For a candidate with 5 years of experience, the interview process typically includes:

• Three technical rounds (the preliminary round might be telephonic, but the rest are usually in-person).
• One management round.
• One HR round.

Out of the three technical rounds, at least one will focus on programming. You will be asked to write programs on paper or execute them on a laptop. After writing or executing, you will be prompted to identify any missed aspects or suggest improvements to the program.

The management round will involve questions about your expectations, attitude towards the work environment, company culture, and learning opportunities.

The HR discussion will primarily focus on salary negotiation and any other offers you may have.

1st Round:

Explain PIM-SM operation. What are the IPCs used on your platform?

2nd Round:

Explain an interesting bug which you fixed. What is an OSPF virtual link and why is it needed? What are the advantages of using a loopback interface in OSPF? How is a message queue better than a PIPE? Can't PIPEs be used as message queues? What is the best IPC?

3rd Round:

Write a linked list program to insert elements in sorting order. What improvements can you add to the above program? What are the things you missed out in the above program?

Manager Round:

How do you wish to see yourself after 3 years? What are your expectations about the work environment?

HR Round:

Do you have any offer in hand? What are your salary expectations? When can you join Cisco?