I applied through university. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco (San Jose, CA) in Oct 2014
Interview
Interview wasn't that hard. Basic DS questions and Java. Overall, it was a positive experience. I had 2 phone interview, pretty basic and some technical questions. They kept it pretty basic. We went over my resume which included school activities, extra-curriculum, any relevant experiences etc. I had the opportunity to visit the campus and met different managers.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Check whether binary Tree is Sub-Tree. Check whether one word is an anagram
Standard panel, very simple leetcodes. reverse linked list kind of vibe s . I was literarly asked about how a linked list is structured and reversing it. there was almost no friction which I was shocked by one of the reason I did not accept
They care about your skills, rather than your background. They have a template which they provide and you got to fill that, everyone is provided a unique number. You are instructed not to disclose any of your personal details in the due course of your interview.
The interview process was two rounds. The first round was a behavioral interview. Straightforward questions, like tell me about the most technically challenging project you have worked on. The second round was a system design interview.