The Reddit Cisco Ring

Two weeks ago 720, last week 801, today 876.

Cut it close to the deadline. So very happy its over.

I took it for the 2nd time today and failed again!!! Both attempts I've scored around 830 each time! I wonder how far off I've been on both occasions to be honest. The material on the exam itself is so intense and the questions half the time are left open to scrutiny and opinion as well to be honest!
I don't know how it can be done haha!

After MULTIPLE tries, I finally got it today with an 892. For anyone interested the ugly truth is there are no shortcuts! I wish everyone luck

Hi, I passed the CCNP R&S almost 2 years back now and it will expire in Feb 2021, i was thinking instead of retaking one of the 3 exams i passed for it i'll do the ARCH exam before Cisco changes the entire exam structure in late February of next year.
I'm wondering if anyone else has any previous experiences taking this particular exam and what they thought of it? I have a ton of material i have written and saved from studying my CCNP and i was wondering if i reread those will that come in handy for this one or how different is it from the other exams? And if it is could anyone point me in the write direction to a site that has the best material for the exam....

Thanks everyone in advance

I think this may be my last attempt. I've been trying and been trying this test, I don't even know if I'm on attempt 3 or 4, but I'm sick of trying to memorize all the correct(Cisco) ways to VPN, Why API is the best thing to ever happen, and if I have to do another route summarization question, I'm liable to lose my mind. I'm so over it. NP may expire come April. Thanks Cisco, you win. I don't even network.

I've just realised with the new exam structure, we can get CCDP equivalent just by passing the ARCH exam.

I already have CCNP RS, just wondering if doing the ARCH exam in 2 months is do able and how hard it is compared to CCNP RS?

Hi,

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Simple question. Wondering if I should pursuit CCDP.

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I passed ROUTE in 2015 and finished CCNP R&S in summer 2018.

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Wondering if going CCDA --> CCDP would be possible without taking SWITCH & ROUTE again.

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thanks.

I have my ccnp r&s and have a year before I need to renew. Is a year enough to get a ccda and ARCH with 1-2 hours of study 5 days a week? I have been reading some horror stories about ccdp and it being a terribly designed/worded test.

What study matieral do you suggest?

Thanks

Anybody attempting the test? We've got 2 months to get on it! Good luck everybody!!

Well, that was a close call!

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A few weeks ago I went to sit through the exam for the first time, and came out with a “FAIL” on my paw.

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No surprise there, I went poorly prepared. I actually ran out of time. Not all theory read, no drilling down the facts done etc. I thought I could pull it off with my tight schedule and get the work done, but then life happened (“life” here means mostly my laziness and poor time management).

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After the failed attempt, I wrote down as many keywords of difficult topics as I could, just outside the test center. I thought I got myself a decent list.

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Then I went back home to study; read the rest of the book + watched CCDP webinar series from the Cisco Learning Network (good stuff, btw!). Then the last weekend before the test came and I realised that damn, I messed this up again! Most of my list still un-researched and no practice-questions drilled. For the last few days I YouTube’d and Googled my list of topics, writing down stuff, trying to write them as if I was explaining the technology to someone else.

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So finally… doing real work!

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In the test it seemed that it was again too little, too late. The stuff on my list had been too vague. I was on the right topic but not always relevant to the question at hand… The exam felt difficult again, with a lot of funnily worded questions that left me baffled.

I also damned myself for not doing more and better research.

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At the end I was very happy, and a bit surprised to find out that I made it over the bar, ever so slightly. The areas where I did most of my research did improve clearly. So the work pays off at the end.

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I get the vibe that most people here (and other cisco-cert-forums) are technical, driven and well organised. Not me, ha ha!

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What are you guys planning to do after CCDP? Going for CCDE? My current plan is to do next some certs on Security. After that, who knows…

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It is easy to feel happy on a day when fate has been favourable and you got a “PASS”. Let’s let Emperor Marcus leave us with at thought for those exam hours and especially those eventual “FAIL” days: "Be like the rocky headland on which the waves constantly break. It stands firm, and round it the seething waters are laid to rest.”

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Best of luck to us all!

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Antti

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PS: I take full responsibility of my lack of preparation. Still I must say that this exam had the largest amount of insane/incoherent/trick questions I have seen so far in Cisco tests. They all have some, but this one has too much of them. Just saying.

