Cisco vs LinkedIn Interview Questions
Cisco lists 87 LeetCode interview questions while LinkedIn lists 141. They share 23 problems — 26% of Cisco's bank and 16% of LinkedIn's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 64 Cisco-only and 118 LinkedIn-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 23 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both Cisco and LinkedIn.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add Cisco-specific problems like Predict the Winner, Lucky Numbers in a Matrix, Rotate Image and LinkedIn-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: LinkedIn skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
23 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both Cisco and LinkedIn.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Longest Palindromic Substring | Medium |
| House Robber | Medium |
| Fizz Buzz | Easy |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Max Points on a Line | Hard |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Merge Sorted Array | Easy |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Letter Combinations of a Phone Number | Medium |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Insert Delete GetRandom O(1) | Medium |
| Merge k Sorted Lists | Hard |
| Product of Array Except Self | Medium |
| Longest Palindromic Subsequence | Medium |
| Palindromic Substrings | Medium |
| Min Stack | Medium |
| Edit Distance | Medium |
| Can Place Flowers | Easy |
| Permutations | Medium |
Unique to Cisco (64)
Problems in Cisco's list that do not appear at LinkedIn.
Unique to LinkedIn (118)
Problems in LinkedIn's list that do not appear at Cisco.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Max Stack | Hard |
| Nested List Weight Sum II | Medium |
| All O`one Data Structure | Hard |
| Word Ladder | Hard |
| Find the Celebrity | Medium |
| Nested List Weight Sum | Medium |
| Design Authentication Manager | Medium |
| Find Leaves of Binary Tree | Medium |
| Shortest Word Distance II | Medium |
| Max Consecutive Ones III | Medium |
| Maximum Product Subarray | Medium |
| Search in Rotated Sorted Array | Medium |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do Cisco and LinkedIn share?
Cisco and LinkedIn share 23 LeetCode interview questions. 64 problems appear only in Cisco's list and 118 appear only in LinkedIn's list.
What topics overlap most between Cisco and LinkedIn?
The most common shared topics between Cisco and LinkedIn are Array (12 shared questions), String (8 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (7 shared questions), Hash Table (6 shared questions), Two Pointers (3 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: Cisco or LinkedIn?
Cisco has 24 Easy, 50 Medium, and 13 Hard questions. LinkedIn has 25 Easy, 90 Medium, and 26 Hard questions. LinkedIn has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both Cisco and LinkedIn?
Start with the 23 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 Cisco-specific and 20 LinkedIn-specific questions to round out your prep.