CCNA Certification Guide

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CCNA Certification Guide

 CCNA Certification Guide
Public

Table of Contents:
CCNA Overview

Certifications Path

Vocabulary

Training Options

Exam Overview

Resources

Next Steps

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 CCNA Certification Guide

CCNA Overview
CCNA Overview
If you’re looking to embark on a rewarding and lucrative information
technology (IT) career, obtaining your Cisco Certified Networking
Certifications Path Associate (CCNA) certification is a great place to start.

Vocabulary Earning your CCNA gives you a solid foundation for any field/role/specialty
you want to pursue in IT. It covers the basics, from IP addressing to
Training Options security and automation. A CCNA certification is the perfect start if you
know you want to build or support IT infrastructure. You can specialize later.

Exam Overview A CCNA can help you prepare for a wide variety of IT jobs, including:

Resources • Infrastructure Engineer

• Network Engineer
Next Steps • IT Specialist
• Network Technician
• Network/Systems Administrator
• Business roles in IT organizations, from sales
and marketing to the management track

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 CCNA Certification Guide

And while you build your skills, you’re also building your income.
CCNA Overview Here’s proof. The Global Knowledge 2020 IT Skills and Salary Report
examined data from over 9,500 technology professionals. Those
Certifications Path who obtained a new certification saw their salary increase by nearly
$13,000—a strong indication that training and certifications pay off.
Vocabulary According to the same report, 87 percent of IT professionals hold at least one certification, up
from 85 percent in 2019 and just behind the all-time high of 89 percent in 2018. And 99 percent
of organizations surveyed use technical certifications to make hiring decisions.
Training Options The network needs you. The field of IT is full of rewarding, meaningful, challenging work. Earning
your CCNA certification can make your resume stand out and gets your foot in the door.

Exam Overview
The CCNA arms you with a broad range of career skills. Get started today.

Resources What You’ll Learn Network fundamentals

Next Steps Network access

IP connectivity

IP services

Security fundamentals
CCNA Exam

Automation and programmability

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 CCNA Certification Guide

Look ahead - Certification Tracks

CCNA Overview
Cisco Certifications Power the Teams of the Future

Certifications Path
Be job ready today, tomorrow and beyond with Cisco Certifications. Fuel your career
with the new learning portfolio that unlocks possibilities for both network engineers
and software developers. You control where to start and how you learn.

Entry Associate Professional Expert

Vocabulary Starting point for individuals interested in starting a career as

a networking professional.
Master the essentials needed to launch a rewarding career and
expand your job possibilities with the latest technologies.
Select a core technology track and a focused concentration
exam to customize your professional-level certification.
This certification is accepted worldwide as the most prestigious
certification in the technology industry.

Cisco Certification Technician (CCT) CCNA Cisco Certified DevNet Professional CCDE
Cisco Certification Technician (CCT) Required Exam: 200-301 CCNA Required Exams: Required Exams:
Core exam: 350-901 DEVCOR 352-001 CCDE Written Exam, CCDE Practical Exam
CCT Collaboration Concentration exam (choose one):
Required Exam: 100-890 CLTECH Cisco Certified DevNet Associate 300-435 ENAUTO, 300-835 CLAUTO, 300-635 DCAUTO,

Training Options
Required Exam: 200-901 DEVASC 300-535 SPAUTO, 300-735 SAUTO, 300-910 DEVOPS, CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure
CCT Data Center 300-915 DEVIOT, 300-920 DEVWBX Required Exams: ENCOR 350-401, CCIE Routing and Switching lab,
Required Exam: 010-151 DCTECH CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure v1.0 lab
Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate
CCT Routing and Switching Required Exam: 200-201 CBROPS
CCNP Enterprise
Required Exam: 100-490 RSTECH Required Exams: CCIE Enterprise Wireless
Core exam: 350-401 ENCOR Required Exams: ENCOR 350-401, CCIE Wireless v3.1 lab,
Concentration exam (choose one): 300-410 ENARSI, CCIE Enterprise Wireless v1.0 lab
300-415 ENSDWI, 300-420 ENSLD, 300-425 ENWLSD,
300-430 ENWLSI, 300-435 ENAUTO
CCIE Collaboration
Required Exams: CLCOR 350-801, CCIE Collaboration v2.0 lab,
CCNP Collaboration