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Hi all!

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“If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining.”

- Marcus Aurelius.

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As I promised, did not waste time but booked the exam early. However, this time I ran out of time. Only plowed through 2/3 of the book, and no practice/drilling of any sort. Still, I had my appointment today and I went in with no expectations. It turned out to be intel gathering…. very successful! Now I (hopefully) know what to study. I again promise not to waste time and book the next attempt very soon.

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Best of luck to us all!

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Antti

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Hi all!

CCDA done today and starting CCDP!

The book is on it's way...

Now two weeks without Cisco studies and then back at it.

This time, no fooling around and wasting time! I promise.

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First (11/17) - 842

Second (8/18) - 898

Test seemed more focused this time around. First time had a lot of IPv6 and APIC questions (Taboo contracts and what not). A remember a bunch of questions not really being about design. I complained a bunch (like others) on the Cisco forums.

Pros:

I only remember one IPv6 question and 3 ACI/APIC questions this time. It was also much more designed focused!

Cons:

I still had 2 oddly worded questions with bad grammar. Also they removed VSAN/Zones from testing topics, yet I still got a question. VSAN isn't mentioned once in the FLG. This test is still extremely hard! My CCNP scores were all >930. My study buddy failed twice and ended up retaking TSHOOT to re-certify.

This go around had lots of the following:

-Really deep on MEC (known your VSS/NS-OX) - How does it load balance, how does fail-over work, what protocols to use

-FHRP and STP interoperability

-Routing protocol Summarization

-Route filtering

-VRF Lite

-QoS, specially Real-Time classification

-BGP filter and path adjustments and their order

-VPN Types and differences

-Multicast

-DataCenter overlays

Study Materials:

This forum

CBT nuggets - Too high level for this test

FLG

Lots of white papers. Campus Design, VSS, VXLAN, QoS (Used this guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lZVXl9Kzf3eCcigfWuKvE3lVEWSOg5AHopgUB-iftmE/edit# credit to:

u/cinneq)

3 Day bootcamp

On to CCIE r/S Written!

When you're designing, you will need to know what the control and data planes are, and how they're different.

I hope this clears things up a bit:

https://youtu.be/P9ZMugAf9lU

Man, this test sucks.

First attempt was at Cisco Live, and thus "free." Did pretty well, wasn't as studied as I hoped to be (Cisco Live was kind of a surprise, wasn't expecting to go). Took the ARCH 3.0 class through Global Knowledge (can't say I recommend it. Instructor spent more time ranting than anything).

Spent some time studying topics that I didn't know well enough. Retook the test today... somehow managed to do worse. I'm a little disheartened, but plan to aren't it again.

Important Stuff for the exam (someone let me know if I'm breaking NDA, I'll edit my post to fix it): -BGP path selection -BGP path manipulation -Too much about ACI. Still don't know anyone who's using it... -QoS -Multicast types -ASAs

Hey guys,

I'm almost done with my CCDP certification and wanted to share my resources:

ARCH 300-320 Resources

I will keep updating it when I find more links that are useful. Hopefully it will help other people out with their studies.

The path I took was CCNA:R&S -> CCDA -> CCNP:R&S -> CCDP. It may not be the most logical steps but I feel the CCNP knowledge helped me during CCDP.
I'm going to continue with the Datacenter track and I kind of wish I had done at least the CCNA:DC before CCDP because a lot of it is covered there.

CCDP to me feels like an overlap of R&S, Datacenter, Security and Service Provider and answers the "Why should I configure it this way" and "don't do it this way because <reason>" with a lot of Cisco flavor thrown in.

Good luck on your studies!

The CCDP exam is harder than it looks. I decided to re-cert using the CCDP as my exam choice to continue my CCNP. Big mistake.

This is coming from on the job experience to pass my CCNP with one retake on my route exam. This go around, I studied my ass off on the CCDP materials, only to score a high 700, 837, and finally a 848. My cert is now expired, and I'm not sure I'm going to re-certify ever again.

The test was generally okay, with a few ACi questions, a few dessig questions, and a lot of basics I would think you would find in a CCNA level exam. I went as far as finding practice tests, and acing every single one just before my final exam. grumble

The test did have a few wonky questions, that read like a cheap translated brain dump. The grammar was way off, and the idea of the question was abstract at best. There were a few other questions that had multiple answers that depended on a lot of variables you were not given, specifically involving OSPF.

