Cisco Embedded Software Engineer Interview Questions and Answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Focus on your core skills and system design knowledge.

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Get your basics right. Work of Data-structures and Algorithms and All the Best!!!

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I consulted my seniors for preparation of my resume. I believe that seniors provide the best possible insights in this regards. I had a standard resume for all the companies.

Round: Test
Experience: I had prepared for the CAT examination which helped me in these written tests. The first round was the written test. The criterion for the written test was to have a CGPA more than 6.0. There was an aptitude test and a technical test. The technical test consisted of programming questions based on C++ and data structures. From data structures they asked a lot questions based on tree traversals and from C++. A large number of questions from pointers and arrays were also asked.
The aptitude test was slightly easier than the CAT examination standards. Majority of the questions were related to data interpretation and some were of based on logical reasoning. The total duration of the both the tests combined was 90 minutes.

Around 50 people appeared for the first round and nearly 13 got shortlisted for the next round.
Tips: For the written tests, particularly the aptitude section, if would really help if you have prepared for the CAT examination. There is a book written by an author named R.S. Agarwal which would prove to be beneficial from the point of view of these written tests.
Duration: 90 minutes

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: I did not prepare much for the GD’s. However I did keep myself abreast with certain latest happenings.There were no group activities conducted in the recruitment process of Century Link.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: For HR interviews I prepared answers to some frequently asked HR questions. I found these questions on the internet. Generally the questions asked in the interviews are related to the profile on offer; for instance in A2Z interview I was asked a lot of questions from power systems since it was a core company and in Century Links I was asked questions from C++ and data structures since they had come to recruit for a software engineering profile.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: In this interview I was questioned on my C++ and data structure knowledge. They asked me questions on pointers and further asked me to explain the concept of dangling pointers. They did not want me to write down the complete code with proper syntax's of the problems asked to me. They only asked me to write the algorithms of the various problems.
They also asked me some puzzles. Unfortunately, I was not able to solve any of them. During the course of the interview they asked me to specify the reason for my keen interest in joining an IT company.
At the end of first interview some candidates were shortlisted and called for the second round of interview.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The second interview was conducted by a senior company official. He enquired about my project and again, like in the first interview, asked me to state the reason for my interest in joining an IT company.This interview round was an elimination round.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The interview was an HR interview. Candidates who reached till this interview were all selected; basically this interview was like a formality to check the candidate’s fit with the company.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: I had never heard of the company before the recruitment season. I attended the PPT organised by the company, I found the company to be a well reputed/established company and thus applied to it. The profile was open for Electrical, Computer Science, Mechanical and Electronics engineering students.