What is it?

What exactly is the Cisco Certified Network Associate?

The associate networking foundation

The Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) validates the knowledge and skills required to install, configure and operate small to medium enterprise networks, including IP services, security and automation basics.

Before you book

Who is eligible to sit the Cisco Certified Network Associate?

Who it is for: Entry-level network engineers

The test itself

What is the format of the Cisco Certified Network Associate?

The Cisco Certified Network Associate is administered by Pearson VUE and runs 120 minutes, contains 90–110 questions and requires ~825 of 1000 (score set per exam) to pass.

Money & time

How much does the Cisco Certified Network Associate cost?

For the Cisco Certified Network Associate, the exam fee is $300; the all-in cost is typically $300+; most candidates spend 2–4 months preparing.

The fine print

What are the retake and renewal rules for the Cisco Certified Network Associate?

Proctoring & delivery

Delivered by Pearson VUE: at authorized test centers or online via OnVUE remote proctoring (CCST uses the Certiport/Pearson VUE platform). A government-issued photo ID is required; online tests include a room/environment scan.

Retake policy

If you fail, Cisco requires a waiting period of 5 calendar days before you may retake the same exam. Each attempt requires full payment of the exam fee. Cisco does not cap total attempts, but some exams limit attempts within a 12-month window.

Score reporting

Results are reported as pass/fail and made available online (Cisco Certification Tracking System) typically within 48 hours. A section-level performance breakdown is provided to help target further study; scaled scores use a 300-1000 range (CCNA/CCNP-style exams).

Recertification

All Cisco certifications are valid for 3 years from the date earned. Recertify before expiry by (a) passing a higher-or-equal level qualifying exam, (b) earning Continuing Education (CE) credits through eligible training/activities, or (c) a combination of exam + CE. For associate-level certs 30 CE credits are required; for professional-level 40 CE credits. Certificates can also be extended via the Cisco Continuing Education program.

Refunds & rescheduling

Exam fees are generally non-refundable once scheduled, but Pearson VUE allows rescheduling or cancellation up to 24-48 hours before the appointment without penalty; no-shows forfeit the fee. CCST/Certiport policies may differ by region.

What it pays

How much does this credential pay?

$96,800 median for network and computer systems administrators (BLS, May 2024)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not track a job titled "CCNA" — no government wage series does — so any salary figure attributed to the certification itself is a job-board aggregate, not government data. The closest official occupation to the role a CCNA holder is hired into is Network and Computer Systems Administrators, SOC 15-1244, and we have used it deliberately because that is the occupational family the CCNA blueprint serves: routing, switching, IP connectivity, and network device administration. That occupation recorded a May 2024 median annual wage of $96,800, with the lowest 10 percent under $60,320 and the highest 10 percent over $150,320. The spread matters because the CCNA sits at an interesting point on it: it is an entry-to-mid level credential, so a first networking job lands you toward the lower end, typically as a network administrator or support engineer, while a CCNA holder who converts the automation and programmability objectives into real network-automation work climbs toward the top decile far faster than a peer who treats the cert as a checkbox. The occupational headline is a clear headwind and should be stated plainly. BLS projects a 4 percent decline for network and computer systems administrators from 2024 to 2034, with about 14,300 openings a year driven entirely by replacement need as incumbents retire or move on. The work that is shrinking is manual, per-device configuration and break-fix administration — which is exactly why the Automation and Programmability domain, and the IP Connectivity domain that underpins modern routing, are the parts of the CCNA most worth over-investing in. The Cisco Certified Network Associate is widely treated as the industry’s baseline networking credential, and employers still list it as a preferred or required qualification for network operations roles even as the occupation’s headcount shrinks.

Job growth.-4% projected change 2024-34 (decline), with ~14,300 replacement openings a year; automation, cloud and programmability skills are what move you off the shrinking side of this occupation

Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Network and Computer Systems Administrators

Your schedule

How long should I study for it?

100-130 hours of focused study

Start by confirming which CCNA you are studying for. The current exam is 200-301, version 1.1. Version 1.1 has a last day to test of 2 February 2027, and version 2.0 is scheduled to begin on 3 February 2027, at which point the existing 1.1 blueprint is retired and a new one takes its place. This is the single most expensive mistake available to a CCNA candidate: study material written for any earlier revision will leave real gaps, and a voucher bought for 1.1 is no use once 2.0 is live. The current 1.1 domain weightings are Network Fundamentals 20 percent, Network Access 20 percent, IP Connectivity 25 percent, IP Services 10 percent, Security Fundamentals 15 percent, and Automation and Programmability 10 percent. Read those weights as a time budget. IP Connectivity alone is a quarter of the paper and it is the domain most candidates underestimate, because it is where subnetting, OSPF, and static and dynamic routing either click or do not. Network Fundamentals and Network Access together are 40 percent and they are the foundation everything else builds on. The plan below runs ten weeks at roughly 10-12 hours a week and assumes you have a lab you can break — Packet Tracer is free and sufficient for most of the blueprint, but you should run at least some real device images if your machine can handle it. If you have never opened Packet Tracer, do that before Week 1; this exam is hands-on and a candidate who has only read about configuring a trunk port will not complete the simulations in the time allowed.

