Status: 2.4 years exp. Currently as Software Engineer (IC2) in ServiceNow, Hyderabad( 8 months exp)
Position: Software Engineer (G6), Cloud Security - Cisco
Location: Bangalore
I am very delighted that I have got an offer from CISCO for Software Engineer (G6). Shared my interview experience below.
First , I have applied for the AppDynamics firm (Now under Cisco) . Got a link to attend the online HackerRank test.
Online Test:
There were 4 questions which had to be solved and I remember I solved 3 & 1/2 I think. I don't remember the exact questions. But they were from the following patterns.
1.) Two pointer & Sorting
2.) Priority Queue
3.) Linked List
4.) Graph/Tree
This was in mid-November. Then after around 1 month, in December mid , I got the call for the interview loop. They said it was a hiring drive & would be 2 tech + 1 HM round on the same day.
Tech Round 1:
A young interviewer (probably G8 level) . He asked my current project details & directly jumped on to the following stuff.
1.) Longest substring without repeating characters - (Code will be run on test cases , so a proper code has to be written & run)
2.) Questions related to Java -
Object oriented basics, transient, static keywords, synchronized block, thread safety, exceptions etc.,
There was still time left & he asked me 1 more problem . But I was just asked to provide logic.
3.)
https://leetcode.com/problems/majority-element-ii/description/ - But I couldn't give him the optimized version. Gave a naive approach & later he gave me some time to think. But I couldn't think about Moore's voting algorithm logic. He finally revealed how to do it.
But he said that I have done really well and gave me a heads up for the following rounds.
Tech Round 2 :
A Senior interviewer with some 15+ years of experience. He asked me to code in Google docs..and he just wanted the core logic in pseudo code. Syntax not really required.
1.)
https://leetcode.com/problems/insert-delete-getrandom-o1/ - A slight variation of this question with getValue() also. Able to do it with lists & hashmap.
He was satisfied
2.) No. of islands problem(All 8 directions are considered around a node) - But he asked to do it in BFS.
Did well. And got very good feedback .
After 20 mins, I got a call for the HM round.
HM round:
The Hiring manager started with his introduction & the project which he is managing. Then he went into mine. Asked about my current projects, tech stack etc.,
He asked me a vague question on one tech scenario use case. If we get a data stream which consists of some predefined types of data (say logs, metrics, metaData etc.,) and how will we process it in real time & extract? Basically he was looking for a strategy.
I told microservices & queue based approach. He was fine with it. Then he asked if I had any experience with Queues like Apache Kafka. I said no. It went on like this on some tech stack experiences. He was noting down all the things.
It went well to my knowledge. But I'm not sure why I got a "NO" from the Hiring Manager.
After 2 days , I got the result as negative from HM , but the feedback for my 2 tech rounds were very good. So the recruiter passed my profile to another team in CIsco (Cloud Security).
She informed me that 1 tech +1 HM round will happen on the same day for the new team.
Tech Round :
Interviewer asked the following question
1.) Sort an array of 0s, 1s & 2s with proper code.
2.) Design API rate limiter - LLD Approach (Proper code not required)
I discussed a few queue based approaches & the data structure format. (Fixed window, Sliding window based on timestamp ,full bucket size approach)
He was okay with these..and asked about my knowledge in Networks & OS. But I didn't have any questions in those .
Overall it was quite positive feedback which I got and after 3 hours, I was called for the HM round.
HM Round:
He straight away jumped onto his introduction, about the project & team. It went on for some 15 mins.
Then my introduction, project details, standard behavioral questions like why Cisco? , why are you looking for change?, How can I trust you as you are switching in a very short time ? etc.,
After this...he said we will reach out to you, if we are providing an offer & wished me good luck.
And the next day they went to shutdown (Year end) and I got my result in Jan 1st week verbally.
After some 5-6 days, I got the offer letter & I accepted it.
Hope this helps you. Thanks!
Note: I applied directly on the careers portal of CISCO - (No referral)