Between my test #2 and test #3, I had a good 40 hours of study in, and a much higher confidence during the exam. After my second test and scoring 837, I took what I knew I did poorly on or guessed on and made a list of study points asap. I went in to test #3 prepared on those points. I got most of the same questions, and blew right threw them with high certainty. Result? 11 point gain.

For anyone considering taking the CCDP, I HIGHLY recommend either buying the stupidly expensive cisco books to study with, or forgetting the CCDP all together and just take the route / switch or tshoot again. I wish I did.

I just finished the ARCH exam this morning. For anyone studying, i would suggest being up to date on your Route Switch Materiel in addition to the ARCH topics.

Was wondering what areas I should focus on? I read through the ARCH FLG cover to cover and reviewing with any articles and youtube videos I can find.

Any pointer would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Just got back from taking the test, scored a 912. I was pretty surprised as I guessed on at least 30 questions, but I'm a pretty good guesser and I think after all the Cisco tests I've taken I'm finally starting to get a feel for them.

I'm a CCNP R&S, with a CCNA Sec as well. My study material was pretty much just the FLG which I studied intensively (about 2000 flash cards were made with Anki).

The biggest issue I had with this exam was there were a lot of questions about topics that I thought I knew well, but they picked some small obscure part of them to ask about. Specific multicast topics were a big head scratcher here. If you re-read those sections thoroughly for comprehension you should be fine.

I got the Taboo Contracts question someone on here mentioned, but I had read the white paper on it from Cisco before the test and it was pretty easy if you did that.

A was very surprised at how much material was covered by the CCDA or even CCENT. At least 40%. Why am I still having to do basic subnetting on a Professional level exam? not that I'm complaining, those are basically free points. The problem though was there were a lot of detailed questions about very basic stuff that was covered in CCDA or CCNA. So I was preparing myself to be asked about them from a design perspective but not at low-level that they appeared. What I'm trying to say is do a read up on FHRPs at a config level. If you still have any videos from your CCNP or CCNA on udemy those should be fine.

Other than that, know your Access-Distribution layer typologies like the back of your hand. That's all I got.

Edit: I meant 300-320

Hi Reddit,

I'm currently studying this track to recert my CCNP/CCDP. Is anyone else studying at the moment?

I'm happy to help you if I can and equally I would like to hear your observations on the topics and exam.

I sat my CCDP Arch exam the other day and failed by one mark (boo!). One question I remember seeing was about Taboo Contracts. I've since checked the official Cisco Press 300-320 book and there's nothing in there about those contract types. Did anyone else get questions on this? And do you happen to have a handy guide to contract types? I'm new to SDN/ACI and it was featured quite heavily in the exam.

When doing the exam. I found that the way VLANs are used in the campus came up a few times.

This also ties into the spanning-tree design (hint: don't ever disable spanning-tree).

Here's an article to help with these concepts.

https://networkdirection.net/Spanning+Tree+and+VLANs+in+the+Campus

When designing, it's a good idea to avoid fate-sharing. This is where a modular design is important.

https://networkdirection.net/Modular+Network+Design

Hope you like it!

Last week, I posted an article on campus hierarchy design.

This week I am posting part 2, which includes best practices.

For example, do you know how to align spanning-tree with HSRP? I got a question relating to that in the exam. The good news is, the answer is right here:

https://networkdirection.net/Hierarchy+Design+Part+2

I hope you enjoy it!

The campus hierarchy is important in CCDP. In particular, it's important to know the different design options that you can choose from.

Here is an article discussing the design options and where they are appropriate.

https://networkdirection.net/Hierarchy+Design+Part+1

Next week, I aim to finish up part 2, and post it here.

Let me know what you think.

I'm driving down to Sydney this morning (about 2hr drive) to my ARCH exam.

I don't think I can be any more prepared! Except for ACI... Please don't let there be too much ACI...

I'll let you know how it goes :)

Here's a short article I wrote recently. While not 100% design related, it does show where and why UDLD should be enabled in the network.

https://networkdirection.net/Unidirectional+Link+Detection+UDLD