Glassdoor users rated their interview experience at Ciena as 100% positive with a difficulty rating score of 2.33 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty). Candidates interviewing for UI Engineer and Software Engineer rated their interviews as the hardest, whereas interviews for UI Engineer and Hardware Engineer roles were rated as the easiest.
I applied and was reached out to by a recruiter about a week later. The call went great, and the recruiter basically explained the role and benefits and said she would send out next steps the next day. I never heard back from her for weeks, and then over a month later got an automated rejection email. Super disappointing and felt disrespectful of my time.
I applied online. I interviewed at Ciena in Feb 2026
Interview
Applied online after seeing posting on LinkedIn. HR contacted me within few days requesting interview with hiring manager. Interview was done by Sr Director mostly following STAR style with lots of behavioral type questions and some technical as well. Answered all the questions confidently and with subsequent examples and saw that they were well received, even though he was lost with answers to tech questions(not in his knowledge domain). He also highlighted that he need resource to be hired quickly. From that point was no communication whatsoever with automated rejection email in 4 weeks.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe how would you handle emergency customer case?