Cisco Software Engineer interview: OA programming barrier and design discussion

Cisco·Software Engineer·Reported Jul 2026
Online AssessmentTechnical ScreenRejectedMedium

My process started with an online assessment and moved quickly into interview rounds, though I did not make it all the way through. The assessment combined many multiple-choice questions with programming tasks, and I could tell early that the programming section would decide things. When I was unsuccessful, the gap was clearly more about solving than simply understanding concepts.

The interviews I did reach were more conversational than I expected. I spent time walking through my resume and projects, and the questions pulled on the design decisions behind what I had built. I also had a straightforward LeetCode-style coding question, then continued technical discussion about my experience rather than only harder algorithm prompts.

The overall difficulty felt average. The experience showed how much they cared about thought process and communication, especially how I explained trade-offs and what I considered while solving. I did not get an offer, and the assessment stage still determined how far I went.

Location: Bengaluru. Overall feedback: positive. Offer status: no offer.

Published

Curated and edited by PracHub

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Interview at a glance

Company
Cisco
Role
Software Engineer
Rounds
Online Assessment → Technical Screen
Outcome
Rejected
Difficulty
Medium
Date
Reported Jul 2026

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