Cisco Supply Chain Interview Experience

Cisco Supply Chain (Internship)

CEO: Chuck Robbins 

    Headquarters: San Jose, California, United States

    Revenue: 49.24 billion USD (2016)

    Founded: December 1984, San Francisco, California,

                   United States   

    Founders: Sandy Lerner, Leonard Bosack

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.

 The Cisco Test-Pattern and Selection Procedure is as follows :

It is only an Internship and based on your performance during the internship, they give you a Full Time offer.

Eligibility: CGPA > 8.0

Profiles within Supply Chain: 6 

[Note: While interviewing, recruiters won’t tell you the exact profile, so better to read about these online once.]

  Global Planning & Fulfillment
 Technology & Quality
 Product Operations
 Supply Chain Transformation
 Global Marketing Operations
 Global Supplier Management

1^st Round: Online Test (MCQ)

 Platform on which test was conducted: Mettl

 Duration: 1 hr
 Questions: 60

Since there is no negative marking, attempt all questions. 

Topics:

·         5-6 questions related to B.E./B.E.T./Physics/Embedded Systems

·         Pointers –major focus was on this

·         Output related questions

·         Aptitude

·         Algorithms

·         OS scheduling algorithms – Round Robin, FCFS etc

·         Logical reasoning

·         Java based output questions on Inheritance

·         Basic networking related questions like Sub-netting

·         Few questions about network techniques used by Cisco – like port numbers used for a specific application.

·         One/Two DBMS related questions on Keys/Normalization.

2^nd Round: Group Discussion (only for Supply Chain)

Depending upon the online test results, they have certain cut off which determine whether the candidate will be interviewed for Cisco IT or Cisco Supply Chain Operations (SCO). 

If your name is in the GD list, you will be interviewed for SCO and not IT. At this stage, you don’t have a choice to change your division but later on in the interview round chances are there to change.

 
The shortlisted candidates will have a Group Discussion Round, where you are given only 1 minute to talk about your views for the topic. Topics would mostly include Current Affairs, Technology, and Digitization.  Be very confident in the GD, and back your points well. 

After the GD, half of the selected candidates proceed to the interview round.

Every round is an ELIMINATION round. 

3^rd Round: Technical Interview 

Now based upon your resume, recruiter will ask questions. My interview experience was good. It went on for almost 30 minutes.

The recruiter would ask questions like tell me about your interests or explain this particular project which is listed on your resume. Be thorough with whatever you have done in each of projects mentioned in your resume. You would have to explain it very briefly and in simple terms. 

My interviewer had asked me questions about my Android Application Development Project and about my paper publications. 

After this, he had given me two puzzles to solve, which I had to solve with the least algorithmic complexity time. If you don’t know the answer, don’t give up, always start with the brute force approach and then come down to the best time complexity.

After solving the puzzle, he had asked me few general questions on Algorithms and Time Complexity.

Note: In this round, if the recruiter thinks that your interests are more aligned towards Cisco IT, he can internally send to the IT process. He will ask you before doing this.

4^th Round: Second Technical Interview 

This was a coding round, which lasted for about 20 minutes. 

The interviewer asked me my preferred language for coding and asked me to write the main logic of the program on paper. 

Also questions were asked about my previous internships and the projects. 

They key is always interact while you write down the code. Let the other person know your thought process to the code.

5^th Round: Managerial Round 

Here I was put into situations. This is like a Pressure Test where they want to see your approach to the situation. This lasted for about 20 minutes. 

They will ask questions about your previous internships and put you into situations. One of the many that I was put into was:

You have been given some work to do and have also been instructed to do it in a specific way. But the way mentioned is not the most optimal approach. What would you do? 

      My answer was: “Sir, I would first show the work as per what was instructed to me and also I would ask for a few minutes to show the optimized work which I devised. “

 
      Depending on how you answer, follow up questions were asked. I was also asked questions about the recent developments in technology and how these would impact Cisco.
      

          Since I had another interview scheduled (Microsoft SMSG) at the same time when Cisco interviews were being conducted, I was asked if given a choice which company will you choose to work with and why? Do not fake it here. Be genuine while you answer such questions.

   
       My response to this was: “Since Microsoft SMSG had come for the first time in our campus and I could not attend the Pre-Placement Talk as I was interviewing for Cisco, I could only decide once I know more about the SMSG profile.”  

6^th Round: HR round

This mostly consisted of general questions like:

·         Why Cisco?

·         Why did you choose your branch? (in my case it was CCE, as it was a new branch.)

·         Tell me about your strength and weakness?

·         What have you done to overcome your weakness?

·         Can a strength be your weakness?

·         Do you wish to for higher studies?

·         Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
        Any questions for us? 

     

               Thanks to Swati Choudhary for sharing her experience.

  

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

     

Cisco Placement Tips and Interview Experinece

CISCO PLACEMENT TIPS

CEO: Chuck Robbins 

Headquarters: San Jose, California, United States

Revenue: 49.24 billion USD (2016)

Founded: December 1984, San Francisco, California, United States

Founders: Sandy Lerner, Leonard Bosack

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)

Quantitative Ability: 

BOOK: Quantitative aptitude by RS Aggarwal

TOPICS:  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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1^st 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.

2^nd 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.

3^rd 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. 

Open Electives: Why did you choose these electives ( Intercultural Communication (4^th semester) and Project Management (6^th 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.

4^th 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