1. Week 110-12 hrs

   Network fundamentals and lab build

   • Install Cisco Packet Tracer and build a small multi-switch, multi-router topology you can reuse all ten weeks
   • OSI and TCP/IP models, encapsulation, and where each protocol lives
   • IPv4 and IPv6 addressing and subnetting drills until you can derive a network range without a calculator
   • MAC addresses, ARP, and the difference between a switch and a router at frame level
2. Weeks 2-311-13 hrs/week

   Domain 2 — Network Access (20%)

   • VLANs and trunking: create VLANs, assign access ports, configure 802.1Q trunks and verify with show commands
   • Spanning Tree Protocol: root bridge election, port states, and why a loop takes the network down
   • EtherChannel and first-hop redundancy concepts
   • Wireless LAN basics: AP modes, SSIDs, and the difference between a controller-based and autonomous AP
3. Weeks 4-511-13 hrs/week

   Domain 3 — IP Connectivity (25%)

   • Routing fundamentals: the routing table, administrative distance, and longest-prefix match
   • Static routing and default routes, and when each is appropriate
   • OSPF: neighbour formation, router and network LSAs, and a single-area configuration from scratch
   • Subnetting at speed under a clock — this domain is where timed practice separates passes from fails
4. Week 610-12 hrs

   Domain 4 — IP Services (10%)

   • DHCP and DNS behaviour on a network, and how to verify them
   • NAT: static, dynamic and PAT, and reading a translation table
   • First-hop redundancy protocols and the role of SNMP, syslog and NetFlow as monitoring tools
   • QoS concepts at a high level — know the vocabulary, the exam asks conceptually here
5. Week 710-12 hrs

   Domain 5 — Security Fundamentals (15%)

   • The CIA triad and the difference between threats, vulnerabilities and exploits
   • Device security: console and VTY lines, SSH, and why telnet is a fail
   • ACLs: standard versus extended, numbered versus named, and where in the path they filter
   • VPN concepts, wireless security (WPA versus WPA2/WPA3), and the basics of 802.1X
6. Week 810-12 hrs

   Domain 6 — Automation and Programmability (10%)

   • The difference between traditional and controller-based network architectures
   • REST APIs conceptually: methods, data encoding with JSON and XML, and what a call returns
   • Configuration management and automation tools (Ansible, Puppet, Chef, Terraform) at a conceptual level
   • Cisco DNA Center, SD-Access and the intent-based networking vocabulary — know the terms, not the CLI
7. Week 911-13 hrs

   Simulation and hands-on question rehearsal

   • Timed Packet Tracer tasks with no reference open: configure a trunk, fix a broken OSPF adjacency, write an ACL
   • Practise reading show and debug output fast — the simulations give you the CLI and nothing else
   • Drill subnetting under a 60-second-per-question limit
   • Time each task — simulations are the main reason candidates run out of the 120 minutes
8. Week 1010-12 hrs

   Timed full exams and gap closing

   • Three full 120-minute practice exams weighted to the six current domains
   • Rebuild every lab you missed rather than re-reading the explanation
   • Final pass over OSPF neighbour requirements and ACL placement — the two highest-density sources of cheap points
   • One quiet day before the exam

What to buy

Which study resources are worth paying for?

The buying decision is less about which author and more about which version and which lab. Packet Tracer is free and covers most of the blueprint, so a lab is not a cost you need to incur. What you should not cheap out on is current-edition material — anything not explicitly "200-301 v1.1" risks teaching retired content. Cisco’s own bundles add training and a discount versus buying pieces separately.

Prices checked 2026-08 in USD before tax; the $300 voucher price is Cisco’s US list and is the firm reference point, while Udemy and course prices swing with promotion. We do not rank by commission.

What you'll face

What question types will I see?

The 200-301 exam is delivered in English in a single 120-minute block and is scored on Cisco’s 300-to-1000 scaled range, with the passing threshold set internally per form and not disclosed. The paper mixes multiple-choice and multiple-response items with hands-on simulations inside a real device CLI, and Cisco’s own description puts the item count in the range of roughly 90 to 110 questions plus the simulations, though Cisco does not publish an exact fixed total. The simulations are the strategic heart of the exam: you are dropped into a terminal and asked to configure or verify something — a trunk, an OSPF adjacency, an ACL — and you are graded on the result, not on recognising the right line in a list. Crucially, the exam is forward-only: you cannot return to a question after you advance. That means the order you work in is fixed, and pacing is about holding a steady tempo across all items so the simulations are not rushed. The six current domains are Network Fundamentals (20%), Network Access (20%), IP Connectivity (25%), IP Services (10%), Security Fundamentals (15%) and Automation and Programmability (10%). Because Cisco equates forms, your scaled score is not a percentage of items correct and cannot meaningfully be converted into one, which is why we have not quoted a pass rate.

Samples are editor-written illustrations of the published blueprint, not live exam items.

Reference

What are the key facts about the Cisco Certified Network Associate?

Cisco Certified Network Associate is a certification credential; awarded by Cisco; the exam fee is $300; typical preparation is 2–4 months; holders typically earn $60,000 – $90,000.

In short

Is the Cisco Certified Network Associate worth it?

• CCNA is the flagship Cisco associate cert.
• It covers routing, switching, security and automation.
• It renews every three years.

Worth comparing

How does the Cisco Certified Network Associate compare with similar credentials?

• CompTIA Network+ CompTIA

Trust

Where does this information come from?

Everything above is taken from the awarding body's own published material. Fees, question counts and domain weights are revised regularly — check the official page before you pay.

• Cisco Awarding body
• Official Cisco Certified Network Associate exam page Exam page
• Cisco certification programme Programme rules

Research confidence: high · Last reviewed 2026-08