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Software Engineer II Interview Experience - San Jose, California

October 1, 2016
Positive ExperienceGot Offer

Process

This is for Master's in CS university recruitment:

Three rounds spanned over two weeks (I had another offer waiting, but it seems like it can go on for up to four weeks if you don't rush it).

1st Interview (45 minutes):

Done over WebEx (one of Cisco's web conferencing tools). This was mostly behavioral; we went over my internships on my resume and some classes. It was more of a conversation rather than him drilling questions.

2nd Interview (45 minutes):

Phone interview with the hiring manager of a team. This was more technical, covering OO questions and data structures. Some simple questions about algorithms were also asked, nothing that you can't do off the top of your head. Questions were tailored based on my resume/classes taken.

3rd Interview (1.5 hours):

Done over WebEx and met with three different people, each for 30 minutes. Technical questions varied, but no coding questions were asked. They were more interested in asking about industry experience conventions, such as Agile and Test-Driven Development, and some networking and audio/visual encoding questions.

This might vary based on your resume, as the first thing I was asked was if I was doing real development work at my current internship (which I was). There is a whiteboarding feature on the WebEx tool, so be prepared for some coding questions if you have the same process as me. However, I believe they have an older school of thought when it comes to interviewing; they will emphasize experience first over your ability to solve some dynamic programming question within a timeframe.

Overall Impressions:

  • Go over data structures and OO (mine was C++ based, so I had virtual tables, pointers, and similar questions).
  • If you have a networking background, go over that (I did an internship with Bluetooth, so I was asked about that stack).
  • Review your resume.
  • Do some array-based coding practice questions, just in case.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 19 interview experiences for the Cisco Software Engineer II role in San Jose, California.

Success Rate

74%
Pass Rate

Cisco's interview process for their Software Engineer II roles in San Jose, California is incredibly easy as the vast majority of engineers get an offer after going through it.

Experience Rating

Positive74%
Neutral16%
Negative11%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Cisco's Software Engineer II interview process in San Jose, California.

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