Software Intern Interview Experience - San Jose, California
November 1, 2010
Positive ExperienceGot Offer
Process
I was scheduled for an interview in my first semester.
The interview was really good, mainly stressing academics. There were lots of questions in Operating Systems:
- What are threads?
- What is the difference between multi-programming and multi-tasking?
- Virtual Memory
- Distributed systems.
Algorithms:
- What's the difference between greedy and divide & conquer approaches?
Networks:
- What are VLANs?
- DHCP
- TCP-Congestion control
- Questions on applications suitable for UDP.
- Sliding window protocols.
Finally:
- Why Cisco?
- What do you know about Cisco products?
- Who are the competitors?
Questions
Technical Questions:
Operating Systems:
- Threads
- VM (Virtual Machines)
- Multiprogramming
- Distributed OS (Operating Systems)
Networks:
- VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network)
- NAT (Network Address Translation)
- TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
- UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
Tell me about your previous work experience and projects.
Why Cisco and its products?
Competitors of Cisco.
Was this helpful?
Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 3 interview experiences for the Cisco Software Intern role in San Jose, California.
Success Rate
33%
Pass Rate
Cisco's interview process for their Software Intern roles in San Jose, California is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Positive67%
Neutral33%
Negative0%
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Cisco's Software Intern interview process in San Jose, California.
Cisco Work Experiences
4.0
Great Internship Experience
Software Intern • Former Employee
San Jose, California, United States
March 12, 2013
Pros: Great company with many different possibilities, tons of different and interesting projects to work on. Everyone there was always really nice and willing to help with any questions I had.
Cons: In my opinion, I had a great time there.
4.0
A good place to intern, but it could be a lot better
Software Intern • Current Employee
San Jose, California, United States
June 24, 2008
Pros: Saying you work for Cisco. They take care of their employees, with lots of perks and lots of interesting classes. They have a lot of money to spend, and it definitely shows.
Cons: Communication is sometimes difficult, as it is a very diverse group.
Interns don't always have as much leadership as I would like, and a lot of them goof around because they have nothing to do.
All the computers given out are Windows laptops, which is annoying when you're developing a Unix system.
4.0
Great and chill place to work
Software Intern • Former Employee
London, England, United Kingdom
February 24, 2025
Pros: A big tech company with a proper tech stack and deployment method.
Allow an intern to explore and learn.
Cons: Too chilled – they don't really expect anything from you. It can be good or bad.
- 4.0Great Internship ExperienceSoftware Intern • Former EmployeeSan Jose, California, United StatesMarch 12, 2013Pros: Great company with many different possibilities, tons of different and interesting projects to work on. Everyone there was always really nice and willing to help with any questions I had.Cons: In my opinion, I had a great time there.
- 4.0A good place to intern, but it could be a lot betterSoftware Intern • Current EmployeeSan Jose, California, United StatesJune 24, 2008Pros: Saying you work for Cisco. They take care of their employees, with lots of perks and lots of interesting classes. They have a lot of money to spend, and it definitely shows.Cons: Communication is sometimes difficult, as it is a very diverse group. Interns don't always have as much leadership as I would like, and a lot of them goof around because they have nothing to do. All the computers given out are Windows laptops, which is annoying when you're developing a Unix system.
- 4.0Great and chill place to workSoftware Intern • Former EmployeeLondon, England, United KingdomFebruary 24, 2025Pros: A big tech company with a proper tech stack and deployment method. Allow an intern to explore and learn.Cons: Too chilled – they don't really expect anything from you. It can be good or bad.
Cisco Interview Questions
Explore Interview QuestionsTaro 75Google Interview QuestionsMeta Interview QuestionsAmazon Interview QuestionsApple Interview QuestionsNetflix Interview Questions
Explore Interview ExperiencesOpenAI Interview ExperiencesAnthropic Interview ExperiencesPerplexity Interview ExperiencesWindsurf Interview ExperiencesMistral AI Interview Experiences
