language of choice after applying through the Cisco careers portal. Solving three cleanly plus partial credit was enough; the interview call came about ten days later.
Covered · Data structures & algorithms, Arrays & strings
2
Technical I (60 min)Technical
Held over WebEx. Resume and work-project questions, then tooling and language questions covering version control, containers, orchestration and Python internals including multithreading, ending with a sorting problem solved on a shared screen.
Covered · Past projects, OOP, Concurrency, Testing, Data structures & algorithms
3
Technical II (60 min)Technical
Two coding problems, a partition-style sort and a triplet-sum problem where only the approach was required, then questions on version control, Linux, cloud infrastructure and orchestration drawn from prior experience.
The manager walked the whole resume including hackathon work, then moved to cloud infrastructure, vertical versus horizontal scaling, deploying stateful applications, virtual memory and Linux commands, and explained the team's work.
Covered · Resume deep-dive, Scalability, Operating systems, Past projects
5
HR (20 min)Final
Questions about the company's principles, mission and goals, then compensation. The offer letter followed in two to three days; the whole process took about a month.
Fifteen aptitude questions, twenty-five CS fundamentals and output questions, and one simulation-style coding problem about counting steps up slippery walls.
Covered · Aptitude, Data structures & algorithms, Arrays & strings
2
Technical face-to-faceTechnical
Bit counting and an order-statistic problem required in linear time, followed by a long block on UNIX network programming, shared memory and inter-process communication mechanisms.
Project questions, reading a large C program to identify storage classes, and choosing a data structure that would back a filesystem-style command set.
Covered · Past projects, Low-level design, Operating systems
4
Technical face-to-faceTechnical
Entirely dedicated to previous project work.
Covered · Past projects, Resume deep-dive
5
Team managerHiring manager
Motivation for switching jobs, a walk-through of current work, and which team the candidate wanted to join.
Five coding problems, three easy and two medium, with a two-hour limit and a 48-hour window to attempt after applying via LinkedIn.
Covered · Data structures & algorithms
2
Technical I (60 min)Technical
Explicitly a CV-free general technical round. Use-case driven: transactional writes spanning a document store and a relational database, reducing repeated database reads under load, and writing REST endpoints with parameters, plus framework annotation semantics and a nth-highest-salary query.
Covered · API design, DBMS, SQL, Scalability, OOP
3
Technical II (60 min)Technical
The CV-based counterpart: past projects and one project's architecture, immutability and deep copy semantics, string interning behaviour, and a join query across employee and department tables.
Covered · Past projects, OOP, SQL, System design
4
Technical plus managerialHiring manager
The third same-day round combining technical follow-ups with managerial fit, reached by performing well in either of the two earlier technical rounds.
Two data-structure problems, tree height and evaluating a bracketed arithmetic expression, with an algorithm expected first and full working code after.
Covered · Trees, Data structures & algorithms
4
Rounds 4-6: Managerial plus technicalPanel
Three further same-day rounds, all resume-driven: previous experience, achievements and the hardest problems solved. The candidate found them repetitive.
Covered · Resume deep-dive, Past projects, Behavioral
5
DirectorFinal
A final WebEx round with a director, again resume-based. The result came four to five days later.
One coding question and twenty-five MCQs drawn from computer networking, C, aptitude and electronics.
Covered · Networking, Aptitude, Domain knowledge
2
Technical (45 min)Technical
Concentrated on subnetting and subnet masks and the full OSI stack, with a smaller amount of OS material on deadlock and Linux commands plus some C.
Covered · Networking, Operating systems
3
Managerial (45 min)Hiring manager
Resume project discussion followed by applied networking: how a website loads, DNS, routing, address types and versions, bandwidth, which device sits at each OSI layer, and switch versus router. The job role itself was discussed in detail.
Covered · Past projects, Networking, Domain knowledge
4
HRFinal
Review of the earlier rounds plus comfort with relocation and night shifts.
Twenty-five MCQs mostly on networking, programming and CS fundamentals plus one medium coding question, taken by around 1,100 eligible students as a knock-out.
