Week 4— Network Infrastructure and Connectivity · Switching and Network Access · IP Routing · Network Services and Security · AI and Network Operations
5 days- Study →
Network Infrastructure and Connectivity
This domain covers the infrastructure and connectivity skills tested on CCNA 200-301 v2: switching and routing fundamentals, VLANs and trunking, IPv4/IPv6 addressing and configuration, static and dynamic routing, wireless access, and physical media selection. Questions are scenario-based, requiring you to diagnose faults, interpret show command output, and choose correct configuration or deployment options.
📅 Day 28🎯 ~73 questions/day⚖ 20% of exam- ✓VLAN creation, access port assignment, 802.1Q trunking, and inter-VLAN routing via SVIs or router subinterfaces
- ✓IPv4/IPv6 interface addressing, EUI-64, SLAAC, DHCP, DNS, and default gateway configuration on hosts
- ✓Static routes, OSPFv2/v3 neighbor adjacencies, and verifying the routing table with show ip route
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Switching and Network Access
This domain covers Layer 2 switching on Cisco IOS switches: VLAN creation and assignment, access and trunk ports, 802.1Q tagging, VTP, EtherChannel, Spanning Tree Protocol variants, and port security. Questions appear as drag-and-drop ordering tasks, exhibit-based troubleshooting, and scenario questions about why a VLAN, trunk, or access point fails to connect.
📅 Day 28🎯 ~73 questions/day⚖ 20% of exam- ✓Configuring access ports with data VLAN and voice VLAN using switchport commands
- ✓Trunk configuration and verifying allowed VLAN lists with show interfaces trunk
- ✓Rapid PVST+ operation, root bridge election, and port roles and states
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IP Routing
IP Routing covers how a Cisco router builds its routing table, chooses a path, and forwards packets between subnets. You must read show ip route output, compare static, OSPF, and default routes, and explain longest-prefix match and administrative distance decisions on Cisco IOS routers.
📅 Day 28🎯 ~51 questions/day⚖ 25% of exam- ✓Interpreting show ip route codes, next-hop addresses, and outgoing interfaces
- ✓Longest-prefix match selection among connected, static, and OSPF routes
- ✓Administrative distance comparison, including static routes with modified distance
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Network Services and Security
This domain covers Cisco IOS network services and security features: DHCP, DHCP snooping, NAT/PAT, NTP, DNS, syslog, SNMP, and ACLs. Questions use drag-and-drop ordering, exhibit-based troubleshooting, and multiple-select on IPv4 versus IPv6 ACL behavior, so you must know both configuration syntax and how each feature filters or translates traffic.
📅 Day 28🎯 ~83 questions/day⚖ 25% of exam- ✓Ordering DHCP relay and DHCP snooping steps on a Cisco switch with a remote DHCP server
- ✓Diagnosing dynamic NAT failure where inside hosts reach outside but return replies never arrive
- ✓Comparing IPv4 and IPv6 ACL statements, implicit denies, and wildcard versus prefix matching
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AI and Network Operations
The AI and Network Operations domain covers programmatic network management using REST APIs, NETCONF, and RESTCONF on Cisco platforms. You must match HTTP methods to CRUD operations, explain why HTTPS secures controller APIs, compare NETCONF and RESTCONF characteristics, and interpret monitoring alerts. Questions test conceptual understanding of automation protocols and API security, not deep coding.
📅 Day 28🎯 ~89 questions/day⚖ 10% of exam- ✓Match REST methods GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE to read, create, replace, update, delete intents
- ✓Identify NETCONF as SSH-based, XML-encoded, using YANG models and RPC operations like get-config
- ✓Recognize RESTCONF as HTTPS-based, supporting JSON and XML, using HTTP verbs for CRUD on YANG data