what topics are on the CCNA 200-301 exam, And what to focus on This article is part of my series called GNS3 labs for the CCNA exam and in this article I'm going to be going over the topics on this exam. To what extent the topics are on this exam? We'Re gonna talk about how many questions are on the CCNA 200-301 exam we're gonna talk about what topics are not on the exam and we're gonna pull up the Cisco requirements sheet and go through the exam topics. Talk as much as I can about the topics without violating NDA . First, Just my general thoughts on the exam.
I thought it was a hard but fair exam and the reason that I thought that it was hard is because of the wide spectrum of topics that you now have to know a lot about which of course includes the security and wireless topics. And neither of those are areas that I'm particularly strong in The exam focuses a lot on the new stuff, And by that I mean the software, Define networking elements and also the two topic domains that are not on the test. Anymore would be VTP and EIGRP Leslie. It goes without saying that you are responsible for knowing everything on the topic list, At least to a certain extent.
Next, How many questions are on the CCNA 200-301 exam? It's gonna be 102 questions, And that comes out to be about a minute and 20 seconds per question. It's important to be aware of that, Because you really have to be prepared to do things quickly once it's exam time. What I've done here is I've gone out to the Cisco Learning Network and I have pulled up the exam topics page for the CCNA, Because I've copied all of the topics over into a Word file. And then I took a bunch of notes and put that in dark, Blue and whole purpose is just to give you some insight into my experience and emphasize certain areas that you definitely need to pay attention to, And so I hope this level of information helps and Of course, Like I said earlier, You do need to be responsible for all the topics here Over here.
On the left hand side, My first note here is for access points. You do need to know a fair amount about the wireless access points. My second note here is relevant to DNA center. You definitely need to know the fundamental knowledge of this.
What is it, How does it work? What's the purpose and benefits of it? My next note here is for spine leaf Again it's more of the. What is it? What's the benefits of it, How does it work? How does it work in a general sense? Where do you use it When wouldn't you wanna use it, And if we go down to PoE? This part actually surprised me being that I have a deep history in the voice technologies. I was able to answer this, But you definitely need to know how to configure verify and troubleshoot it and then the layer.
One topic there are some pretty decent questions on layer. One you need to know how to troubleshoot layer one issues you need to know what the symptoms are, That you're having a problem. What commands do you use to compare TCP and UDP? It really is one of the more fundamental concepts of networking and you definitely need to know the specific differences between TCP and UDP. Then you also really need to know how to configure and verify IP addressing and subnetting If you've been studying for the CCNA a little bit.
This should not be news to you. This is another one that you could probably fail: the exam off of just not knowing how to do this correctly. I already mentioned earlier that with 102 questions, You're actually gonna have a lot less time than you did before per question, And you have to be able to do your subnetting quickly. So I would highly recommend learning techniques that involve tables and you can do the subnetting questions quickly. So the next topic to note is going to be IPv6.
There's a lot of IPv6 on the test. You need to know what all this stuff is. You definitely do and then this one right here is definitely a fundamental skill, But you do need to be able to verify and understand IP settings on the different types of clients, And that includes Linux.
And for me, One of the challenging parts is how much wireless t now have in the CCNA exam. Essentially, What t've done is t have fork lifted a lot of what used to be the CCNA wireless test and now put it into the CCNA. So you definitely definitely have to know all of these specifics listed here, The frequencies, All the different encryption methods.
You have to be able to differentiate between the different encryption methods. Yes, We'll definitely have to know how to explain the virtualization fundamentals, The basics of how it works, Basic definitions, The benefits of it - and, To be honest, It's an important topic to understand for real world practicality as well, And then we have the VLAN section. So it kinda goes without saying that you have to know and understand VLANs 8021Q trunking. You definitely have to understand that very deeply, And I would also say that there was very detailed questions on CDP and LLDP.
You need to know the specifics of configuring it. What those specifics are actually doing, And then, With the ether channel part, I would say that you would probably want to be able to configure this out of your head. Then we have.
