At the beginning of this year, Cisco CCIE exam has been greatly changed. The same thing is that you still need to pass the written exam and attend the CCIE Lab exam while the exam form and content have been changed a lot (Except for DC, SDX is added into other directions). To know about these changes, you can better prepare for the new CCIE exam.
The major change of the written exam started from February this year. The form of the exam is to choose the CCNP core course of the exam direction you take. For details, please refer to the Cisco website. In recent, the CCNP written exam has been divided into core written exam and the choice of a direction. Here are some common questions about the CCIE written exam in the six directions. For example, you will find that the most frequently tested EI and 350-401 look easier compared with the previous 400-XXX written exam. After all, it is just a CCNP exam. However, the questions of CCNP exam are inconsistent with the content of the new CCIE LAB. Therefore, CCNP core as the CCIE written test has inconsistent difficulty and knowledge scope with CCIE LAB.
After finishing the written exam, you are qualified to choose the exam date of LAB. On the last second day of 2020, a few candidates signed up for LAB. Most candidates were waiting for lab exam content and procedure to be stabilized. Due to the pandemic and the change of exam version, you should pay attention to good preparation before attending CCIE LAB exam. I have heard that some sophisticated engineers are confident about passing the exam easily. However, experience tells me that such a thought is dangerous.
Tips on How to Prepare for CCIE Certification
When it comes to LAB, particularly the DOO part (Deployment, Operation and Optimization), you should following each step diligently. Read the theories first, then do exercises of each part and make a final push. If you want to pass the exam in spring or summer, it is suggested to follow suggestions.
The exam time is 8-hour the same as before. Three hours are allocated to design. There are 30 questions similar to those in written exam, which can be done around several minutes if you are familiar with them. The fixed time is 3-hour, so you cannot do other parts during the period. Design is counted as a difficult point, testing the design of LLD. The exam form is similar to Diag while the content is less than that of diag. It is estimated that when the new version is stabilized, candidates will finish this part early. Emphasis can be put on DOO.
DOO will also have several written questions. I believe you can waste no time on the written questions of design and DOO once the new version is mature and stable.
To know about the form and content of DOO. You can have a look at EI, DC, and Sec whose development is going to be completed.
CCIE EI V1.0: It is recommended that you get familiar with the lab3 of the previous CCIE RS, then SDW and SDA. Besides, you should know about how to use script to open access port on IOS XE and know the traditional lab3+SDA, SDW and some programming knowledge.
CCIE SEC V6.0: Be familiar with CCIE V5.0. ASA and VPN will be tested in CFG. The second generation firewall will be tested in V6.
CCIE DC V3.0: Here, DOO is divided into three major points, NXOS,UCS, and ACI. The theory courses are also based on the structure. Slight changes happen to DC. A set of ACI Fabric is added to the rack.
CCIE COLLAB V3.0: The topology of these two exams has not changed for about 10 years. After laying a solid foundation and getting familiar with the old version, you can start the software practice of new version.
CCIE SP V5.0: This will have the most CLI in the current exam versions. Only NSO has a few graphical interfaces, which is an enhanced version of the CCIE RS that everyone is familiar with before. If you just want to obtain CCIE certification, you can focus on this exam. It will also be the favorite of traditional network engineers.
In conclusion, preparation matters when you are aiming for the exam in 2021. You should learn theories according to the requirements. If you pass the written exam, you can start preparing for the DOO part. I hope every one can pass the new Cisco exam and become full stack network engineers.