Cisco Software Engineer interview experience

In one path, I made it to final rounds and the interviews went fine—I answered most questions correctly and felt like I was doing well. But the bar felt unusually intense, and the manager’s expectations came across as if they wanted depth across areas that stretched beyond standard developer work. After multiple interviews, I was rejected on the grounds that I couldn’t come into the office.

In a different flow, I was also pulled into the process quickly: a recruiter reached out and set up interviews with the hiring manager and others. The problem was what happened afterward—while I was still