Cisco Software Engineer Interview Questions India 2026

Cisco technical interview FAQ

01What is the recruitment process at Cisco?

The typical Cisco recruitment process has 6 stages: Resume screen: campus drives (NIT/IIT/BITS) plus lateral hiring via LinkedIn and referrals → Online Assessment: aptitude plus 2 to 3 coding problems, 90 min → Technical Round 1: DSA coding and CS fundamentals (OS, pointers, memory) → Technical Round 2: Networking concepts or domain-specific technical depth depending on team → Technical Round 3 (senior roles): Architecture discussion or design → HR Round: compensation, location preferences, and culture fit.

02What are the interview rounds at Cisco?

Cisco typically conducts 5 interview rounds: Online Assessment (90 min): Aptitude section followed by 2 to 3 coding problems, easy to medium. Some BUs include a networking MCQ section.; Technical Round 1 (45-60 min): DSA problems plus CS fundamentals such as process vs thread, virtual memory, or pointer arithmetic. Language internals are probed for C/C++ roles.; Technical Round 2 (45-60 min): Networking and infrastructure roles get TCP/IP, socket programming, or routing questions. Cloud and full-stack roles get a second DSA or system design intro.; Technical Round 3 (senior roles, 45-60 min): Higher-level architecture or distributed systems discussion. Less common at SWE-1 level.; HR Round (20-30 min): Standard behavioral and logistics discussion. Cisco values cross-functional collaboration; prepare one story about working across teams..

03What framework should I use for Cisco technical interviews?

HireStepX recommends the Protocol-aware problem solving framework for this type of interview: For networking roles: frame every design answer around layer boundaries, failure domains, and protocol trade-offs before writing any code.

04Reverse a linked list in O(1) extra space. Then explain when you'd use this in production.

To answer this question well, HireStepX recommends the Protocol-aware problem solving approach: For networking roles: frame every design answer around layer boundaries, failure domains, and protocol trade-offs before writing any code. Ground your answer in a specific real example from your own experience.

05What is the difference between a class and an object? Give an example.

To answer this question well, HireStepX recommends the Protocol-aware problem solving approach: For networking roles: frame every design answer around layer boundaries, failure domains, and protocol trade-offs before writing any code. Ground your answer in a specific real example from your own experience.

06Write a SQL query to find the second-highest salary in a department.

To answer this question well, HireStepX recommends the Protocol-aware problem solving approach: For networking roles: frame every design answer around layer boundaries, failure domains, and protocol trade-offs before writing any code. Ground your answer in a specific real example from your own experience.

07What is normalisation in databases? When would you de-normalise?

To answer this question well, HireStepX recommends the Protocol-aware problem solving approach: For networking roles: frame every design answer around layer boundaries, failure domains, and protocol trade-offs before writing any code. Ground your answer in a specific real example from your own experience.

08What's the difference between a stack and a queue? Give a real-world use case for each.

To answer this question well, HireStepX recommends the Protocol-aware problem solving approach: For networking roles: frame every design answer around layer boundaries, failure domains, and protocol trade-offs before writing any code. Ground your answer in a specific real example from your own experience.