CISCO Interview experience For Summer Intern (Off-campus)

Last Updated : 18 Oct, 2023

It started with Code with Cisco, after giving OA for code with Cisco my team was not selected for further off-campus hackathons, but after some months some teams who performed well in OA of code with Cisco received OA link for Cisco hiring for intern / FTE, I was one of them.

Round 1: Online Assessment

Total 43 questions: 40 MCQ based on Computer Science, Electronics, and General Aptitude questions and 3 Medium – hard level DSA questions.
The duration was 90 min

After a week I received mail that I got shortlisted for an interview.

Round 2: Technical Round

It started with an Intro, then he went through my resume, asked about my project, and followed up with questions on a project regarding authentication, and how I use bcrypt and JSON web tokens in my MERN project.
He gave me a DSA question: Path sum from root to target in Binary trees, I have to write a function that takes the root node of BT and target as input. I had to share my screen, I explained to him my approach using recursion and coding up the solution, I also did a dry run also with explaining TC and SC.
He asked some questions from the operating system regarding the File system, memory management, threads, semaphore, critical section, paging, and paging techniques.
He asked me some questions from Computer networks , TCP/UDP , ARS protocol , What happens when we enter www.google.com in chrome with all steps from OS level to networking level .
Then he gave me 3-4 situation reaction action based questions for seeing my ability for good fit in a team , team work related questions .

I was pretty much sure that I gonna selected for next round as I answered all questions to him , he was so much impressed from me, after a day I received that my manager round will be held next day.

Round 3 : Manager Round

Started with formal introduction , he went through my resume , asked me about my passion etc.
Asked me to explain me my main project of MERN stack in detail , he wants details description of each and every thing I done in my project , then he told me to show my project , I showed him and explain him all features , tech stack , challenges , what new features I can add to made my project unique .
I was doing Research intern in ML , he asked me about my ML project also ,about algo I have used and why , substitute to that algo .
Then he asked me ques from computer networks : how does wifi works in our home , how it get’s connected from our PC , in this I explained him about routers , routing protocols , TCP/UDP connection .
Functionality of Data link layer and physical layer , flow of data in these two layers i explained him in detail and he seemed so satisfy from my answers .
He gave 2 situation action based question , then he gave me Positive feedback of mine and said I am so passionate , and he came to know many new things from me .
Then he asked if I have any questions from him : I asked about projects on which CISCO works , Products , Protocol used in Webex.

Manager round went so good , after half an hour I called for HR round .

Round 4 : HR round

This was mainly informative round , started with intro and askes me about my interest , projects .
Then he disclose Stipend / location
Where did I see myself in 5 years .
Why I wants to Join cisco
he asked if I have any question from me : I asked how the first month to an intern looks like in cisco , he explain all things in details .
Told me they will contact tnp and share result in Tnp of my college .

Verdict : Selected

Finally after 15 days , I got mail from tnp that I got selected for summer intern at CISCO , I was soooo happy after seeing my name in mail .

Tips for cracking any interview

Always read all interview experience of that company from GFG .
Prepare for your projects deeply : Tech stack , features , challenges , overcome .
Stay confident and humble , Confident & humble candidates are likely to get selected .
Always cross verify ques from interviewer , it shows your understanding skills .
Always use proper variable names or comments in DSA code , do Dry run with example
Practice more and more questions of DSA .
Whether you solved the question or not, it doesn’t matter. The thing that matters is how you tried to solve the question.
Don’t argue with the interviewer or try to prove him wrong. If you do, you’ll be rejected at the same moment. Just say “Oh okay, you might be right about this one” and move on. Don’t take it on your ego
Don’t boast about your skills. It’ll set the tone for the interview.
Don’t speak too much. Don’t give over descriptive answers. Be precise and save time