Software Engineer(Internship) applicants have rated the interview process at Cisco with 2.6 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 67% positive. To compare, the company-average is 68% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer(Internship) roles take an average of 24 days to get hired, when considering 129 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Cisco overall takes an average of 27 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Cisco as a Software Engineer(Internship) according to 129 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 24%
Phone interview: 21%
Presentation: 15%
Skills test: 11%
Drug test: 8%
Group panel interview: 6%
IQ intelligence test: 6%
Background check: 5%
Personality test: 4%
Other: 2%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco (San Jose, CA) in Mar 2019
Interview
There were 2 interviews. The first was a standard behavioral interview with one of the hiring managers who was not a software engineer. I was asked many of the standard behavioral questions such as what my greatest achievement was. The second interview was technical. This technical interview focused entirely on Java and many of the nuances about the language. It first started out with easier stuff such as describing the 3 concepts used in OOP and how they work in Java. After that I was asked questions about different data structures in java such as the Hashmap and Hashtable. I was asked about how the synchronized keyword worked in java and how multi threading works in java. I was asked about how garbage collection is performed in java. After these questions I was then asked to write some code. The first thing I was asked to write was a class for a singly linked list that had a fully implemented insert method. Next I was asked to write a function that would calculate the factorial of a number, but it had to be programmed recursively. After both of these questions I was asked to answer some brainteaser questions such as the classic you have 2 bottles of water with varying sizes and you need to measure out how to get exactly a certain amount into the big bucket. Overall I thought the specific java questions were definitely the more difficult part of the interview. After the technical interview I received my offer a few days later.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is the difference between a Hashmap and Hashtable in Java.
I applied through college or university. I interviewed at Cisco (Chennai) in Jul 2026
Interview
I had a Oa test that was really difficult. It had questions from Electronics like based on PCBs and stuff even though I am a CS graduate. Also I had 2 coding questions , both of which were really diffcult.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Explain difference between polling and Interrupt-driven Io cycle
It's a one hour long panel interview with two to four engineers. The interview contained behavioural questions, resume walk through, python and c implementation, c trivia questions, os concepts, debugging.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Cisco in Feb 2026
Interview
Applied 1/14, prescreening with recruiter 1/29, interview with hiring manager 2/9, offer 2/13
Very easy interview and manager was super nice! Mostly was just asked about the projects on my resume with a couple problem-solving questions surrounding my projects.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you prove your product's safety to the user? (Essentially asking my testing process)