Covered · Networking, Aptitude, Data structures & algorithms
2
Technical (60 min)Technical
About thirty candidates reached this round. After a project explanation and a discussion of what the candidate understood the role to be, questions covered Python language semantics and data types, the OSI model layer by layer including why the data link layer exists, link-state versus distance-vector routing, TCP versus UDP reliability, the case for IPv6, and Linux, booting and memory-hierarchy questions.
Covered · OOP, Networking, Operating systems, Past projects
3
Managerial (45 min)Hiring manager
Nineteen candidates advanced. Entirely projects and extracurriculars: explaining a project to a five-year-old and then simplifying further, challenges faced, whether original objectives were met, how the plan changed, how group work was divided, and a live walk-through of the project's interface.
Covered · Past projects, Behavioral, Conflict handling
4
ETR / HR (15-20 min)Final
Around sixteen reached this fit-check with Emerging Talent Recruitment covering internships, relocation and location preference. The author stresses this round is a genuine knock-out at Cisco and eliminated many candidates.
A basic-level MCQ quiz mixing DSA, DBMS, programming logic, networking, aptitude and English, with one string problem.
Covered · Data structures & algorithms, DBMS, Networking, Aptitude
2
Written assignment (20 min)Take-home
A short written submission on how AI and ML could improve user experience.
Covered · Case study, Domain knowledge
3
Online test (90 min)Online assessment
Around sixty questions on intermediate programming logic, networking and electronics plus a permutations coding problem.
Covered · Networking, Data structures & algorithms, Domain knowledge
4
Technical video interview (20 min)Technical
Project questions plus core networking (DNS resolution, OSI layers, TCP versus UDP, router versus switch, MAC and IP addressing), closing with a repeat of the string problem coded live in a nominated language.
Covered · Networking, Past projects, Arrays & strings
5
Managerial video interview (15 min)Hiring manager
Project and behavioural questions about the hardest challenge in a group project, mixed with deeper networking on the OSI model, IP address classes, network IDs, subnet masks and unconfigured routers.
Covered · Networking, Behavioral, Conflict handling, Past projects
6
HR (15 min)Final
Standard fit questions plus company knowledge: Cisco's products and competitors, other offers held, higher-study plans, and location and shift preferences.
Twenty-five MCQs weighted towards in-depth computer networks with operating systems and DBMS, plus one medium queue-and-stack problem.
Covered · Networking, Operating systems, DBMS, Data structures & algorithms
2
Technical interview (75 min)Technical
Two senior interviewers: the first went deep on computer networks and routing concepts, the candidate's projects and a SQL query, the second set an easy array-based sorting problem. The candidate was not selected.
Covered · Networking, Past projects, SQL, Arrays & strings
Twenty-six MCQs on code dry-runs, CCNA-level networking, OS, DBMS, web technology and security, including VLAN limits, MAC address structure and which OSI layer a hub sits at.
Three open problem statements (AI in pandemic healthcare, SDN for self-healing high-availability networks, connected technology for unorganised sectors); the candidate picks one and submits a 90-second recorded solution pitch that must be original, scalable and feasible.
Covered · Case study, Domain knowledge, Scalability
3
Competency assessment (60 min)Assessment centre
A general aptitude and psychometric assessment aimed at judging performance under pressure.
Covered · Aptitude, Behavioral
4
Technical online test (60 min)Online assessment
A knock-out gate before interviews: twenty-five MCQs across DSA, DBMS, CCNA and security plus one hard competitive coding problem.
Covered · Data structures & algorithms, DBMS, Networking, Domain knowledge
5
Technical face-to-face (60 min)Technical
An on-site round of situational questions about how the candidate would handle and improve given scenarios, plus a simple string-manipulation problem. The advice given is that answers must be original rather than rehearsed from the internet.
Company knowledge, what success means to the candidate, and a challenge on why a networking company should hire someone whose interest is AI. Compensation is communicated in this round.
A full interview day. General networking, programming concepts, Linux commands and aptitude, plus a practical problem about pulling the most recent malicious log entries from a large timestamped table and choosing a structure to hold them for display.
