Round 1(Technical) She asked me to introduce myself and tell about me. I told her the truth that I am Machine Learning enthusiast so she can ask anything in Python, ML, DL but I know only basics of C and never worked in C++ and know Java too. Then also told her that I don't do CP much. Then she asked me that at least I know the basics of programming and then she asked me two questions. Question 1(Coding) Given a number write a function to tell whether that number is the power of 2 or not and told to write the code in C, not in python, which I easily explained her. Question 2(Coding) Given an array which is sorted but rotated some number of times and a number write an efficient code which will tell whether that number is part of that array or not. Since I had used binary search in my solution she also asked me to write the code of binary search in my favorite language and then she asked me questions related to complexity theory and then also asked me to write the code for Quick Sort, where I struggled sometimes but she was very helpful even she explained to me the whole concept of quick sort with an example although I know it theoretically. The time period of this round was around 25-30 minutes. Because since I had a lot of projects in ML so I myself spoke about 15 minutes, telling about projects and she also asked why this algorithm why not others and so on... then she asked me all the above question.
Round 2(Managerial) This was a little tough round for me because I told a lie in this round which was one of the biggest blunder done by me, though I was selected(God saved me). The manager saw my resume and was making some weird faces and told that his department currently not working in AI/ML/DL or fields which I mentioned in my resume and asked a tough one that why I should hire you if my department is not working in your area of interest. He even told that it will be a waste of my time as well as their money if Cisco will hire me. I thought that this was just a question to irritate me to check my patience level or to see how I will respond in pressure situation but I am so much passionate about AI, I cannot handle a situation who speaks against AI. So being calm at that time I counter questioned him which he was not able to give the exact answer which he wanted to give and just changed the topic and was trying to catch me in further conversation. I replied to him by countering that, as I had attended the ppt in that morning, all the spokesperson were telling that CISCO is working in the field of AI/ML/DL then why you are telling that CISCO is not working in this field and you are not interested in me. He then told me that though CISCO is working in AI/ML/DL, but his department is not working in AI. Then again countered him that as before one year I don't know anything about AI/ML/DL but now I know it very well and did an internship in IISC and one work from home internship also during same summer. So as there is one more year before I will join CISCO so I can learn that also. After this answer he appreciated me, but still he was not that much satisfied and asked one question that I might have given some interviews before then why CISCO but here comes the twist, before he asked me this question complete I just replied in middle that this is my first company which I had applied(which was lie) and I'm interested in CISCO then he countered me telling that this shows that you have been following for quite a long which I replied yes(a lie) then he asked me to tell the name of CEO of CISCO(Wick Robbins) which I was not able to tell. Then he told me to be careful about my answers and told me to wait for some time so further, which shows that he was satisfied with my interview. This interview was about 20-25 minutes long.
Round 3(Technical) Two interviewers were taking this round. They first asked me to introduce myself but in the meantime, the electricity went off as the weather was not good at that time, it was raining heavily. I thought this is the time where I can make an impact by telling about all my projects and other things. I spoke about 5 minutes as soon as electricity came back they start asking me a question about dsa and puzzle question. As I mentioned that I love cricket and captained it when I was playing for the district from my school. They ask me about who is my favourite cricketer(MS Dhoni) and whether I am bowler or all-rounder or batsmen some other questions regarding cricket. Then they came to the main questions they asked me 3 questions. Questions 1 Given a number can you write a code in your favourite language which swaps adjacent nibble(four bits consecutively). I did that but my solution was not optimized, they asked me to optimize it more. Then after thinking sometime, they told that they had already given some hint while conversation only. Then I remind what can be the hint, actually before starting the question they asked whether I know operators or not and this was hint itself. I solved my question using 'or' and 'xor' operator which was taking the same time complexity as before but space complexity was drastically decreased. They were asking me to tell the time and space complexity of all my algorithms. They were satisfied with my solution. Question 2(Puzzle) Suppose there is a car having four new wheels and one Stepney which is having a new wheel too. So can you tell how much KM can a car run if each wheel can be for max 20,000 km? I was going in the correct direction but my calculation was a little bit wrong. They even encouraged me that I'm going in the right direction but I'm missing at one point. But I was not able to find the exact solution and as they were getting late they just asked a new question. Question 3(Coding) Given a string, write efficient code to count the frequency of each character in that string. I explained them method 1 but they asked me to make my algorithm more efficient which I was able to do and it was the last question.