Exam Overview
CCIE Collaboration v3.0 lab
Required Exams:
Core exam: 350-801 CLCOR
Concentration exam (choose one): CCIE Data Center
300-810 CLICA, 300-815 CLACCM, 300-820 CLCEI, Required Exams: DCCOR 350-601, CCIE Data Center v2.0 lab,
300-820 CLCNF, 300-835 CLAUTO CCIE Data Center v3.0 lab

CCNP Data Center CCIE Security

Specialist Required Exams: Required Exams: SCOR 350-701, CCIE Security v5.0 lab,
Core exam: 350-601 DCCOR CCIE Security v6.0 lab
Concentration exam (choose one): 300-610 DCID, 300-615 DCIT,

Resources
300-620 DCACI, 300-625 DCSAN, 300-630 DCACIA, 300-635 DCAUTO
Collaboration Customer Success CCIE Service Provider
Cisco Unified Contact Center Cisco Customer Success Manager CCNP Security
Required Exams: SPCOR 350-501, CCIE Service Provider v4.0 lab,
CCIE Service Provider v5.0 lab
Enterprise Specialist Required Exam: 820-605 CSM
Required Exams:
Required Exams: 500-440 UCCED, 500-450 UCCEIS
Core exam: 350-701 SCOR
Cisco Renewals Manager Concentration exam (choose one): 300-710 SNCF, 300-715 SISE,
Required Exam: 700-805 CRM 300-720 SESA, 300-725 SWSA, 300-730 SVPN, 300-735 SAUTO
Data Center

Cisco and NetApp FlexPod Meraki Solutions Specialist

Design Specialist Required Exam: 500-220 ECMS
CCNP Service Provider
Make the Next Move
Next Steps
Required Exams:
Required Exam: 500-173 FPDESIGN
Core exam: 350-501 SPCOR
Concentration exam (choose one): 300-510 SPRI, 300-515 SPVI,
Cisco and NetApp FlexPod Implementation Cisco Certifications training and exam

Download poster
300-535 SPAUTO
and Administration Specialist requirements: www.cisco.com/go/nextlevel
Required Exam: 500-174 FPIMPADM Cisco Certified CyberOps Professional
Required Exams:
Continuing education options for all levels:
Core exam: 350-201 CBRCOR www.cisco.com/go/continuingeducation
Concentration exam: 300-215 CBRFIR
Online testing available:
www.cisco.com/go/onlinetesting

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As you can see, CCNA is one of many steps you can take on
your learning journey. With each step, you build your knowledge
base—and your reputation—and become increasingly valuable to
any IT organization.

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 CCNA Certification Guide

Cisco certifications are available in multiple levels

CCNA Overview of expertise and various professional areas.
Earning the certification you need can lead you to the career you want. It can also keep you
Certifications Path competitive in a field where 87% of IT professionals hold certifications (GK). Cisco’s certification
portfolio offers more options than ever before, empowering you to customize your learning path
to meet your career needs, interests, and aspirations. Since every Cisco exam you pass earns
Vocabulary you a certification, each of these milestones you reach tells a new chapter in your story. Here are
the different Cisco certification levels you can earn:

Training Options
Associate Professional
Exam Overview
Proof that you’ve mastered the Focus on a core technology track to
essentials to build your IT career sharpen your specialized expertise
Resources

Next Steps Expert Specialist

The most prestigious certification Enhance your networking knowledge

you can obtain in tech such as security, data center,
or video

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 CCNA Certification Guide

Vocabulary
CCNA Overview
Knowing these key terms will help you on your CCNA journey.

Certifications Path Application Programming Interfaces When using a CICD pipeline, coders can
(APIs) and REST APIs continually merge their changes to a main branch
of an existing application, run integration tests on
Vocabulary APIs are published instructions to interface with
a product or service. APIs enable developers to
changes, keep changes small, and minimize the
potential for problems due to multiple, gated test
assemble a command or request for a service or
result requirements.
data, to submit it, and to receive any output. They
Training Options are published and maintained by the vendor.
Data formats
Attack surface (XML, JavaScript Object Notation [JSON], YAML
Exam Overview A collection of all the possible paths a hacker or a
Ain’t Markup Language [YAML]) Common data
formats that are both machine-readable and
malware application might follow to compromise
human-readable for providing input to programs
protected data.
Resources and applications using interfaces (APIs).
Authentication (Authentication,
DevOps
Authorization, and Accounting [AAA],
Next Steps Radius) A combination of Development (Dev) and
Operations (Ops), DevOps focuses on automation,
Authentication is how you control access to your
regularly allowing failures that can be automatically
network and prevent intrusions, data loss, and
fixed with mitigated risks, as well as connecting
unauthorized users.
business outcomes to the availability goals for
a given system. The DevOps movement makes
Continuous Integration/Continuous developers responsible for deployment and also
Development (CICD) has teams use coding workflows and tools to
A CICD system provides automated builds and manage infrastructure.
tests for creating software, making configuration
changes, or completing other deployment tasks.

