Meraki Systems Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was quite long and could feel exhausting because you need to prepare for interviews and there were long silences between stages (maybe 15 or 20 days). It started with an interview with HR via Webex, where they asked about your profile and certifications. Then, there was a tech interview with a CSE where they asked about L2/L3/L4 and L7 protocols, including Wireless, R&S, Security, MPLS, BGP, OSPF designing, and your profile. After that, the HM interview involved role-playing questions. There were two more rounds of WWD role-playing questions. Then, a Product Manager interview focused on your previous experience with the government sector and enterprise. The HM interviewed again for role-playing questions, discussing design scenarios and designing with Meraki products. After this, there was a long silence; you had to ping the HM, and they didn't respond. Finally, you received a candidate survey from Greenhouse to fill out some questions. At this point, you still don't know if you're IN or OUT, but Greenhouse documentation suggests candidates receive the survey if they are OUT. There was no feedback, and HR went ghost afterward, not even sending an email saying thanks for applying. Generally, all panelists were polite and asked questions to test your whole know-how. CONS: If you don't pass the final stages, you'd expect at least an email saying 'thanks for applying but you were not chosen' or something similar. It's very disappointing if you ask HR for a follow-up or feedback and get no response. Very disappointed with the process, as HRs working for a huge company like Cisco with top talented people should show some respect and not lack courtesy with candidates. It only takes seconds to send an email so the candidate doesn't stay in limbo, potentially losing other opportunities while waiting for a next stage.

I sent in my application online. After that, I got contacted and went through a few phone interviews and then several in-person ones. Some interviews were pretty general, just getting to know each other. Others were technical, covering topics like Spanning Tree, redundancy, stacking, the DHCP process, basic routing, wireless ideas, and some about Mobile Device Management. I felt like a lot of it was repeated. The final part had a 3-person interview, each lasting an hour, where they really tested different areas. A common theme in these live interviews was simulating a customer scenario, where I had to explain their infrastructure to them. Honestly, I thought the difficulty was average or even low, especially if you have over 10 years of experience designing solutions and talking to clients. It seems designed to find the most well-rounded people, who can explain complex things to non-technical audiences. It was a positive experience overall, though the process felt a bit long due to external factors.

A recruiter from Meraki reached out to me on LinkedIn and we set up an initial chat with HR. After that, I had four more phone interviews before I flew to Meraki's headquarters in San Francisco for a four-hour in-person interview session. The onsite part involved a lot of whiteboarding. Everyone I met was super nice and engaging. I felt like they did a good job of assessing my skills while keeping things comfortable.