I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco (Bengaluru) in May 2024
Interview
This was for a Grade 6 Software engineer - SRE role and in total 4 rounds.
Round 1: HackerRank Programming Challenge
These were 2 coding questions of medium difficulty.
Round 2: Python MicroServices
This round was mainly focussed on knowledge on micro-services in python. I was asked to code a rate-limiter using Flask.
Interviewer was really good and polite and helped me during each step. Even though with my limited experience with Flask, I was able to get through this round because of him.
Round 3: TroubleShooting, Docker, Linux Fundamentals.
This round focussed on troubleshooting skills, linux networking fundamentals and dockerfile.
I was asked on file permissions, user groups, CPU, memory related questions. Then had to write a dockerfile to containerise a flask application and troubleshoot a dying container using logs.
Interviewer was very helpful and allowed use of google to look for specific commands and syntax when / if needed. This was very engaging and truly tested on SRE and troubleshooting skills.
Round 4: Hiring Manager round.
This round was focussed on my projects, work in current organisation etc. We discussed on ideal deployment strategies in multi-cloud environments, designed a CI/CD for cloud-agnostinc setup, synthetics, monitoring, observability best practices etc. The HM was very kind, and kept it engaging. He then explained me the current role and expectations from me.
Overall experience was really good and found interviewers very helpful.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Deployment Strategies, as in Canary, Rolling and Blue-Green
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Cisco (Chicago, IL)
Interview
March 13th; Took a hackerrank exam, 3 easy-med leetcode DSAs. One was rotating a matrix and the other was a binary search. And the third was a basic sql. Did not hear back until July.
Standard panel, very simple leetcodes. reverse linked list kind of vibe s . I was literarly asked about how a linked list is structured and reversing it. there was almost no friction which I was shocked by one of the reason I did not accept
I applied online. I interviewed at Cisco (Bengaluru) in Jun 2026
Interview
The interview started well and covered backend concepts, Java, system design, and coding. I answered the questions confidently and had a positive interaction throughout.
After receiving the rejection, I spoke with HR to understand the feedback. I was informed that the interviewer believed I was looking at answers during the interview. This came as a surprise because I was not referring to any external material. I have a habit of looking away while thinking or recalling concepts, which I believe may have been misunderstood.
I wish this concern had been raised during the interview so I could have clarified it immediately. If there are concerns about a candidate’s behavior, discussing them in real time or asking for a room scan can help avoid misunderstandings.
Overall, the interview questions were fair, but I feel my evaluation was influenced by this misunderstanding rather than my technical performance.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Sort a nearly sorted array. I was asked for an optimal solution and discussed the time and space complexity.