Cisco CCNA Certifications Review

Vendor: Cisco

Cisco CCNA certification is an associate level exam that has been rated among the most recognized and highly career building testing systems. This exam is designed for the IT professionals and is listed among those certification that keep updating their exam and educational system as per the requirements of the current time. The CCNA exam is among the second, which is the associate level of the exam. It covers the fundamental and core concepts based on Cisco technologies. The candidates who opt for this certification exam are able to install, operate and configure Cisco based products and services. The testing system verifies the skills and knowledge of the candidates in regards to the understanding of these concepts.

The CCNA exam will allow the candidates to safe a highly and reputed rank in the industry for themselves. The test will assure a raise in the salary along with higher and valuable increments and promotion. The job roles that CCNA professionals then opt for are the following:

• Network support engineers
• Network engineers
• Security administrators
• Network administrators
• Network professionals
• Switching and Routing specialists
• Network technician
• Network Designer/expert

The Cisco CCNA exam provides the candidates with all the required understanding and skills related to the fundamental concepts and systems of networking technologies. This exam will validate the potential of an individual at configuring, operating, installing and troubleshooting Cisco networking services for medium to small size industries. These individuals are able to operate on various technologies related to Cisco and other than Cisco. The topics covered in this exam are vast, and each topic further divides into various areas of knowledge. Following are the most important concepts covered by the Cisco CCNA exam.

• Recognition, identification and operation of various IP networks and network protocols
• configuration and verification of DHCP,ACL, EIGRP, OSPF and static and dynamic routing
• Selection the appropriate network devices
• verification and configuration of VLANs
• Finding the issues and resolving the network errors
• configuration, verification and operation of WAN technologies
• operation and configuration of IPv6 and IPv4 scheme

These are the basic concepts of the CCNA exam. There will be other questions based on the more detailed topics that you can read from the official Cisco website.

The CCNA exam is further divided into pathways. Each pathway is like the specialization of the related fields. The network industry being a wide platform allows the professionals opting for this certification to select their desired pathway. Each specialization covers a range of topics and these topics must be separately covered in order to clear the exam. Following are the pathways covered by the CCNA exam:

• CCNA Data Centre
• CCNA Video
• CCNA Voice
• CCNA Security
• CCNA Wireless
• CCNA Service provider operations
• CCNA Routing and Switching
• CCNA Service security provider
• CCNA service provider operations

The CCNA exam has no requirements. The candidates who are willing to opt for this exam only need a 12 year formal education. There is no eligibility criteria. It is recommended to the candidates that they opt for some of the course designed by Cisco or other platforms to attain the required knowledge.

Required exams: Some of the CCNA pathways require no related exams. However some of the exams require taking courses to better understand the concepts or to meet the eligibility criteria. For instance, the CCNA security exam requires of the candidate to opt for A+ course. Other than that, 1-3 years of experience is suggested.

Required courses: No courses as such are required to meet the requirements of this exam. Any individual able to understand and grasp the concepts of this exam are able to clear this exam. The CCNA exam is based on questions related to the implementations and operations of Cisco services and products. The courses suggested by Cisco for this exam are ICND part 1 and 2 training sessions.

Study materials

Cisco provides individuals with a range of learning opportunities. To clear this exam, it is important to cover various topics and under the title of each topic are the available books, articles, lab training and practice tests. Cisco official website provides access to professional reviews and updates about the course outline. Volunteer teachers and volunteered classrooms are also made available by the Cisco. Other than Cisco, other online platforms also provide learning facilities like practice exam sessions and articles for different subjects related to CCNA exam topics and the core concepts.