Cisco SWE Intern Interview 2024 (Ideathon)

Round 1: Online Assessment

• Duration: 90 mins
• Platform: HackerRank (Ideathon)
• Sections: MCQs heavily focused on Computer Networks (OSI layers, TCP/UDP differences, Subnetting) + 2 standard Coding questions (String manipulation, Basic Array traversal).

Round 2: Technical Interview

• Duration: 60 mins
• Questions:
  1. Detect a cycle in a Linked List (Floyd's Tortoise and Hare algorithm).
  2. Extensive discussion on Computer Networks: How does DNS work? Explain the 3-way TCP handshake. What is a MAC address vs IP address?
• How to Answer: Cisco is a networking giant; you cannot fake this round. When answering the DNS question, I drew a small diagram on the shared whiteboard tracing the request from the browser cache down to the Root server. The interviewer absolutely loved the visual approach.

Round 3: Managerial Round

• Duration: 30 mins
• Questions: 'Why Cisco?', 'Where do you see yourself in 3 years in the networking space?'

Key Takeaways for Freshers

Your core engineering subjects (Computer Networks, OS) matter immensely here. Have a solid, practical understanding of how the internet actually works behind the scenes.