Scale Engineer

Grade 10

Software EngineerSoftware Engineer IVHard

This interview process is for a Software Engineer IV position at Cisco, focusing on assessing a candidate's technical expertise, problem-solving abilities, and cultural fit within the company. The process is designed to evaluate candidates for a senior role, expecting a high level of proficiency and experience.

Rounds·4

Timeline·~21d

Experience·6 - 10 yrs

Comp band·US$140000 - US$180000

Interview time·210 min

Evaluation

What they measure.

  • Technical depth and breadth in relevant areas (e.g., data structures, algorithms, system design, specific programming languages).
  • Problem-solving skills and analytical thinking.
  • Ability to design scalable, reliable, and maintainable systems.
  • Communication skills, including the ability to articulate complex ideas clearly.
  • Collaboration and teamwork abilities.
  • Leadership potential and mentorship capabilities.
  • Cultural fit with Cisco's values and work environment.

Preparation

How to prepare.

Tips

  1. Review fundamental computer science concepts, including data structures, algorithms, and operating systems.
  2. Practice coding problems on platforms like LeetCode, HackerRank, focusing on medium to hard difficulty.
  3. Study system design principles and common patterns for building scalable applications.
  4. Prepare to discuss your past projects in detail, highlighting your contributions and technical decisions.
  5. Research Cisco's products, services, and company culture.
  6. Practice behavioral questions using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
  7. Understand distributed systems concepts, including concurrency, consistency, and fault tolerance.
  8. Familiarize yourself with cloud computing concepts and technologies if relevant to the role.

Study plan

Fig · Study plan — 04 phases

01 / 04
01

Phase 01 of 04

Data Structures and Algorithms

Weeks 1-2: Data Structures & Algorithms fundamentals. Practice 40+ medium problems.

Weeks 1-2: Focus on core data structures (arrays, linked lists, trees, graphs, hash tables) and algorithms (sorting, searching, dynamic programming, graph traversal). Practice implementing these in your preferred language and analyze their time and space complexity. Solve at least 20 medium-difficulty problems per week.

Questions

Commonly asked.

  • Design a URL shortening service like TinyURL.
  • Implement a rate limiter.
  • Explain the CAP theorem and its implications.
  • How would you design a system to count unique visitors to a website?
  • Describe a situation where you had to deal with a difficult stakeholder. How did you handle it?
  • What are the trade-offs between monolithic and microservices architectures?
  • How do you ensure data consistency across multiple services?
  • Write a function to find the k-th largest element in an unsorted array.
  • Discuss your experience with asynchronous programming.
  • How would you optimize a slow database query?
  • Tell me about a time you failed. What did you learn from it?
  • Design a distributed message queue.
  • What are the principles of RESTful API design?
  • How do you approach code reviews?
  • Describe a complex bug you encountered and how you debugged it.

Locations

Regional differences.

Fig · Regions — 03 locations

01 / 03

Location

San Jose, USA

Interview focus

Deep dive into system design and distributed systems.Emphasis on leadership and mentorship capabilities.Assessment of experience with large-scale production environments.Understanding of cloud-native architectures and best practices.

Common questions

  • How would you design a distributed caching system for a large-scale web application?
  • Describe a complex technical challenge you faced and how you overcame it.
  • Discuss your experience with cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP.
  • How do you ensure code quality and maintainability in a large codebase?
  • What are your strategies for mentoring junior engineers?

Tips

  • Be prepared to discuss specific examples of large-scale systems you've worked on.
  • Highlight instances where you've influenced technical direction or mentored others.
  • Showcase your understanding of scalability, reliability, and performance optimization.
  • Familiarize yourself with Cisco's specific technology stack and products if possible.

Rounds

Round-by-round.

Expand a step for evaluation criteria, sample questions, and prep notes.

DSA

Coding questions at Cisco.

Frequently reported on Cisco loops

View all at Cisco

Other guides

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