Week 11— Architecture · Virtualization · Infrastructure · Network Assurance · Security · Automation
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Architecture
Architecture covers enterprise design principles for the 350-401 ENCOR exam. It tests SD-WAN, SD-Access, underlay/overlay separation, OSPF area types, QoS queuing, and high-availability mechanisms. Questions present deployment scenarios and ask you to choose the correct protocol behavior, feature, or design consideration.
📅 Day 77🎯 ~15 questions/day⚖ 15% of exam- ✓Cisco SD-WAN segmentation using VPNs and VRF-aware routing for guest, employee, and IoT traffic
- ✓SD-Access underlay requirements: IP reachability, MTU, and routing protocol consistency
- ✓OSPF LSA types in totally stubby areas (Type 1, Type 2, Type 3 only)
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Virtualization
Virtualization on ENCOR 350-401 covers how Cisco platforms separate control plane, data plane, and services across physical and virtual infrastructure. You must know hypervisor types, virtual switching, VRF and VXLAN segmentation, and device virtualization features such as Cisco IOS XE guestshell. Expect scenario questions asking you to select or interpret configurations rather than recall marketing definitions.
📅 Day 77🎯 ~16 questions/day⚖ 10% of exam- ✓Distinguishing Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors and their Cisco deployment use cases
- ✓Configuring VRFs to isolate routing and forwarding tables on IOS XE devices
- ✓Describing VXLAN encapsulation, VTEP operation, and Layer 2 over Layer 3 extension
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Infrastructure
Infrastructure is 30% of ENCOR 350-401 and covers Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding on Cisco IOS-XE platforms. Expect scenario items on VLANs and trunking, STP variants, EtherChannel, OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, first-hop redundancy, NAT, and NTP, plus configuration-syntax and show-command interpretation rather than pure recall.
📅 Day 77🎯 ~14 questions/day⚖ 30% of exam- ✓Configuring 802.1Q trunk and access ports, native VLAN, and VTP modes on IOS switches
- ✓Comparing RSTP, MST, and PVST+ port roles, states, and root bridge election
- ✓Tuning OSPF neighbor adjacencies, network types, cost, and passive interfaces
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Network Assurance
Network Assurance is 10% of ENCOR 350-401 and covers the tools Cisco expects you to use to verify a live network rather than configure it. Expect questions on syslog severity levels, SNMPv2c versus SNMPv3, NetFlow and Flexible NetFlow exports, SPAN and RSPAN sessions, IP SLA probes, and DNA Center assurance and device health dashboards.
📅 Day 77🎯 ~15 questions/day⚖ 10% of exam- ✓Configuring syslog logging levels, hosts, and interpreting severity 0-7 messages
- ✓Comparing SNMPv2c community strings with SNMPv3 authPriv users and views
- ✓Building Flexible NetFlow records, exporters, and monitors for traffic analysis
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Security
Security is 20% of ENCOR 350-401 and covers device hardening, access control, and traffic protection on Cisco IOS-XE and Catalyst platforms. Expect scenario questions on AAA with ISE or TACACS+, ACL and CoPP behaviour, 802.1X/MAB, port security, DHCP snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, IPsec, and MACsec, plus CLI output interpretation and configuration verification.
📅 Day 77🎯 ~14 questions/day⚖ 20% of exam- ✓Configuring AAA with TACACS+ or RADIUS, including authentication, authorization, and accounting method lists
- ✓Implementing Layer 2 protections: port security, DHCP snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, and 802.1X with MAB
- ✓Building and ordering standard, extended, and named ACLs, plus Control Plane Policing for management traffic
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Automation
This domain covers network automation and programmability on Cisco IOS XE and related platforms: controller-based and agent-based tools, data formats, APIs, and Python scripting. Questions present operational scenarios and ask you to select the correct tool, protocol, or command, or to interpret JSON/YAML/XML payloads and RESTCONF/NETCONF responses.
📅 Day 77🎯 ~15 questions/day⚖ 15% of exam- ✓Ansible agentless playbooks over SSH versus Puppet, Chef, and SaltStack agent-based models
- ✓NETCONF and RESTCONF APIs using YANG models on Cisco IOS XE devices
- ✓Data serialization formats JSON, XML, and YAML and their syntax rules