Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Cisco with 2.9 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 65% positive. To compare, the company-average is 68% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 15 days to get hired, when considering 663 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 according to 663 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 24%
Phone interview: 22%
Skills test: 15%
Group panel interview: 10%
Background check: 10%
Presentation: 7%
Personality test: 6%
IQ intelligence test: 3%
Drug test: 3%
Other: 1%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied through college or university. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Cisco (San Jose, CA) in Oct 2011
Interview
There are no self-introduction part or CV questions. It went straight forward to a program analysis question, asking me to figure out all the possible errors in that program. Some are obvious syntax error. But there are some errors that are not obvious and require a sound programming foundation. There might be some other questions after this but when I failed to solve this question. The interviewer showed no further interest and stopped the interview. The 1 on 1 interview is stressful and the interviewer hope to find someone who are really experienced with programming, regardless of what programming language he / she is using.
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.