Covered · Networking, Operating systems, Aptitude, Data structures & algorithms
5
Managerial video interview (90 min)Hiring manager
Deeper networking concepts, workplace competency scenarios, a detailed pass over one project, and a crossover question about modelling TCP/IP packets with a linked list.
Covered · Networking, Customer scenarios, Past projects, Data structures & algorithms
6
HR (20 min)Final
Motivation for joining Cisco, strengths and weaknesses and five-year plans. The author notes people were rejected at this stage.
Opened with a constrained self-introduction, then the technology choices behind the candidate's projects, designing a recommendation system for an e-commerce site, OOP in Java, cloud scenarios covering instance scaling and load balancing, a self-rating on DSA, a merge-k-sorted-lists problem with several approaches compared, a binary-tree diameter problem, and two closing logic puzzles. Twenty candidates reached this round, split between software engineering and site reliability.
Covered · Past projects, System design, OOP, Scalability, Trees, Puzzles
3
ManagerialHiring manager
Twelve candidates advanced. Internship and project depth answered in STAR form, high-level design of a decentralised application, testing strategy and exception handling, concrete performance-optimisation examples, project workflow with containers, and UI/UX reasoning from user, developer and security angles.
Covered · STAR stories, Past projects, Testing, System design, DBMS
4
HRFinal
Five candidates reached a relaxed conversation on relocation and higher-study plans, plus an explanation of the internship programme. Four final offers were made.
A multi-section online test covering OSI layers, network devices and basic TCP/IP, memory, process and scheduling in operating systems, and reasoning and quantitative sections. The author found it moderately hard and time-pressured.
Three interviews were run back to back on a single day over WebEx starting early morning. The detail of the individual rounds sits behind Medium's paywall and was not readable, so only the structure is recorded here.
Technical Consulting Engineer, Data Center Routing & Switching (TAC, US)
Experienced
Not selected3 rounds
1
Technical screen (WebEx)Online assessment
A short screening delivered live over WebEx: the interviewer shared a ten-question document, mostly multiple choice with a few ordering questions, covering MPLS heavily plus OSPF and IGMP, port and protocol identification and route preference. A pass email arrived within minutes and the resume moved to the hiring manager.
Covered · Networking, Domain knowledge
2
TAC team panel (WebEx)Panel
A panel of TAC engineers including the team lead worked from a network diagram on screen: tracing how packets travel, what the headers and frames look like at each hop, layer 2 versus layer 3 behaviour, spotting a fault in the diagram (an address conflict) and its real-world effect, spanning-tree roles and states applied to a described topology, and route origin with an emphasis on OSPF. Mixed in were situational questions and a check on which Cisco hardware the candidate had actually worked with. The candidate notes the panel was friendly and not playing gotcha.
A rejection call: the technical performance was fine but the team wanted more data-centre experience than an enterprise background provided, and the recruiter suggested entering through enterprise TAC and transferring later.
What is the interview process like at Cisco Systems?
Cisco runs a knock-out funnel that starts with a timed HackerRank or Mettl assessment mixing a heavy MCQ block (computer networks, OS, DBMS, aptitude, and for hardware-leaning campuses digital electronics and microprocessors) with one or two coding problems. Survivors go into a same-day chain of interviews: one or two technical rounds that are equal parts DSA and core-CS/networking plus a line-by-line walk of the candidate's resume and projects, then a managerial round that is mostly situational and project-depth questions, and finally a short HR round that Cisco brands 'ETR Connect' for early-career hiring. Compared with pure product companies the DSA bar is moderate (arrays, linked lists, trees, one DP or graph question) while networking depth (OSI, TCP/UDP, routing, subnetting, DNS) is disproportionately important, especially for the Consulting Engineer / Technical Consulting Engineer track.
What topics does Cisco Systems test in interviews?
Commonly reported topics include Networking, Data structures & algorithms, Operating systems, DBMS, SQL, OOP.
These guides summarize public, first-hand interview experiences shared by candidates. They describe the shape of each loop and the topics that came up, not a leaked question bank, and every experience links back to its original source. Processes change often; treat this as directional prep, not a script.