The portfast topic, Of course, Is a very important topic at layer. Two and you did know exactly how it works, The benefits of it. When do you wanna use it when don't you wanna use it that sort of thing and then more on the wireless? You have to know the wireless very very well. T have taken a lot of the CCNA wireless and put it into the CCNA for the wireless LAN controllers. You definitely need to know how to configure a wireless LAN controller and again here for this topic.
You need to know how to configure everything All right. So then we have this topic right here interpret the components of a routing table. You definitely definitely definitely need to know how to do this, And I would also recommend memorizing the different administrative distance values for all the protocols and the main point is to understand route selection between the different protocols. So if a router has routes from a bunch of different protocols which one is it gonna use, And why That type of thing All right, Then that includes this right here as well.
you definitely need to know. You definitely need to know the specifics here. What all these are How to know if a static route is necessary For this stuff. I definitely recommend doing a lot of labs, So you can see it with your own eyes All right, Then we have configure and verify a single area OSPF. I think that is only single area OSPF, Because with multi-area, That's where stuff gets really complicated, But I would say that you definitely need to understand OSPF single area very deeply, How to configure troubleshoot verify as well as knowing everything about how the protocol works.
How does it form the adjacencies? What are the different types of networks? What role does the router Id have And then I also face questions about the first hop redundancy protocols: VRRP GLBP HSRP. What's the differences between them? How do you know which one you're using So let me get to the topic of NAT, T say configure and verify inside source NAT using static and pools and t're not kidding when t say this. You do need to know how to configure verify and troubleshoot them. Now, What's the difference between DHCP and DNS, We know the commands for all that This is another one of the things that actually surprised me is that t tackled QoS like t did.
It is an important topic, But I wouldn't have normally consider that to be a CCNA topic, Allowing remote access to devices. What's everything you need to do so that you can SSH to a device remotely The differences between FTP and TFTP, All the specifics, The port numbers and everything like that, And really that's something you should be labbing up anyway. How do VPNs work Access control lists the depth that t want you to know this? I would not have traditionally can to be CCNA level, But you do So. I would say you definitely wanna lab this stuff, Quite a bit because you're speaking from my own experience, That is the best way to learn ACLs and then you have the layer.
Two security features, So you wanna know what the definitions are of each of them, How t work, How to differentiate between them. If you have a certain scenario, Which one is gonna, Be the most appropriate That type of thing and then the AAA topic. So what are the three different portions of AAA? What differentiates the functions? How do t work And then what differentiates the different wireless security protocols here? You definitely wanna know how to configure this task right here - And here I just have a general note, Similar to wireless. The CCNA now encompasses a lot of the security plus. You need to understand the basics of automation. How does it impact network management Just need to have a very solid understanding of controller based networking? What are its characteristics? What are its benefits? Compare and contrast between that and non-controller based networking, So here's another good new age topics You have comparing and contrasting overlay versus underlay fabrics to know how to define what's the difference between them And also for real world application.
These are great concepts to have a grip on The difference between northbound and southbound APIs. Compare traditional campus device management with DNA center enabled device management. You have to note that What differentiates the different Yes describe, The characteristics of REST APIs, What is REST And what differentiates it from the other types of APIs? What's the difference between Puppet Ansible and Chef, And then I would say you definitely do need to know how to interpret JSON encoded data. Actually, It's very important to understand the formatting rules and how to know if a code sample is how to know if a code sample is good or not All right. So what do you need to pass this exam? You need to have a mix of labs, Article and or books for the theory and then practice exams For labs.
You can use either GNS3 Eve-NG or CML. Obviously, I'm partial of GNS3. You can use Packet Tracer, There's a lot out there for that too, And then, Of course, Having physical labs is going to benefit you a lot as well, But I would say that at a minimum you should have one of the virtual labbing methods and then that Would be good enough All right, So in this article I shared with you, My labbing experience a lot of the topic areas for me that were hit pretty hard.
Hopefully, This will be able to help you better prepare for the CCNA exam and, If it does, Please consider liking, Subscribing as well as sharing with others that are preparing and by the way, This article is gonna, Be part of a larger series called GNS3 labs for The CCNA, So if you use GNS3 and you're looking for some more labs, You should check those out too.
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