Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Certification

Who should take the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) 200-301 Certification exam?

The Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) 200-301 certification exam is intended for individuals who want to pursue a career in networking and have a basic understanding of networking concepts. It is designed for entry-level network engineers, network administrators, and network support technicians who want to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in networking technologies.

The Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) 200-301 Certification exam can be taken for following roles:

• Entry level network engineer
• Help desk technician
• Network administrator
• Network support technician

Pre-requisites for taking CCNA 200-301 exam

There are no formal prerequisites required for taking Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) 200-301 exam but having experience in the following can add benefit and they are:

• One or more experience in implementation and administration of the Cisco solution
• One or more years of experience with computer networking and Cisco equipment
• Must have knowledge on networking fundamentals

What are the skills measured in Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) 200-301 Certification exam

Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) 200-301 Certification can assess the candidate knowledge and skills on the following topics:

Network fundamentals:  This will cover around 20% of exam and it will cover the topics such as role and functions of the networking components, characteristics of network topology, comparison of physical interface and cabling types, comparison of UDP and TCP, identification of both cabling and interface issues, configuring and verifying both IPv4 and IPv6, wireless principles, virtualization fundamentals and switching concepts.

Network access:  This topic can cover around 20% of exam and it covers the topics such as configuration and verification of VLANs, interswitch connectivity, layer 2 discovery protocols, EtherChannel, need for Rapid PVST+ Spanning Tree Protocol  and discussion on its basic operations, difference between Cisco Wireless Architectures and AP modes, physical infrastructure connections of the WLAN components, AP and WLC management access connections and configuring wireless LAN access components using GUI.

IP connectivity:  It may cover around 25% of the exam and it covers the following topics such as routing table component identification, routing process,  configuration and verification of IPv4 and IPv6 static routing,  single area OSPFv2 and use of first hop redundancy protocol.

IP services: This might cover around 10% of the exam and it includes topics such as configuration and verification of source NAT with usage of static and pools, NTP operates in client as well as server mode, role of DHCP and DNS,SNMP functions, usage of use of syslog features , configuration and verification of DHCP client and relay, forwarding per-hop behavior for QoS, configuring network devices for the remote access and discussion on capabilities and function of TFTP/FTP.

Security Fundamentals: It may covery around 15% of exam and it covers topics such as security concepts, security program elements, security password policies, remote access and site-to-site VPNs, difference between authentication, authorization, and accounting, configuration and verification of access control lists, wireless security protocols,  configuration of WLAN with usage of WPA2 PSK and Configuration of Layer 2 security features.

Automation and Programmability: It may cover around 10% of the topic and it covers automation impacts on network management, characteristics of REST-based APIs, difference between  traditional campus device management and Cisco DNA Center enabled device management, controller-based architectures, software defined architectures and JSON encoded data interpretation.

What are the benefits of taking Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) 200-301 exam

By taking Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) 200-301 exam, you can get the following benefits:

Networking fundamentals: By taking CCNA 200-301 exam, you can get a masters in the networking basics and IP technologies and you can get highly paid jobs. 

Career Advancement: If you want to start your career as an networking engineer, then CCNA 200-301 certification will be definitely for you.