CCNA guides
Direct answers for CCNA format, studying, exam day, scores, and what to do next.
8 source-backed guides
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Cisco requires one exam for the CCNA, 200-301, and lists no prerequisites. See who Cisco designs it for, which version your test date puts you on, and the five steps from a Cisco account to your certificate.
Read the guideCisco offers CCNA v1.1 through February 2, 2027 and v2.0 from February 3, 2027, under the same 200-301 code. See what stays the same, what changes, when sitting v1.1 still makes sense, and the booking and retake traps around the switch.
Read the guideCisco sets the CCNA at 120 minutes and lists multiple-choice, drag-and-drop and lab or performance-based items, with practical assessments added in v2.0. It doesn't publish the number of questions. Here is what that means for pacing.
Read the guideCisco publishes no study-hour figure for the CCNA. Build your own estimate from the 29 v2.0 objectives, your measured pace and your lab time, then see whether your date lands on v1.1 or v2.0.
Read the guideThe CCNA exam costs $300 USD plus tax, or Cisco Learning Credits. See what Exam Safeguard and the $450 Safeguard Plus include, what one, two or three attempts cost, how vouchers work, and what renewal involves.
Read the guideCisco does not publish a CCNA passing score. It sets pass marks statistically and lets them change. Your score report still shows section results and the passing score for your exam. Here is how to read it, and why 825 isn't a target.
Read the guideBrowse the library
Focused ways to prepare for the CCNA exam and handle its hardest topics.
After a failed CCNA attempt, Cisco makes you wait five calendar days, starting the day after. A retake costs the full fee unless you prepaid Exam Safeguard, and a late-January 2027 attempt may leave only v2.0 for the retake.
Read the guideA domain-by-domain reading of Cisco's CCNA v2.0 exam topics: weights, objective counts, the eight troubleshoot-or-diagnose objectives, the new AI domain, and the v1.1 topics the outline no longer names.
Read the guideLooking for exam basics? Visit the Cisco CCNA exam hub.
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