Software Engineer Interview Experience - Ottawa, Ontario
Process
It was for an SDE/SDET position in Ottawa, Canada.
Had an initial 30-minute conversation with the hiring manager.
Technical interviews with 3 different interviewers lasted 2 hours and 30 minutes.
It was a mix of coding questions, questions regarding technical knowledge, and Python concepts.
Questions
Total 4 programming questions.
Three were from LeetCode:
- Valid Parentheses
- Valid Anagram
- Common Prefix
The last one was to find the 10,001st prime number.
Some networking questions and some about Python:
- What is a decorator?
- Python regex
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 23 interview experiences for the Cisco Software Engineer role in Ottawa, Ontario.
Success Rate
Cisco's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Ottawa, Ontario is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Cisco's Software Engineer interview process in Ottawa, Ontario.
Cisco Work Experiences
- 4.0classic internet companySoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeOttawa, Ontario, CanadaJuly 22, 2025Pros: "Old" formal, friendly, old low-level tech, go deep.Cons: When you go deep, it's harder to otherwise.
- 4.0Competitive But Slow GrowthSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeOttawa, Ontario, CanadaJune 17, 2025Pros: I believe Cisco is becoming more competitive, both in terms of technology and compensation.Cons: Hard to move up and get recognition.
- 3.0Bureaucracy in all departmentsSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeOttawa, Ontario, CanadaMarch 6, 2025Pros: Good work-life balance overall.Cons: Too many manager layers overall.
Cisco Interview Questions
