Cisco

I appeared for the Cisco Software Engineer Intern recruitment process from MNNIT Allahabad. The process started with an online assessment consisting of coding questions along with a few aptitude and technical questions. The coding section was of moderate difficulty, with problems mainly based on arrays, strings, and basic data structures. After clearing the assessment, I was shortlisted for the interview rounds. There were two technical rounds, each lasting approximately 45 minutes. The first round started with a brief introduction, after which the interviewer moved directly to DSA. I was given an array problem where I first explained the brute-force approach and then optimized it using a more efficient data structure. The interviewer asked me to discuss the time and space complexity and then introduced a few changes to the constraints. The second problem was based on linked lists, where I had to detect and handle a particular pattern efficiently. I was able to derive the approach and implement it, although I made a minor mistake initially and had to debug it during the interview. The second round was again mainly focused on problem solving. I was asked a tree-based problem followed by a graph problem. For the tree question, I used a DFS approach and was able to explain the recursive logic clearly. The graph problem was slightly more difficult, and the interviewer gave me a small hint after I initially considered an inefficient approach. I eventually reached the expected solution and discussed its complexity. The interviewer also asked a few questions about my projects and my contribution to them, but there was no extensive discussion of core subjects. Most of the interview time was spent on DSA, coding, optimization, edge cases, and follow-up questions. I felt that my overall performance was decent, but I struggled with the graph problem and took longer than expected to implement the final solution. After the interview process, I received the final update that I was not selected. The experience was useful because it showed me that Cisco interviews require not only knowledge of standard DSA patterns but also the ability to quickly adapt a solution when the interviewer changes the constraints or adds follow-up conditions.