Cisco Interview Questions, Process, and Tips for Freshers

Round: Test
Duration: 1 hour

Skills: Problem Solving Skills
College Name: The National Institute Of Engineering, Mysore

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The resume was as per the norms of the placement cell of our institute.
I used only one resume for different companies, however I altered my “areas of interest” to make them compatible with the profile on offer. For instance while applying for coding profiles I mentioned my areas of interests as C++ and data structures, whereas in core companies I mentioned my areas of interests as machining and power systems.

Round: Test
Experience: For the programming questions I referred a book named ‘Test your C++’ by Yashwant Kanetkar. The book consists of some short questions which help in quick revision. I also stumbled across some websites that gives a proper list of most frequently asked questions I the written test. I found these questions using generic internet search.
The first round was the written test of 90 minute duration. The questions asked in the paper were logical reasoning and aptitude based. The questions were pretty much similar to those asked in the CAT examination; however I found these questions were much simpler to those.
Duration: 90 minutes

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The next round was the interview round. They asked me to walk them through my resume. Further they started asking me questions on networking. I had not studied networking in particular; however while preparing for the programming related questions I referred to a book written by author ‘Sumita Arora’, this book consists of a topic on networking. I had read that chapter. The chapter included different models of networking. I spoke about these in detail. The interviewer also gave me a puzzle - if I were given 2 ropes each of which when burnt from one end burnt out completely in 60 minutes, then how do you determine that 45 minutes have passed. I did not qualify for the next round.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: CISCO is a networking company and specializes in making of routers and network management hardware and software. The profile is given after selection but overall information about the company can be best obtained from the pre placement talk.

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a standard resume for this company as per the norms of our institute’s placement cell. I wanted to get recruited in an IT/ITES related company hence I stressed upon my knowledge of data structures, programming and micro-processors.

Round: Test
Experience: The first round was the written test. The questions asked were of digital electronics and programming.
Tips: Try to brush up your knowledge of C++ to fare well in the written test. The book on C++ by Yashwant Kanetkar was very useful in revising all the concepts.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The next round was the interview round. They were interested in testing my knowledge in C++ and networking. I was asked to explain the difference between “IF-ELSE” statement and the SWITCH statement. The interviewer also asked me to give a real life example of circular link list. Some basic questions on classes, inheritance and abstraction were also asked. Then they ventured into asking some questions on networking, but since I had not studied networking, I did not know the answers to those questions. I informed them about my lack knowledge in networking – I wasn't asked any further questions from the topic.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: CISCO is a networking company and specializes in making routers and other network communication hardware and software. The profile is given after selection but overall information about the company can be best obtained from the pre placement talk.

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a standard resume for this company as per our institute placement cell norms. I varied my areas of interest (mentioned in the resume) apart from my course depending upon the companies.

Round: Test
Experience: Initially there was written test which consisted of two sections each of 25 questions. In first section there were aptitude questions and in second section there were programming based questions which mainly dealt with C++ and microprocessor. They had written the codes and we were asked to find the output. The questions were mainly from pointers and classes. No questions were asked from Data Structures.
Total Questions: 50

Round: HR Interview
Experience: They went through my resume, perhaps they wanted to know whether my actual interest lies in IT industry or not. Initially they mainly concentrated on my personal stuffs, hobbies as they wanted to check my dedication. They asked me why I wanted to join an IT company. I told them that right from my childhood I had an interest in computers and I think I was able to convince them. Then they asked me to write a program related to linked list which consisted of the operations like ‘inserting a node’, ‘deleting a node’ and other functions of the linked lists. I did not write the whole program, just wrote a linked list program and showed the important functions they asked and verbally told them some of the functions.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: In the second round of interview there were technical questions. An example of the question asked was ‘if I wanted to maintain a data structure in which I had to figure out in a team of 11 such players who has scored maximum runs among ’x’ no. of players so which sort of data structure could be used to create such a program.’ I answered them that there is a heap or tree having the same functionality. There are two types of heap sort minimum and maximum. In the minimum heap sort the minimum node is placed at the top of the tree and vice versa in case of maximum. So basically the question was based on heap sort. They asked me questions related to coding and basic computer operations like how does the computer start and what is the inside operation going on at the time of starting – I was asked to explain all of these. Then there was a long discussion on operating systems and then they asked me how to control a resistor using C++ – this I could not answer. They also asked me a puzzle – if a rope takes 1 hour to burn completely then how would I find that 20 minutes have elapsed if I have two similar ropes. So, in all it was a very good experience for me.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: I came to know about the company through the placement cell. The presentation given by the company during the pre-placement talk was the first source of information for me.

Round: Test
Experience: This was an one hour test comprising 50 MCQ questions. All questions carried 1 mark each and there were no Negative markings. It was conducted on morning of the day of the interview. The cut-off marks was around 25-30. The questions tested concepts in C, Data Structures and Operating Systems, Quantitative Analysis, Logical Reasoning, Basic Electronics and English.
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 50

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The interview lasted for 20-30 mins. The panel consisted of 1 interviewer per candidate. There were around 5 such panels. In-depth knowledge of C,Data Structures and Operating Systems is necessary. Questions from Computer Networking were asked. These questions were basic in nature and did not require much knowledge. Puzzles were also given to be solved. Good quantitative skills will help. The interviewer will be more interested in the approach of the candidate in solving the problem than the final solution.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This interview lasted for around 10-15 mins. The panel, again, consisted of 1 interviewer per candidate. There was just 1 such panel. They interviewer asked questions about the specialization I’m pursuing from IIT Kgp, the courses I’ve opted for and how I think they are related to my specialization. I was asked questions about the other companies whose placement processes I’ve appeared for. There were questions like why I wanted to join Cisco and what kind of work I am interested in doing there.

General Tips: Unless the company is a core company for the student, the projects usually do not matter much - they simply see whether the candidate can explain his/her work and not the magnitude of work done.
Positive Body language during the interview and confident interaction helps.
Skill Tips: An in-depth knowledge of C and Data Structures,with adequate knowledge of Operating Systems. Sound Quantitative abilities and logical reasoning skills help during the written tests(non-technical section)
Skills: C, Data Structures
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR

Round: Test
Experience: MCQ type. No negative marking.
Question paper had two sections. 
(i) General Aptitude 
(ii) Technical
The technical section had 50 questions and out of which 40 were from electrical questions. I was able to answer only the CS part and marked randomly for other elec based questions.
Tips: Do well in your aptitude section and CS section.

Round: Interview
Experience: I was hired for Network Consultant profile. So they asked me questions from networks. The questions were simple. If they are opting for programmer profile, they would be asked questions from C and data structures.

Round: Interview
Experience: They were assessing how I would react in case of difference in opinion with manager, etc etc.

General Tips: I started my preparation in October. I was doing all the learning writing tests. :)
It would definitely help students if they start their preparation by August.
Skill Tips: I have no idea on how they shortlisted students for written test. For the interview, it was based upon our written
test performance. Since they came on day 3, they had a waiting list of students for the interview.


Started solving previous year question papers. Almost all companies follow the same pattern which they had in the previous years. You might even get the same questions. Start solving puzzles and previous year question papers from August. There would be flurry of companies coming for CS and it would be very difficult if one starts preparing late. Earlier the preparation the better.

Important for CS students: C, C++, Data structures and Algorithms, OS.

Few companies ask students to write programs on paper. The best way to prepare would be start solving
programming questions.
College Name: IIT MADRAS