CCNA Passing Score: What Cisco Publishes, What It Keeps Private, and What Your Score Report Shows

If you are looking for the number to beat, Cisco's position is that there isn't a fixed one to publish. That sounds unhelpful, but it changes how you should judge readiness, and the score report you get at the end is more informative than the missing number suggests.

What Cisco says about the CCNA passing score

Cisco's Exam, Testing, and Certification Policies, under "Exam scoring," checked October 27, 2026, make three points:

• Passing scores are set by statistical analysis and are subject to change.
• Cisco does not publish exam passing scores, because exam questions and passing scores are subject to change and may vary from exam to exam, without notice.
• At the end of the exam, you receive a score report with your performance breakout by exam section.

Cisco's CCNA page adds that the exam is graded pass/fail and that results are typically online within 48 hours. The v2.0 exam topics page gives the same pass/fail and 48-hour details, so nothing on the pages checked changes for exams from February 3, 2027.

Why 825 and other numbers aren't a CCNA target

Search for the CCNA passing score and you'll see specific numbers, most often 825 out of 1,000, sometimes labeled an estimate and sometimes stated as if it were official. None of the Cisco pages checked for this guide publishes a CCNA passing score or a score scale.

There's a likely reason numbers circulate. Cisco's exams page says each score report includes "the passing score for the given exam." A number copied from someone's report describes that person's exam, and Cisco says passing scores may vary from exam to exam. So:

• Don't convert practice percentages into "825." That mixes a practice tool's scale with a scale Cisco doesn't publish.
• Don't treat a forum number as a cutoff you can bank on. Cisco says it can change without notice.
• Do aim for strength across every section. The score report breaks results out by section, which tells you how Cisco wants you to see your performance. Practice sorted the same way helps, which is why CCNA prep planned for launch organizes its questions by the five v2.0 domains.

What your CCNA score report shows

Several Cisco sources describe the report:

The report you take home is preliminary. Cisco's policies say a score may be revised after testing, pass or fail, if there is evidence of misconduct, scoring inaccuracies or aberrant response patterns, and that official results must be verified online. Employers can authenticate a score report through the online verification Cisco links from its policies page. If you pass, Cisco's exams page says you'll get an email within 24 hours with the steps to receive your certification.

Reading CCNA section results after the exam

A practical way to read the breakout, from Passy rather than Cisco:

1. List the sections from weakest to strongest.
2. Weigh each against the matching domain's share of the exam topics. A weak result in a 25% domain usually costs more than the same result in a 10% domain.
3. Look for one root cause behind several sections. Slow subnetting, for example, can drag down addressing, routing and ACL items at once.

If you need a retake, the CCNA retake guide covers the five-day wait and how to turn the breakout into a plan, and the free CCNA retake planner asks you to rate each domain from your report. Between attempts, Fix It, planned for full CCNA prep, keeps each missed question for another try.

CCNA pass rates aren't published either

The Cisco pages checked don't publish a CCNA pass rate, first-time or overall. Any "pass rate" you see is from someone other than Cisco, and Passy doesn't estimate one. The better question is whether you, specifically, are ready.

Judging CCNA readiness without a published pass mark

Without a cutoff, readiness has to come from your own evidence. Signals worth trusting, in Passy's view:

• Consistency across all five v2.0 domains, not one high overall number propped up by your strongest domain.
• Mixed sets, not topic sets. Real exams don't announce the topic. Results from mixed practice under a time limit tell you more than chapter quizzes.
• Labs done without notes. Cisco's FAQ says you can't pass by reading alone and points to Packet Tracer and Cisco Modeling Labs.
• You can explain your misses. If you can say why the right answer is right and yours was wrong, the gap is closing.

Start with the 20 free CCNA practice questions. Twenty items can't predict a result, but every answer is explained. For a running record by domain, you'll be able to track accuracy in each CCNA domain with the progress tracking planned for launch; checkout isn't open yet. The CCNA exam format guide covers the 120 minutes and the question types you'll be scored on.