I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Cisco (Bukarest, ) in Feb 2024
Interview
### Initial Phone Screen: (1 HR) ###
- Conducted with the technical director.
- Covered questions related to previous experience, Clean Code, and SOLID principles.
- Topics included:
- Polymorphism explanation.
- Comparison between monolithic and microservices architectures, along with their pros and cons.
- Task to write code for string reversal.
- Discussion of various design patterns.
- Personal experience (current job experience, challenges, etc.)
### Interview 1: (1 HR) ###
- Problem: Trapping Rain Water [Link](https://leetcode.com/problems/trapping-rain-water/)
- Allowed to use personal code editor.
- Required to write code that compiles and includes a few tests.
### Interview 2: (1 HR) ###
- Tasked with creating a linked list data structure from scratch in a personal code editor.
- Methods included: add, reverse, print.
- Required to write code that compiles and includes a few tests.
- Additionally, tasked with:
- Using a React sandbox environment.
- Implementing binding events like adding text to a list and displaying it on button press.
### Interview 3: (1 HR) ###
- Problem provided::
```
// package whatever; // don't place package name!
// TASK #1: Impliment removeSubStrings
// TASK #2: Update to provide more telemetry data
// TASK #3: Can I make this multi-threaded, i.e. pass in the same sourceString but with different subStrings
// TASK #4: Does TASK #3 provide any real-world benefits?
def main(str[] args) {
str sourceString1 = "JarJarBinksJarJarWiki"; // BinksWiki
str sourceString2 = "JarJarBinksJarJar"; // Binks
str sourceString3 = "JarJarBinksJarJarWikiJar"; // BinksWikiJar
str sourceString4 = "aJarJarBinksJarJarWikiJar"; // aBinksWikiJar
str subString = "JarJar";
str finalString = "";
finalString = removeSubStrings(sourceString1, subString);
System.out.println("sourceString1 finalString: " + finalString + System.lineSeparator());
finalString = removeSubStrings(sourceString2, subString);
System.out.println("sourceString2 finalString: " + finalString + System.lineSeparator());
finalString = removeSubStrings(sourceString3, subString);
System.out.println("sourceString3 finalString: " + finalString + System.lineSeparator());
finalString = removeSubStrings(sourceString4, subString);
System.out.println("sourceString4 finalString: " + finalString + System.lineSeparator());
}
```
- Completed up to TASK 2 during the interview however, the interviewer told me from the begging that we'll probably have time for Task 1 and Task2 at max.
- Implemented in Python in a personal code editor, without the need for compilation or tests; emphasis was on problem-solving approach.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Cisco (Bengaluru)
Interview
I applied for the position and successfully attended the screening and coding round. The interview mainly focused on C programming and networking concepts, including IP subnetting, bitwise operations, and implementing logic to verify if an IP belongs to a subnet. There were also questions on TCP/UDP and debugging concepts. After the interview, I followed up with the recruiter, who shared that based on the feedback, my profile will not proceed further.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco (Tel Aviv-Yafo) in Dec 2025
Interview
After applying on site I was reached by a recruiter which asked a few role specific questions and scheduled an technical interview with the recruiting manager.
First interview:
Introduction, tell me about yourself etc and the main question was "Talk about a system that you worked on end to end".
Second Interview:
System design interview. Role specific system, nothing special just a bit tricky. (not design youtube or twitter or anything like that).
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Talk about a system that you worked on end to end.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco (Bengaluru) in Oct 2025
Interview
I was reached out by the recruiter, and the interview was scheduled for the next week. Enough time was given to me for the preparation.
Total of 5 rounds were planned in advanced, and I was told I will proceed to the next rounds if I clear the previous rounds. (Eliminations)
First Round: General discussion on what I have worked on. No surprises.
Second Round: A practical coding questions, mix of low level and high level system design. Interviewer gave clear instructions about what is expected in each task. This round went smoothly from my point of view.
Third Round: This was the round where things went upside down. Interviewer joined 30 minutes late, and seemed uninterested. The interviewer did not follow the basic etiquettes. He spend 5-10 minutes reading my resume on spot, with no communication and awkward silence.
Next 10-15 minutes followed on general question about what I had worked on in the past.
Then I was given a puzzle question, with certain constraints (No code required, verbal solution was asked). I could not solve it optimally. Even the interviewer was confused and he couldn't solve it with the constraints given.
(After the interview, I googled the solution for the same problem, and came to know the constraints were a little different).
Got a call from the recruiter after 30 minutes that I was not selected, and need not join for the next rounds.
TLDR:
Difficulty wise I would say the interview was of medium difficulty.
DSA - Leetcode easy and easy-medium.
System Design - Practical questions, no surprises.
Low Level Design - Practical questions which most developers would have already worked on.
But a lot depends on the interviewer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
System Design: Design a distributed message queue.
Low Level Design: Design a rate limiter.
Coding: From the two streams of very large numbers (not able to fit in int64 or float64), calculate the running sum and send the response over the third stream.
Puzzle: You have a set of 8 balls. 7 are of the same weight, and 1 is of different weight (may be lighter, may be heavier). Find the odd weight ball in minimum number of tries using a weighing scale.