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 CCNA Certification Guide

DNS Network Address Translation (NAT)

CCNA Overview The Domain Name Service (DNS) is like a phone IPv4 is limited to approximately 4 billion unique
book that translates IP addresses into human addresses. NAT is a scheme that allows a single
readable form. For example, www.facebook.com address for a network (such as a small business)
Certifications Path is 157.240.22.35 (IPv4), or 2001:558:feed::1. to be shared by all the users and devices on
your network.
Infrastructure, containers,
Vocabulary and virtual machines Network data models
Infrastructure is a generic term for the underlying (YANG, RESTCONF, NETCONF)
devices, physical or virtual, that provide computing YANG is a data modeling language for configuration
Training Options power or storage capacity or networks, used to and state data for network devices. It stands for
deliver software or applications. Virtual machines Yet Another Next Generation. RESTCONF and
can emulate a computer system and are typically NETCONF are protocols defined by a standards
Exam Overview built as images, providing the same functionality body, so that you can manage configuration of
as the physical computer. Containers package up network devices modeled with YANG.
software and dependencies into one descriptive
file that contains everything to run an application, Packet
Resources regardless of the underlying systems. A unit of data that can be sent from one network
endpoint to another. A packet has headers, footers,
IP address (IPv4 and IPv6, classes,
Next Steps Open Systems Interconnection [OSI]
and a data payload, or some other information that
it carries. The headers encode details about how
and TCP/IP networking stack) to route the packet.
IP Addresses are like street addresses. Every
service or server on the internet has a unique Python
address where it can be accessed. A general-purpose, interpreted programming
language. Python emphasizes code readability with
Malware analysis whitespace requirements, so it is approachable and
The process of determining the functionality, powerful. Many network automation applications
origin, and potential impact of a given malware. and tutorials are centered around Python.

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 CCNA Certification Guide

Role-based access control Software Development Kit (SDK)

CCNA Overview Access to data given to a person based on their A platform for writing programs and applications
job function or role. targeting an API. It often includes documentation,
configurations, and tools (such as compilers or
Certifications Path Router linkers) to write and execute the code to interface
A router connects different networks together, with the API.
providing a route between two computers
Vocabulary (or servers) in different networks. Routers build Subnet
the internet. Subnetting is a scheme for efficiently apportioning
or assigning your IP addresses to systems in
Training Options Routing protocols such as Border your organization.
Gateway Protocol (BGP), Enhanced
Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), Switch
Exam Overview and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) A switch is a component that is used to build a
Routing protocols provide the overall map network and to connect hosts and servers within
and directions for a packet to find the proper a network. A switch cannot route packets or
Resources destination. data between networks.

Security Incident and Event Threat intelligence

Next Steps Management (SIEM) Evidence-based knowledge, including context,
An approach to security management that mechanisms, indicators, implications, and
gathers data from multiple sources (such as action-oriented advice about an existing or
syslog, device events, and error logs), processes emerging hazard to assets.
the data (including correlation to identify potential
threats), and raises an alert or ticket for further Threat hunting
investigation if the threat is deemed to be real. The process of proactively and iteratively
searching through networks to detect and isolate
Security Orchestration and advanced threats.
Automation Response (SOAR)
An approach that enables SOC teams to
manage tickets raised through SIEM for threat
response. SOAR enables automated workflows
for responding to the threats. 9
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 CCNA Certification Guide

Time-based access control

CCNA Overview Temporary access to data given to a person on
a need basis for a period of time.

Certifications Path VLAN

A Virtual Local Area Network is a simple scheme
to build in access control and restrictions within
Vocabulary a network. It allows you to keep “Sales” separate
from “Engineering,” for example, and to prevent
inappropriate access to data.
Training Options

Exam Overview

Resources

Next Steps

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 CCNA Certification Guide

Training Options
CCNA Overview
This is where the real work happens. You’ll need two things: the exam blueprint
as well as a strategy for learning, studying, and practicing. We highly recommend
Certifications Path that you use the CCNA exam blueprint to guide your approach to certification.
Download the complete list of CCNA exam topics, track your progress and focus
on the material you need to know for the exam.
Vocabulary
Keep this in mind: when the verb for a topic area is “describe,” you won’t need
Training Options the same depth of knowledge for that topic as when the verbs are “configure,”
“troubleshoot,” and “design.”

