Cisco Interview Experience for Graduate Apprentice 2023

I recently appeared for a Cisco apprenticeship for the role of Technical Graduate Apprentice under which there are various roles and it was an off-campus drive, in-line program with the NATS(National Apprenticeship Training Scheme).

Round 1

The first step towards getting an opportunity at Cisco is registering on their website whenever there’s an opening. Once you get registered you will get a mail for the same. Also, you need to be registered on NATS as well and get your enrollment id as soon as possible.

You will be receiving screening mail if you are suitable for this role. It took 6 days for me after registration to get the screening mail.

Round 2

You will be getting role preference mail after the screening mail, you need to fill your preferences into it by reading the description of each role. After role preference, you will get the mail for online assessment via Hackerank which consists of overall 50 MCQ questions.

Round 3

If you clear the assessment, you will be informed and added to the WebEx space where all the information will be shared like your schedule but you need to be present from the morning 8:00 as if the previous candidate is not available, you will be called immediately. Cisco conducts all three rounds ( TR, MR, HR ) on the same day. If you perform well in TR, you will be selected for MR, again if you perform well in MR, you will get a call from HR. If you are not selected for further rounds, you will be informed accordingly in the WebEx space itself. If you are interested to know my interview experience, here it is-

I was interviewed for the role of test engineer and the schedule was around 9:20 AM but I got a call around 9. My interviewer was familiar with Python and so was I. He started with some basic questions like the difference between List and Tuple then he asked me some theory questions on why did I choose Python proceeding further he asked me to code a basic question on the list. After that, he asked me about various OOPS concepts which I answered and then he asked me to implement the OOPS concept. I answered them all and again some questions on SQL query as well. No need to worry, if you have basic knowledge, it’s not difficult.

Post my TR round, I was called around 10 AM for MR. This round started with my introduction, he also gave his introduction. He asked me about my strengths and weaknesses, my past internship experience, and my achievements as well. He talked to me about the state if I am aware of the nearby places or not. He then asked me for some SQL queries for a problem-solving approach and what are the ways I try, I answered them all. Also, he briefed me about the Cisco campus and I started waiting for HR.

HR round was around 1 PM he informed me regarding the amount to be paid i.e. 38k and it would be in-person training in Bangalore in-line with NATS. Post one year of apprenticeship we did not guarantee you a full-time job but if you perform well and there is a vacancy, you will get it. Also, he asked me if I have any other offers, I told him honestly and that’s how my interviews proceeded.

Hope it helped, All the very best!