CISCO PLACEMENT TIPS
About Cisco:
Cisco is an American
multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California that designs,
manufactures and sells equipment’s. It was founded by Leonard Bosack and Sandy
Lerner in 1984. Through its numerous acquired subsidiaries, such as Open DNS,
WebEx, and Jasper, Cisco specializes into specific tech markets, such as
Internet of Things (IoT), domain security, and energy management.
Cisco is the largest
networking company in the world. Cisco Systems was founded in December 1984 by
Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner, two Stanford University computer scientists,
who pioneered the concept of a local area network (LAN) being used to connect
geographically disparate computers over a multiprotocol router system.
The Cisco Test-Pattern and Selection Procedure is as follows :
Selection
Process:
The company conducts
recruitment process every year to select new candidates. The selection process
of the company consists of following rounds.
These rounds are as follows:
Number of Questions: 60
Aptitude: 30
Technical: 30
The total time allotted to the written exam is 60 minutes.
Academic
Criteria:
Minimum 65 percent
throughout the degree.
No backlogs should be
there.
Gap in studies for upto
2 years is allowed with valid reasons.
Pattern
of Written Exam:
Aptitude section
consists of questions based on probability , Age , Average , Heights and
Distances , Pipes and Cisterns , Speed problems , coding - decoding and work
and time.
Technical section consists
of questions from C including pointers and based on Java.
Overall the level of
the paper is moderate. Only those candidates who clear the written exam will
qualify for the next round.
Profiles offered:
Internship only: SCO
division (IT branch was also eligible)
Placement only: Services
(ECE was preferred)
Internship and
Placement: IT Analyst and IT Engineer (IT branch was preferred)
BOOK: Quantitative aptitude by RS Aggarwal
1st Round:
Quantitative Ability:
BOOK: Quantitative aptitude by RS AggarwalTOPICS: Problems on Trains, Simple Interest, Profit and Loss, Percentage, Average, Problems on H.C.F and L.C.M, Boats and Streams, Time and Distance, Time and Work, Compound Interest, Partnership, Problems on Ages, Permutation and Combination, Problems on Numbers, Ratio and Proportion, Pipes and Cistern, Alligation or Mixture, Probability
URL: https://www.indiabix.com/aptitude/questions-and-answers/
Quantitative Ability section consists of questions based on topics such as probability, permutation, algebra, time & work, time, speed & distance, arithmetic, percentages, profit & loss, geometry etc. In general, the section difficulty level varies from easy to moderate. The total time allotted for this section is 35 minutes.
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I INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE (ASISH VERMA)
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1st Round:
Online test
Duration: 1 hour
Number of questions
asked: 50/60
No negative marking
Questions pertaining to
basic concepts of networking, programming, operating systems, embedded systems
(basic architecture), few questions on different networking techniques used by
Cisco, etc. were asked.
All the topics were
equally weighted in the exam.
Interview Process
Based in the candidate’s
performance there were 1 or more technical interviews. If the panel likes a
candidate, then the candidate will be sent straightaway for HR round.
Key: Be as strong as you can be with your basic
concepts of all the important subjects and be confident of whatever you have
written on your CV.
2nd Round:
Technical Interview
The interview lasted for somewhere around 20 minutes.
Questions asked:
· Basics of your preferred language (C/C++/Java) and programming: what is
virtual keyword, can we have multi-level linked lists or not, some questions on
sorting algorithms, searching (both linear and binary) algorithm applications,
Dijkstra’s algorithm implementation on a graph to find the smallest distance
between two nodes (few iterations), writing code for singly linked list,
hashing techniques, etc.
· Basics of
OS: what are semaphores and give an example to explain how they are used
to attain mutual exclusion, concept of deadlock and the working of deadlock
detection algorithm with and example (both wait for graph and Banker’s
algorithm), etc.
· Internship
and projects: what did you do in your internship, questions on the
implementation of my projects.
· General
questions: why do you want to work for Cisco, career goals and aspirations.
If you are good enough
then, the next rounds will happen soon.
3rd Round:
HR Interview
Here, the interviewer
will literally scan through every bit of your CV and will put in tough
situations.
Key: Be confident and
most importantly be yourself, do not ever fake it in front of the interviewer
because he/she is not taking interview for the first time. They are very
experienced and they can pick up very easily when a candidate is faking it.
