I went through the Cisco onsite loop a couple months ago for a senior individual contributor role. The behavioral component was a full 45-minute round on its own, separate from the technical rounds. I wasn't expecting that much dedicated behavioral time so I'm writing this up for anyone else who might underestimate it.
Cisco has a published set of values they call Conscious Culture. The interviewers reference these explicitly. They're not hidden or abstract: integrity, transparency, collaboration, and sustainability come up. The questions map directly to them.
Questions I was actually asked:
On collaboration: "Tell me about a time you had a major technical disagreement with a teammate and how you resolved it." They wanted specifics, not a vague "we talked it out." I gave a story about a caching architecture debate with a colleague and had to explain what actually changed my mind.
On inclusion/integrity: "Describe a situation where you noticed someone on your team being excluded from decisions. What did you do?" This one caught me off guard. It's not a typical behavioral question at most companies.
On customer focus: "Tell me about a time a product decision caused problems for end users and how you handled it." This one felt closer to the Cisco enterprise customer context.
On ownership: "Give me an example of a time you took responsibility for something that technically wasn't your problem." Classic, but they wanted a recent example, not something from 5 years ago.
I used STAR format throughout. They were patient with long answers, which I took as a good sign they actually read them. The interviewer gave me feedback signals mid-story, like nodding and asking follow-up questions, which felt more like a real conversation than an interrogation.
For prep: map your stories to their values page. It's publicly available and worth 20 minutes of reading before your loop.