CCNA 200-301

Course at a glance

• 179 lessons in 13 units, including a hands-on lab and a practice exam.
• Exam: 200-301 CCNA v1.1 (Implementing and Administering Cisco Solutions).
• Format: self-paced lessons with Cisco IOS configurations, packet captures, and video.
• Last updated: October 2026.

About the 200-301 CCNA exam

The CCNA certification requires one exam: 200-301 CCNA, Implementing and Administering Cisco Solutions. The current version is v1.1. Here are the facts, straight from Cisco.

CCNA v1.1 exam topics and weights

CCNA v2.0 is coming. Cisco announced the CCNA v2.0 exam topics on May 20, 2026. The last date to take v1.1 is February 2, 2027, and v2.0 starts on February 3, 2027. The exam code stays 200-301, and it’s still 120 minutes and US$300. The v2.0 domains are 1.0 Network Infrastructure and Connectivity (25%), 2.0 Switching and Network Access (25%), 3.0 IP Routing (20%), 4.0 Network Services and Security (20%), and 5.0 AI, and Network Operations and Management (10%). If you take the exam on or before February 2, 2027, study the v1.1 topics. If you plan to take it later, study for v2.0. Either way, the core stays the same: switching, routing, network services, and security, so nothing you learn now is wasted.

Source: Cisco Learning Network, CCNA v1.1 exam topics and CCNA v2.0 exam topics.

What is the CCNA certification?

CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) is Cisco’s associate level networking certification. It proves that you understand how networks work and that you can install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot a small to medium sized network with Cisco routers and switches. Many employers use it as a baseline for network jobs.

To earn it, you pass one exam: 200-301 CCNA. The exam covers six domains: network fundamentals, network access, IP connectivity, IP services, security fundamentals, and automation and programmability. Cisco tests both theory and practical skills, so you need to know how protocols work and also how to configure and verify them, and how to read the output of show commands.

CCNA is for anyone who wants to start a career in networking, like help desk staff, system administrators, and junior network engineers. There are no formal prerequisites. Once you are CCNA certified, the logical next step is CCNP Enterprise, which requires the 350-401 ENCOR exam and one concentration exam, such as 300-410 ENARSI.

CCNA Learning Roadmap

This roadmap follows the CCNA exam domains. Each topic has a short explanation and links to the lessons where we cover it in detail.

Network Fundamentals (20%)

Everything in CCNA builds on the basics of networking. You need to know the OSI model and what happens at each layer, how TCP and UDP differ, and how ARP, ICMP, and DNS help hosts communicate. The exam also covers network topologies, campus network design, the spine and leaf architecture, and the basics of virtualization and cloud computing. And you need to be comfortable on the Cisco IOS command line.

IPv4 and IPv6 Addressing

IP addressing is part of the Network Fundamentals domain, and you’ll use it in almost every other topic. Subnetting is a skill you need to do quickly and without mistakes, so practice it until it’s automatic. Subnetting in decimal is the fast way to do it, and VLSM lets you use subnets of different sizes. For IPv6, you need to know how to shorten addresses, the different address types, and how hosts get an address with EUI-64 and stateless autoconfiguration.

Network Access (20%): Switching

Switches learn MAC addresses and forward Ethernet frames within a LAN. With VLANs, we split a switch into separate broadcast domains, and with 802.1Q trunks, we carry multiple VLANs between switches; untagged frames belong to the native VLAN. EtherChannel bundles physical links into one logical link. Spanning tree prevents loops in a switched network, and you need to know how it elects a root bridge, how Rapid PVST works, and what PortFast and BPDU Guard do.

Network Access (20%): Wireless

Wireless is the other half of the Network Access domain. We start with how wireless LANs work and the 802.11 service sets. Then we look at Cisco’s wireless architectures, WLC deployment models, and AP modes. Finally, we configure a wireless LAN controller and secure a WLAN with WPA2 PSK.

IP Connectivity (25%)

This is the largest domain of the exam. You need to know how routers and routing work, read a routing table, and understand how a router picks a route with the longest prefix match and administrative distance. We configure static routes, including default and floating static routes, for IPv4 and IPv6. OSPF is the dynamic routing protocol we focus on, and you learn how to configure it and how neighbors, the DR and BDR election, and the router ID work. We also cover first hop redundancy, which gives hosts a backup default gateway.

IP Services (10%)

IP services are the protocols that keep a network running. DHCP hands out IP addresses, and a DHCP relay agent forwards requests to a server in another subnet. NAT and PAT let private addresses reach the Internet, and NTP keeps the clock of every device in sync. We use SNMP and syslog to monitor the network, and SSH for secure remote access. QoS lets us classify, mark, shape, and police traffic so that important traffic like voice gets priority.

Security Fundamentals (15%)

Before you can secure a network, you need to know the threats, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures. On routers, we filter traffic with standard and extended access-lists. On switches, we protect access ports with port security, DHCP snooping, and Dynamic ARP Inspection. You also learn how AAA and 802.1X control who gets access, how VPNs protect traffic over the Internet, and how wireless security works.

Automation and Programmability (10%)

Networks are getting larger, and configuring every device by hand on the CLI doesn’t scale. You need to understand how SDN separates the control plane from the data plane, and how device programmability lets SDN controllers talk to devices through APIs. We cover REST APIs, data models and formats like JSON, and configuration management tools like Ansible and Terraform. Finally, we look at how AI and machine learning are used in networking.

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