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====== CCNA 200-301 v1.1 – Exam at a Glance ======

**Exam:** CCNA 200-301 \\
**Time:** 120 minutes \\
**Focus:** Modern enterprise networking – routing/switching, wireless, security, and automation.

The exam is built around **six domains**:

  * Network Fundamentals (20%)
  * Network Access (20%)
  * IP Connectivity (25%)
  * IP Services (10%)
  * Security Fundamentals (15%)
  * Automation and Programmability (10%)

----

===== 1. Network Fundamentals (20%) =====

**Goal:** Understand what a network is, what the parts do, and how IP addressing works.

  * **Devices & roles**
    * Routers, Layer 2/3 switches
    * Next-gen firewalls and IPS
    * Access points and wireless controllers
    * Endpoints and servers
    * PoE (Power over Ethernet)

  * **Topologies & designs**
    * 2-tier vs 3-tier
    * Spine-leaf
    * WAN
    * SOHO (small office / home office)
    * On-prem vs cloud

  * **Cabling & interfaces**
    * Single-mode fiber, multimode fiber, copper
    * Shared media vs point-to-point
    * Common issues: collisions, errors, speed/duplex mismatch

  * **IP basics**
    * IPv4 addressing and subnetting
    * Private IPv4 ranges
    * IPv6 addressing and prefixes
    * IPv6 types: unicast (global, ULA, link-local), anycast, multicast, EUI-64

  * **Clients & wireless**
    * Verify IP parameters on Windows, macOS, Linux
    * SSID, non-overlapping Wi-Fi channels, RF basics
    * Wireless encryption basics

  * **Virtualization & switching**
    * Server virtualization, containers, VRFs
    * MAC learning and aging
    * Frame switching and flooding
    * MAC address table concepts

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===== 2. Network Access (20%) =====

**Goal:** Get devices onto the LAN and WLAN safely and correctly.

  * **VLANs**
    * Data and voice VLANs
    * Default VLAN
    * VLANs spanning multiple switches
    * Inter-VLAN connectivity

  * **Trunks**
    * 802.1Q tagging
    * Native VLAN
    * Access vs trunk ports

  * **Neighbor discovery**
    * Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)
    * Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP)

  * **Link aggregation**
    * EtherChannel (LACP) at Layer 2 / Layer 3

  * **Spanning Tree (Rapid PVST+)**
    * Root bridge, root ports, other port roles
    * Port states and roles
    * PortFast
    * Root guard, loop guard, BPDU guard, BPDU filter

  * **Wireless access**
    * Cisco wireless architectures and AP modes
    * Physical connections: AP, WLC, access/trunk ports, LAG
    * WLAN GUI basics: SSID creation, security, QoS profiles, advanced options

  * **Device management access**
    * Telnet, SSH, HTTP, HTTPS, console
    * TACACS+ / RADIUS
    * Cloud-managed devices

----

===== 3. IP Connectivity (25%) =====

**Goal:** Understand how routers make forwarding decisions.

  * **Routing table components**
    * Routing protocol code
    * Prefix and network mask
    * Next hop
    * Administrative distance
    * Metric
    * Gateway of last resort

  * **Forwarding decisions**
    * Longest prefix match
    * Administrative distance
    * Routing protocol metric

  * **Static routing (IPv4 and IPv6)**
    * Default route
    * Network route
    * Host route
    * Floating static routes

  * **OSPFv2 (single area)**
    * Neighbor adjacencies
    * Point-to-point networks
    * Broadcast networks and DR/BDR
    * Router ID

  * **First Hop Redundancy**
    * Purpose: keep default gateway available using redundancy concepts

----

===== 4. IP Services (10%) =====

**Goal:** Know the common network services that support connectivity.

  * **NAT**
    * Inside source NAT (static and pools)

  * **Time and naming**
    * NTP client and server roles
    * Role of DHCP and DNS

  * **Monitoring and logging**
    * SNMP in network operations
    * Syslog facilities and severity levels

  * **DHCP operations**
    * DHCP client
    * DHCP relay

  * **QoS basics**
    * Classification and marking
    * Queuing and congestion management
    * Policing and shaping

  * **Remote access and file services**
    * Configure network devices for SSH access
    * TFTP / FTP capabilities and functions

----

===== 5. Security Fundamentals (15%) =====

**Goal:** Protect devices, data, and users.

  * **Security concepts**
    * Threats, vulnerabilities, exploits
    * Mitigation techniques

  * **Security program elements**
    * User awareness and training
    * Physical access control

  * **Device access security**
    * Local passwords for device access
    * Password policy (management, complexity)
    * Alternatives: MFA, certificates, biometrics

  * **VPNs**
    * IPsec remote-access VPNs
    * IPsec site-to-site VPNs

  * **Access control**
    * Configure and verify ACLs

  * **Layer 2 security**
    * DHCP snooping
    * Dynamic ARP inspection (DAI)
    * Port security

  * **AAA concepts**
    * Authentication
    * Authorization
    * Accounting

  * **Wireless security**
    * WPA, WPA2, WPA3
    * Configure WLAN (GUI) with WPA2-PSK

----

===== 6. Automation and Programmability (10%) =====

**Goal:** Understand how automation and APIs change network management.

  * **Automation impact**
    * Why automation matters for consistency, speed, and error reduction

  * **Traditional vs controller-based networking**
    * Comparison of management and control methods

  * **SDN and controller-based architecture**
    * Overlay vs underlay vs fabric
    * Separation of control plane and data plane
    * Northbound and southbound APIs

  * **AI / ML in network operations**
    * Generative and predictive uses for monitoring and troubleshooting

  * **REST-based APIs**
    * Authentication types
    * CRUD operations
    * HTTP verbs
    * Data encoding formats

  * **Configuration management tools**
    * Capabilities of Ansible
    * Capabilities of Terraform

  * **JSON**
    * Recognize JSON-encoded structures and fields