Cisco Ideathon Interview Experience for SDE 2022

Last Updated : 16 Aug, 2022

About Cisco:
Cisco’s purpose is to power an inclusive future for all. We believe in the power of technology and what it makes possible for our communities, businesses, and governments around the world. Cisco Systems, a technology company based in America, which operates internationally, is best known for being the top networking company. It is one of the largest corporations in the world. Cisco was founded in 1984 and has its headquarters in San Jose, California.
Cisco is also known for its amazing work culture, it has been named #1 on the world’s best workplaces list by Great Places to Work and Fortune Magazine for the second time.

About Ideathon:
The Cisco Ideathon is an opportunity for students with potential and creativity to be a part of Cisco’s technological innovations. It presents a competitive model to showcase original thinking and problem-solving aptitude using technologies like 5G, the Internet of Things, networking infrastructure, and collaboration to address global issues related to education, healthcare, water conservation, environment, and sustainability. The program enables qualifiers of Ideathon to get an internship with full-time placement opportunities.

Eligibility (2022)
Must be a Netcad Student.
Students must have completed either of the following courses:
Networking Essentials OR CCNA Module 1
Introduction to Cybersecurity+ Cybersecurity Essentials OR Cyber ops
Python OR DevNet
Cutoff CGPA (highest degree):- 7 and above

Ideathon journey: Registrations were started in June 2022, before registrations we completed courses required for eligibility. From June to July Cisco CyberOps training was given to us by cisco and it lasted for a month.
After that links were received to every eligible candidate for the first assessment.

First Assessment was having 3 sections.

Aptitude and reasoning
Networking-based questions
Programming

Advanced Coding: I selected advanced coding rather than advanced networking

Aptitude: This section included 10 questions and they were easy to medium and the time limit was 20 mins.

Networking: From this section sectional time was removed and a timer of 1 hour 10 mins started. Questions were not easy and they were more scenario-based questions like two situations were given and we have to select the proper option for it. This section requires networking basics to be revised well.

Programming: This section had one coding question based on DP.

Advanced Coding: This included one medium-level coding question.

Note: This was a major elimination round.

After that qualified candidates got a mail regarding the problem statement, there were two problem statements on which we had to provide a solution and make ppt presentation. 2-3 days were given to us for this thing.

After PPT submissions almost everyone got mail for interviews few were rejected. The interview consisted of three rounds (All three were elimination rounds)

Technical round
Managerial round
HR round

Note: Interviews depend mostly on which role one is interviewed for. Interview experience for Software Engineer role

Technical Interview: Two panelists were there with 5-6 years of experience. It started with asking how is whether and how are you doing first they will comfort you.

Explain to us ppt – the PPT discussion which was submitted during 2nd round
From where did the idea come into your mind
Why do you prefer this tech stack
Tell me the protocols of commands that you used in your idea
What will you do if a nontechnical user uses your tool
Some limitations he discussed with me
In several situations where my tool will fail
Practical scenario-based questions on my idea
Future scope and many more I remembered only these.

PPT discussion lasted around 10-15 mins. So be prepared with every aspect of your idea. Project discussion (15-20 mins) I have mentioned 3 projects in my resume they grilled me on all of them.
Some general questions on all three because 3 of them were on diff tech.

Explanation of project.
Why u used this tech stack
What was idea behind making this project?
Some questions on react because I have used it in my two projects
What is api, how many api you made in your project
What your api’s do
In which format data is being stored in database
In which format data is being accessed from DB
Which protocols are being used to fetch data HTTP or HTTPS
What are the security aspects of your project
How mongo DB is being mapped with your project
How TCP connection is being made
What do u think does TCP connection should be disconnected after sending one packet or the connection should be maintained?
What happens when you search any URL on the internet
Some questions about my internship experience.
What libraries u have used in your projects, tell me some functions that you used from that library and many more
There were more questions on my projects so prepare your project deep down, you should know everything
In which language you are comfortable, I said java
What is the difference between String, StringBuffer, and StringBuilder
Tell me the use case of the above difference
What are scheduling algorithms in OS explain any one of them
How can we search a node in the tree
A scenario-based question in which I have to use BFS or DFS according to the situation and why
Question on Linked List
2 Coding questions
Detect a loop in the linked list and remove it
1 to n numbers series is there and 1 number is missing find the no.
Time complexity and space complexity were discussed for both questions
Do you have any questions for us?

They sounded satisfied and the list came out for the next round.

Managerial Round:

Two managers with around 20 years of experience came
They were very polite
It was started with We have 30 minutes we will try to know each other, they introduced themselves and then asked for my intro
They asked me to explain my projects
Why u made this project
What problems do you face?
Have you worked in a team?
Did college give u this project or you did do it yourself
Have you worked on emerging technologies like cyber sec, cloud, etc
Few questions on the project
What you do apart from technical
What do you like the most in cooking
Do you have any questions for us
It lasted for 20 minutes only and they were satisfied.