Roadmap to Success: CCDP

Roadmap to Success is a series of posts designed to help learners better understand certification pathways, career opportunities associated with those certifications, and the next steps beyond certification.

The Cisco Certified Design Professional (CCDP) certification is aimed at IT professionals seeking to advance their network design skills, mainly as they work to improve enterprise network performance, availability, and scalability. This certification is typically intended for job roles such as network engineer, senior network engineer, network architect, solutions architect, systems engineer, and more.

Cisco Certified Design Professional (CCDP)

The Cisco Certified Design Professional (CCDP) certification focuses on advanced addressing and routing protocols, WANs, services virtualization, and integration strategies for multi-layered enterprise architectures.

It is an intermediate—to advanced-level certification. Learners should have 3 to 5 years of experience (or more) and be very comfortable with Cisco products. As a professional certification from Cisco, learners must have earned the CCDA or CCNA Routing and Switching certification before being eligible for the CCDP.

The CCDP is made up of three exams, two of which are covered by CBT Nuggets training:

• Cisco CCNP Routing and Switching 300-101 ROUTE*

• Cisco CCNP Routing and Switching 300-115 SWITCH*

• Cisco CCDP 300-320 ARCH (A CBT Nuggets trainer is scheduled to begin work on this course soon! Check our in-progress courses to see our progress on the new course!)

*Please note that the first two exams of the CCDP certification are the same as two of the three exams for the CCNP Routing and Switching certification.

Exam Details

Many of the details of the individual exams that make up the CCDP certification are shared.

300-101 ROUTE

• Time allotted for the exam: 2 hours (120 minutes)

• Number of questions: 45-65 questions

• Passing score: Cisco does not publish the passing score for its exams

• Question types: Multiple choice/single answer; Multiple choice/multiple answer; Drag and drop; Fill-in-the-blank; Simulation; Testlet; Simlet

• Exam registration: Pearson VUE

• Exam cost: $250 *Learn more about exam fees from Pearson VUE

• Exam topics: Implementing Cisco IP Routing (300-101) (free resource)

300-115 SWITCH

• Time allotted for the exam: 2 hours (120 minutes)

• Number of questions: 30-40 questions

• Passing score: Cisco does not publish the passing score for its exams

• Question types: Multiple choice/single answer; Multiple choice/multiple answer; Drag and drop; Fill-in-the-blank; Simulation; Testlet; Simlet

• Exam registration: Pearson VUE

• Exam cost: $250* *Learn more about exam fees from Pearson VUE

• Exam topics: Implementing Cisco IP Switched Networks (300-115) (free resource)

300-320 ARCH

• Time allotted for the exam: 1.25 hours (75 minutes)

• Number of questions: 60-70 questions

• Passing score: Cisco does not publish the passing score for its exams

• Question types: Multiple choice/single answer; Multiple choice/multiple answer; Drag and drop; Fill-in-the-blank; Simulation; Testlet; Simlet

• Exam registration: Pearson VUE

• Exam cost: $250* *Learn more about exam fees from Pearson VUE

• Exam topics: Designing Cisco Network Service Architectures (300-320) (free resource)

Recertification

Cisco's Professional-level certifications, including CCDP, are valid for three years from the certification date. Learners can recertify by passing any current Cisco Professional-level 642-XXX or 300-XXX exam, any CCIE written exam, CCDE written or practical exam, or the CCAr interview and the CCAr board review.

The Next Step

Many learners who earn their CCDP certification will choose to continue to advance their careers in network design and within the Cisco universe. Therefore, many choose to pursue the Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) certification. The CCDE consists of two exams (the CCDE Written Exam and the CCDE Practical Exam). Unfortunately, CBT Nuggets does not currently provide training for the CCDE exams.

Some learners may diversify their certification vitae/resume by pursuing certifications that fall outside the scope of Cisco products. The most popular network design certifications pursued by CBT Nuggets learners include:

• Juniper Networks Certified Internet Associate (JNCIA-Junos) (made up of one exam: JN0-102)

• Juniper Design Certification Track:

• Juniper Networks Certified Design Associate (JNCDA) (made up of one exam: JN0-110)

• Juniper Networks Certified Design Specialist, Data Center(JNCDS-DC) (made up of one exam: JN0-1300)

Career Considerations

Simplyhired.com/ provides a helpful salary guide to help learners determine appropriate pay scales for job opportunities associated with the CCDP. Depending on professional experience, an employee who holds a CCDP certification can earn, on average, $74,000. Payscale.com/ reports a range of salaries for employees holding the CCDP certification between $63,276 and $151,846. Common roles for those with CCDP certification include network engineer, senior network engineer, systems engineer, solutions architect, and more.

Cisco Certifications

Cisco certifications are layered, with each layer building upon the knowledge and skills developed at previous layers. They are structurally designed as pyramids. The layers are (from the bottom up) Entry, Associate, Professional, Expert, and Architect. Associate-level certifications include Cloud, Collaboration, Data Center, Design, Industrial, Routing and Switching, Security, Service Provider, and Wireless.

Once learners have earned an Associate-level certification, they can pursue Cisco Certified Network Professional-level certifications. Cisco offers a variety of Professional-level certifications, including Design Professional (CCDP), Cloud, Collaboration, Data Center, Routing and Switching, Security, Service Provider, and Wireless.

Finally, learners can pursue Expert-level certifications, including Design Expert (CCDE), Collaboration, Data Center, Routing and Switching, Security, Service Provider, and Wireless.

Cisco provides an excellent certification overview that succinctly outlines each certification, its prerequisites, and related careers. Please note that the most recent version of the document does not include the recently released Cisco Collaboration certifications. You can learn more about the collaboration path from our blog post.

Concluding Thoughts

Effective, flexible, and scalable networks are critical to organizational success in today's fast-paced business environments. As needs and workplaces continue to evolve, IT professionals adept at designing and architecting networks that ensure performance and availability are in high demand. Design the future of your career with the CCDP certification!

Watch. Learn. Conquer the CCDP!