Cisco 300-420: Skills outline
Cisco 300-420 is a certification test that evaluates the individuals’ understanding of a wide range of knowledge areas. The skills measured in this exam are combined in various objectives, which are enumerated below:
- Network Services (20%)
To answer the questions in this topic, the individuals should be able to demonstrate that they have the relevant knowledge and are capable of selecting and employing the most appropriate quality strategies, which will help meet the customer’s requirements. Other skills under this section include describing network management techniques, designing multicast services (MSDP, SSM, PIM bidirectional), and describing multicast routing concepts (RPF, source trees, shared trees, and rendezvous points).
- WAN for Enterprise Networks (20%)
This area evaluates one’s skills and knowledge of building frameworks, which make network communication resources and services available to end-users and systems. The questions under this objective also require that the students be able to compare WAN connectivity options, design site-to-site VPN, and design Cisco SD-WAN architecture. It is also important to know about failover, backup connectivity, multihomed, and single-homed.
- Advanced Addressing and Routing Solutions (25%)
Within this topic, the applicants are required to demonstrate their knowledge of advanced addressing & routing solutions. This means that they need to be well conversant with creating stable, scalable, and secure routing designs for different routing protocols, including EIGRP, IS-IS, OSPF, and BGP. They should also be conversant with IPv6 migration strategies that include Boundaries, Native, and Overlay.
- Advanced Enterprise Campus Networks (25%)
In the framework of this knowledge area, the learners are expected to show their competency in designing campus networks for high availability, designing campus Layer 2 and multicampus Layer 3 infrastructures. The potential candidates should also know about SD-Access architecture and SD-Access fabric design considerations for both wired and wireless access.
- Automation (10%)
This domain is all about testing the applicants on their knowledge of various data model sets that enable service providers to effectively and actively manage the networks of their end-users. In the framework of this subject, they need to demonstrate their competency in comparing dial-in and dial-out approaches to model-driven telemetry, describing the effect of model-driven telemetry on the network, differentiating between RESTCONF and NETCONF, choosing the right YANG data model set according to the requirements and choosing the right QoS strategies to meet the requirements of a customer.
Cisco 300-420 Exam Topics:
Section | Weight | Objectives |
---|---|---|
Automation | 10% | - Choose the correct YANG data model set based on requirements -Differentiate between IETF, Openconfig, and Cisco native YANG models -Differentiate between NETCONF and RESTCONF -Describe the impact of model-driven telemetry on the network
-Compare dial-in and dial-out approaches to model-driven telemetry |
WAN for Enterprise Networks | 20% | -Compare WAN connectivity options
-Design site-to-site VPN
-Design high availability for enterprise WAN
-Describe Cisco SD-WAN Architecture (orchestration plane, management plane, control plane, data plane, on-boarding and provisioning, security) |
Advanced Enterprise Campus Networks | 25% | - Design campus networks for high availability
-Design campus Layer 2 infrastructures
-Design multicampus Layer 3 infrastructures
-Describe SD-Access Architecture (underlay, overlay, control and data plane, automation, wireless, and security) |
Network Services | 20% | -Select appropriate QoS strategies to meet customer requirements (DiffServ, IntServ) -Design end-to-end QoS policies
-Design network management techniques
-Describe multicast routing concepts (source trees, shared trees, RPF, rendezvous points) |
Advanced Addressing and Routing Solutions | 25% | -Create structured addressing plans for IPv4 and IPv6 -Create stable, secure, and scalable routing designs for IS-IS -Create stable, secure, and scalable routing designs for EIGRP -Create stable, secure, and scalable routing designs for OSPF -Create stable, secure, and scalable routing designs for BGP
-Determine IPv6 migration strategies
|
Career Opportunities for People Who Pass 300-420 Exam and Get Certified
If you are starting the IT career, earning an intermediate-level Cisco certification can provide a plethora of employment opportunities. There are various positions that you can apply for after passing the Cisco 300-420 exam and obtaining the CCNP Enterprise certificate and they are as follows:
- Network Security Engineer
- Network Administrator
- System Engineer
- Wireless Design Engineer
- Network Architect
- Network Design Engineer
- Network Manager
- Network Engineer
Having this certification under your belt can help you get a much higher salary as well. Depending on what position you land, extra skills, and experience, your compensation can vary. According to PayScale.com, as a network engineer, you can earn around $74k, while the salary for a network architect is around $122k annually. If you start working as a network security engineer you can easily get over $82k per year.
Cisco 300-420: Key exam details
Cisco kindly reveals all the basic details and information about each of its exams, and the 300 420 test is not an exception. It consists of about 90-100 questions and the time allocated for a candidate to complete all of them is 90 minutes. The exam is known to be available in several languages, including Japanese and English. It is available at a cost of $300. This fee is applicable to those individuals taking the test within the United States. Those students who are applying for it in other countries should check the official website to find out the actual price of the exam. You can also know this information directly on the Pearson VUE platform.