Questions asked:
· Tell us
about yourself: Start with your name, native place etc and then go on to tell
something very impressive about yourself in about 4 to 5 sentences. What is the
one thing Manipal has given you.
· How did you
become so passionate about coding when you did not have a coding background
before coming to Manipal.
h where do you see yourself in the next 5 years: This is a very important question which is generally asked in interviews in some or the other way. Act smart here. NEVER say that you want to pursue MS or an MBA after 1 year or 2 year. You will be rejected in most of the cases because of this answer.
h where do you see yourself in the next 5 years: This is a very important question which is generally asked in interviews in some or the other way. Act smart here. NEVER say that you want to pursue MS or an MBA after 1 year or 2 year. You will be rejected in most of the cases because of this answer.
Open
Electives: Why did you choose these electives ( Intercultural Communication (4th semester)
and Project Management (6th semester).
Situation
based question: “Suppose you are working in a team and your boss wants you to
do some work in a certain way which he wants the work to be done in. You have a
better approach to that work and you tell your approach to the boss. Then also,
the boss is reluctant.” How will you tackle such a situation.
Key: In such situations, never say that you will still try to
talk it out or go to higher authorities, etc. because by doing that you are
complicating the situation more than it was previously Situation
based question:
Situation - “Suppose you are given two profiles
to choose from, one being, Cisco developer, that is, a proper coder (my
passion) and the other being, Cisco Infrastructure, a non-coder profile. Which
one will you choose?”
Situation - “Suppose you again have two options,
Cisco Infrastructure and a start-up company developer. Which one will you
choose?”
How
do you rate your interview on a scale of 10.
Why
do you want to work for Cisco
Any
questions for us.
4th round:
Short HR interview
Duration: 5 to 10 minutes
This interview was simply meant for a final
check on the selected candidates.
Key: Show the interviewer that you are very ethical and genuine at the same time. Do not fake it.
Questions asked:
· Tell
me about yourself (in detail): If the interviewer does not have your CV, then
how would you tell him about yourself. Tell them about few experiences, in
which, you have shown ethical behavior. The HR people love ethical behavior.
· What
do you want to do with your life in the long run.
Did
you sit for Microsoft and what happened there.
Thanks to Asish Verma for Sharing his experience.
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INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE (Jayant Prakash)
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Cisco CMS Interview
This was a pool campus placement procedure where I was called to the Cisco Cessna Campus in Bangalore where applicants were from different colleges from South India.
Round 1: 1st interview was MCQ round. 50 questions of networking, aptitude, basic electronics and simple data structures. Testing platform was mettl.
75% of the applicants were eliminated from the round . I listened to the presentation afterwards where they told it was not a coding profile job.
Round 2: Round 2 was technical round where stress was mainly given on the information you provided in the resume. Simple OSI model question were asked. Also I explained them about my research papers.
Round 3: This round was also technical where they focussed on the SDN project and asked me about need of this project in today’s world. They also gave real time scenarios problems where they give me situations, to which I have to solve them using networking aspects. The Interviewer also tested my knowledge of the Transport layer of the OSI model in great depth.
Round 4: This round was managerial. At first some simple technical questions were asked on the my projects listed on my resume. Then the manager asked me some HR questions like strength, weakness, further plans. There was 2 profiles in CMS one was voice and other was data center. The manager was from voice so he asked which profile would i prefer. I said i preferred data center over voice to which he asked reason. I gave an honest reason based on my resume and areas of interest.
Round 5: This round was another managerial round with the manager of data center team. He asked me show communication between network with the help of simple network diagram. After this he asked me about the SDN project and multicasting. It was a short interview.
Round 6: This was a HR interview where HR asked me about my hometown and other informal question. He asked me about any other offer i was having before this interview, to which i mentioned my full time offer at HP R&D. After this he told to leave as result will be sent to the placement office after 2-3 days.
Any other queries, you can contact me on Facebook or LinkedIn:
https://www.facebook.com/jayant.at.origin
https://in.linkedin.com/in/jayantprakash11
Thanks to Jayant Prakash for Sharing his experience.
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Jay Jagannath Swami Nayana Patha Gami Bhaba Tume Bhaba Tume ...
Mr. Tribikram Pradhan
Research Scholar, Dept. of CSE
Indian Institute of Technology, (BHU), Varanasi
E-Mail: tribikram14@gmail.com
