Welcome, aspiring tech professionals! Are you eyeing a career at Cisco, a global leader in networking and IT? The journey often begins with the Cisco Online Assessment (OA), a crucial hurdle designed to evaluate yourtechnical aptitude. At ProgramHelp, we’ve guided numerous candidates to success in their Cisco OA, and today we’re sharinginsights into the coding section to help you ace it!
Understanding the Cisco Online Assessment
The Cisco OA typically consists of several sections, including logical reasoning, quantitative aptitude, and a significant portion dedicated totechnical skills, often involving coding challenges. These assessments test not only your knowledge of data structures and algorithms but also yourproblem-solving approach and ability to write efficient, clean code.
Cisco OA Coding Questions: What to Expect
Cisco’s coding questions usually fall into the medium-difficulty range (with some harder problems). They focus on common data structures and algorithms, assessing your ability to:
- Data Structures: Arrays, Linked Lists, Trees, Graphs, Hash Maps/Tables, Stacks, Queues.
- Algorithms: Sorting, Searching, Dynamic Programming, Recursion, Graph Traversal (DFS, BFS), Bit Manipulation.
- Problem-Solving: Breaking down complex problems, identifying edge cases, and devising efficient solutions.
- Code Quality: Cleanliness, readability, comments, and efficiency.
Sample Cisco OA Coding Questions
1. Array/String Manipulation
Problem: Given an array of integers nums and an integer k, return the kth largest element in the array. Note: it is the kth largest element in the sorted order, not the kth distinct element.
- Example Input:
nums = [3,2,1,5,6,4], k = 2 - Example Output:
5(sorted array is [1,2,3,4,5,6], 2nd largest is 5) - Insight: Test sorting algorithms or a min-heap implementation for large arrays.
2. Linked List Problems
Problem: Given the head of a singly linked list, reverse the list and return the new head.
- Example Input: 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → NULL
- Example Output: 5 → 4 → 3 → 2 → 1 → NULL
- Insight: Classic pointer manipulation; consider both iterative and recursive solutions.
3. Tree Traversal/Manipulation
Problem: Given the root of a binary tree, invert the tree and return its root.
- Example Input: [4,2,7,1,3,6,9]
- Example Output: [4,7,2,9,6,3,1]
- Insight: Tests understanding of recursion and tree traversal.
4. Dynamic Programming / Recursion
Problem: You are climbing a staircase of n steps. Each move, you can climb 1 or 2 steps. How many distinct ways are there to reach the top?
- Example Input:
n = 3 - Example Output:
3(ways: 1+1+1, 1+2, 2+1) - Insight: A Fibonacci-style DP problem; practice memoization or tabulation.
5. Graph Problems
Problem: Given a directed acyclic graph (DAG), return any valid topological ordering of its nodes.
- Insight: Use Kahn’s algorithm (BFS) or DFS-based topological sort.
Efficiently Implementing Cisco’s OA
Stuck preparing? ProgramHelp offers customized coding support, OA assistance, mock interviews, and live interview help—tailored to help you crack the process and landthat offer.