Exam Overview There are several training options to help you prepare:
• Cisco Guided Study Groups offer you a • If books are your thing, check out the Cisco
Resources 180-day journey of certification preparation. Press CCNA 200-301 Official Cert Guide, a
This approach offers a best-of-all-worlds perfect addition to your self-study plan.
path toward certification, with the flexibility • Browse available self-paced e-learning courses
Next Steps and convenience of e-learning plus the from the Cisco Learning Network Store.
motivation and accountability of working
with a live coach. • The CCNA Preparation Bundle helps you
prepare for the 200-301 Cisco Certified
• Use the Cisco Learning Locator to find Network Associate (CCNA) exam. For a limited
instructor-led courses-both in-person time, save 16% off the bundle price.
and virtual.

Regardless of how you prepare for the exam, it’s crucial to get your hands on the
gear to practice. This is called “labbing,” as in “practicing in a lab environment.” Your
ability to execute critical tasks will be tested on the exam, so you need to practice.
Lab early. Lab often. Then lab some more.

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 CCNA Certification Guide

Exam Overview
CCNA Overview
CCNA certification exams are administered by our testing partner,
Pearson VUE, as proctored exams. When you take the exam, you’ll be
Certifications Path in a controlled environment to ensure fairness and to give you the best,
most consistent experience.
Vocabulary The CCNA exam blueprint is essential in preparing for the certification exam. If you can successfully
complete the tasks defined for each topic, you’re ready for the exam.

Training Options And now you can take certification exams online, so you can stay on track, even when you can’t
travel to a testing center.

Exam Overview
Visit www.cisco.com/go/onlinetesting to perform a system check.

Resources
During the exam, it will be just you, your knowledge, and experience against the test. Keep track of the
Next Steps time, read each question carefully, answer each one (and if you don’t know the answer, try to eliminate
one or more options and then guess), and keep moving to the end.

To view a walk-through demonstration of the various exam question types and how
they function, check out the Cisco Certification Exam Tutorial Videos page.

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 CCNA Certification Guide

Resources
CCNA Overview
CCNA Essentials CCNA Prep
Certifications Path
Still thinking about getting certified? Already decided to get certified, and
Click CCNA Essentials for more details want to start studying? Click CCNA Prep
Vocabulary about the program. It will help you to find the ultimate resources to develop
make the best decision. your self-study plan.

Training Options
We have many resources to help your progress. We encourage you to sign up for the Cisco
Learning Network to be able to access learning resources, including videos, learning maps
Exam Overview and more. Just as an example the CCNA Training Video learning map has over 52 hours of
self-study preparation tools and content.

Resources
Other CCNA resources include: Stay connected through:
Associate Certifications LinkedIn Group
Next Steps
CCNA Certification Facebook

Cisco Learning Network CCNA community Twitter

CCNA Certification Training Videos Cisco Learning Network

Certification Blogs

Use code CCNAGUIDE to save 35% on CCNA 200-301

Official Cert Guide Library at www.ciscopress.com/ccnalibrary.

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 CCNA Certification Guide

Next Steps
CCNA Overview
These are exciting times to be working in technology. The IT landscape
evolves daily, but through it all, knowledge of routing and switching remain
Certifications Path the core foundation on which you can build your career.
So many vibrant technological developments culminating all at once can seem overwhelming. You need
Vocabulary to be able to catch the wave of change and ride it smoothly. This is precisely why we believe right now
is the best time to explore how training and certification can keep you focused and help make you a
technical superstar in your organization.
Training Options Earning a CCNA is the gateway to a rewarding and lucrative IT career. With your CCNA, you’ll be more
knowledgeable and confident about all things IT.

Exam Overview Use this email template to let your manager know why training and certification is so beneficial for
you—and for them. Get the help you need to transform your career, your income, and your skill set.

But beyond that, training and certification

Resources can transform your life. By learning the latest
methods and skills in IT, you’ll gain the self- Ask your manager to sponsor your
confidence that comes from setting goals, then training. Once they understand the
Next Steps accomplishing them. And that self-confidence benefits to your organization, they
will continue to empower your career. will be eager to learn more and
support you with next steps.

Why get certified

13 reasons for seeking training and certification Download eBook
With testimonials from IT networkers
who met the challenge Get started
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