Software Engineer

The typical Cisco interview experience includes technical interviews, behavioral interviews, and HR interviews. The difficulty level is moderate to high, and common questions include technical skills, problem-solving, and behavioral questions. It's essential to be prepared and practice coding skills and problem-solving.

We celebrate our employees’ diverse set of backgrounds and focus on unlocking potential. Cisconians often experience one company, many careers where learning and development are encouraged and supported at every stage. Our work culture is collaborative, empathetic, and inclusive.

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Networking, or a related technical field. 1-3 years of relevant software development experience. Strong understanding of data structures, operating systems, and computer networking fundamentals. Programming experience in C or C++. Familiarity with scripting languages such as Python or Perl. Familiarity with Unix/Linux development environments. Good problem-solving, debugging, and analytical skills.

Round 1: Technical Interview → Round 2: Technical Interview → Round 3: HR (based on company knowledge)

At Cisco, we're revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We've been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint. Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere. We are Cisco, and our power starts with you. Meet the Team The DSE Platform Independent Common (PI-Common) group develops high-performance, platform-independent system software that runs across Cisco’s flagship routers and switches. We design and deliver core routing protocols and infrastructure components that power Cisco’s Mass Scale Infrastructure, Cloud Networking, and Network Experience portfolios. Our team works on key control-plane technologies including IGP routing protocols such as OSPF, IS-IS, EIGRP and RIP, BGP-LS, First Hop Redundancy Protocols such as HSRP, VRRP and GLBP, and routing infrastructure components such as route-policy frameworks, prefix handling, filtering, and control-plane scalability mechanisms. These components form the foundation of networking deployments across enterprise, service provider, cloud, and AI infrastructure environments, where scale, resiliency, security, programmability, and operational debuggability are critical. Your Impact: As a Software Engineer in PI-Common, you will contribute to the development and maintenance of routing protocol and routing infrastructure software used across Cisco platforms. You will work with senior engineers to build reliable, scalable, and debuggable control-plane software. Key responsibilities include: Developing features, enhancements, and defect fixes for IGP protocols, BGP-LS, FHRP technologies, and routing infrastructure components. Writing clean, efficient, maintainable code in C/C++ for multi-threaded, system-level software environments. Contributing to routing infrastructure components such as route-policy handling, filtering, prefix processing, and control-plane integration modules. Debugging software issues using logs, traces, core files, protocol state, and platform-level diagnostics. Participating in root cause analysis for defects and customer-found issues, with guidance from senior engineers. Building unit, functional, regression, and scale validation coverage for protocol and infrastructure changes. Working closely with platform, hardware, and test teams to validate software behavior across Cisco operating systems and platforms. Learning protocol behavior, implementation details, and operational aspects of production routing systems. Participating in design discussions, code reviews, and technical reviews to build strong engineering judgment. Contributing to team quality, automation, debuggability, and continuous improvement initiatives. Minimum Qualifications Required: * Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Networking, or a related technical field. *1-3 years of relevant software development experience. *Strong understanding of data structures, operating systems, and computer networking fundamentals. *Programming experience in C or C++. *Familiarity with scripting languages such as Python or Perl. *Familiarity with Unix/Linux development environments. *Good problem-solving, debugging, and analytical skills. Preferred Qualifications Good to Have: Exposure to routing protocols such as OSPF, IS-IS, EIGRP, RIP, BGP, or BGP-LS. Understanding of multi-threaded programming, IPC, memory management, or system-level software concepts. Familiarity with debugging tools such as gdb, logs, packet captures, traces, or core-file analysis. Exposure to networking software, embedded systems, distributed systems, or large-scale infrastructure software. Ability to learn complex technical areas quickly and work well in a team environment. Strong written and verbal communication skills. Why Cisco? At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint. Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere. We are Cisco, and our power starts with you