Company profile
Cisco
Cisco builds networking, security, observability, and collaboration products, including Webex and the Splunk business it acquired. Interviews often probe networking fundamentals, distributed control planes, security thinking, and the judgment needed to support enterprise infrastructure with long lifetimes.
The Cisco interview process
Cisco interviews often probe networking fundamentals, distributed control planes, and security thinking. Loops are role-specific, and the judgment to support enterprise infrastructure with long lifetimes is valued. Expect a steadier pace than consumer-tech interviews.
- 1
Recruiter screen
Background and role match.
- 2
Technical
Networking and systems fundamentals.
- 3
Design
Distributed control planes and reliability.
- 4
Team fit
Working style for enterprise infrastructure.
What Cisco is looking for
What they value
- Strong networking fundamentals
- Reasoning about control planes and reliability
- Practical, maintainable designs
Culture signals in the loop
- Networking and protocol depth
- Reliability for long-lived infrastructure
- Security-aware engineering
Questions and process by role
Cisco hires across several engineering and product functions, and the loop shifts with each one. Open a role for the reported questions, the round-by-round focus, and a salary band for that function.
- Security engineer
Security engineer interview questions and process at Cisco.
security - Backend engineer
Backend engineer interview questions and process at Cisco.
engineering - DevOps engineer
DevOps engineer interview questions and process at Cisco.
infrastructure - Site reliability engineer
Site reliability engineer interview questions and process at Cisco.
infrastructure - Database engineer
Database engineer interview questions and process at Cisco.
engineering - Developer relations engineer
Developer relations engineer interview questions and process at Cisco.
engineering - Elixir engineer
Elixir engineer interview questions and process at Cisco.
engineering - Embedded engineer
Embedded engineer interview questions and process at Cisco.
engineering
Salary signal
Approximate senior median pay for Cisco's core roles, anchored to San Francisco and modeled from BLS, ONS, and Levels.fyi reference medians. These are market bands for the role and city, not Cisco offers. Open a role for the full city-by-city table.
Employee reviews
Cisco holds a 4.2 Glassdoor rating. External review scores are directional signals. Treat them as context alongside the specific team, location, level, and hiring manager you are interviewing with.
Glassdoor 4.2