Cisco interview questions

Cisco – AI/ML Product Manager Interview Experience Overview Role: AI/ML Product Manager Result: Offer Received Total Time: ~4 Weeks (from initial HR discussion to offer) Total Rounds: 6 (5 Interview Rounds + 1 HR Round) Level Offered: Grade 10 ESOPs: Yes Key Areas Evaluated • AI/ML proficiency • RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) • Agentic AI systems • Machine Learning algorithms • Product metrics (Business + Model metrics) • Product management fundamentals • Stakeholder management • Prioritization and GTM strategy • Deep understanding of the product you’ve built including architecture, metrics, and business impact Interview Rounds Round 1 – Director of Product Management (60 minutes) • Explain the product you worked on • How do you measure product success? • Describe a product feature you built from 0 → 1 • Follow-up questions on product decisions, tradeoffs, and impact Tip: Be prepared to go deep into problem definition, prioritization, metrics, and customer impact. Round 2 – Engineering Manager (60 minutes) • How do you work with engineers? • Explain your team structure • Walk through the product again with focus on technical architecture, business KPIs, and technical metrics Tip: Demonstrate how you bridge product, engineering, and data science. Round 3 – Sales Leader (60 minutes) • Explain your product • Which ML models were used in the product? • How do you leverage AI as a Product Manager? • Do you have experience working with sales teams? • How do you support sales as a PM? • What sales enablement assets do you produce? • GTM strategy for your product (Target market, Users, Customers) Tip: Prepare examples of battle cards, demos, ROI narratives, and positioning strategies. Round 4 – Senior Director of Product Management (45 minutes) • Explain your product • How do you measure product quality? • How do you collaborate with data science teams? Tip: Be prepared to discuss model evaluation, data quality, offline vs online metrics, and feedback loops. Round 5 – Senior Vice President of Product (30 minutes) • Explain your product • What value do you bring to Cisco? • Why do you want to join Cisco? Tip: Focus on strategic thinking, leadership, and alignment with Cisco’s vision. Overall Tips for Future Candidates • Be ready to deep dive into one product you’ve built • Prepare both business metrics and model metrics • Understand AI architecture clearly (RAG, ML models, pipelines) • Expect questions on cross-functional collaboration • Be comfortable discussing GTM and sales enablement • Senior leadership rounds focus heavily on impact and strategic thinking

The interview was pretty disorganized, and the interviewer disengaged. It consisted for 3 coding questions which were pretty straightforward but the interviewer would not be paying attention and later ask what I had already explained.