Cisco DSA Interview Questions

What Cisco asks in the DSA round

Cisco pairs medium DSA with deep computer networking questions. Expect TCP/IP, routing and troubleshooting scenarios alongside coding.

Across the 140 questions on this page, the weight sits on these patterns:

• Dynamic Programming — 29 questions · read the dynamic programming guide
• Two Pointers — 13 questions · read the two pointers guide
• Binary Search — 9 questions · read the modified binary search guide
• Breadth-First Search — 8 questions · read the breadth first search (bfs) guide
• Greedy — 7 questions · read the greedy guide
• Backtracking — 6 questions · read the backtracking guide
• Depth-First Search — 5 questions · read the depth first search (dfs) guide
• Design — 5 questions · read the design data structure guide

How to prepare for the Cisco interview

1. 1. Start at the top of the list above. The patterns are ordered by how often Cisco uses them, so the first two or three buy you the most coverage per hour.
2. 2. Solve by pattern, not at random. Doing eight dynamic programming problems in a row is what makes the ninth recognisable in an interview — jumping between topics does not.
3. 3. Tick problems off as you go so the gaps are visible. The per-pattern counts tell you which Cisco topic you have actually covered.
4. 4. Write the approach before the code. Cisco interviews are judged on the reasoning as much as the working solution.
5. 5. Pair this with the pattern guides when a topic is new, and the system design sheet if the role is senior enough to have that round.
6. 6. If this is a campus or off-campus drive rather than a lateral move, the placement preparation guide covers the stages around the DSA round — aptitude, core subjects and the HR interview — in the order they actually happen.

Cisco interview questions — FAQ

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