From the course: Cisco CCNP ENCOR v1.1 (350-401) Cert Prep: 1 Architecture, Virtualization, and Infrastructure

A look at the ENCOR (350-401) v1.1 exam

From the course: Cisco CCNP ENCOR v1.1 (350-401) Cert Prep: 1 Architecture, Virtualization, and Infrastructure

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A look at the ENCOR (350-401) v1.1 exam

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Most of the students taking this course are preparing for Cisco's ENCOR Exam. Let's take a look at that exam in this video. First of all, ENCOR, that is an abbreviation for Implementing and Operating a Cisco Enterprise Network Core Technologies. And instead of saying all of that every time, we can just say ENCOR or many people would say Enterprise Core because it's core enterprise networking technologies. And when you take this exam, it's going to be exam number 352-401. And the most recent version of this exam as of this recording is version 1.1 and the version 1.1 that's scheduled to go live September 20th, 2023. But the exam number is the same as version 1.0, and you can take this exam either in person or online. And later in this course, we'll take a look at how to register for this exam. And Cisco tells us the exam length is two hours, 120 minutes. And even though the price may vary over time, at the time of this recording, the cost of taking the ENCOR exam is $400 U.S. And to help prepare for this exam, I think it's great if we download and print out the exam blueprint. I created a shortcut link for you on screen. You can go to Bitly, bit.ly/encor23, E-N-C-O-R-2-3. And as a tip, I recommend that you print out this exam blueprint and then look through each of the topics and rate yourself on how comfortable you are with that topic. If you see a topic that you have configured in the real world many times, you feel really comfortable with it, you might put a check next to that. If there's a topic that you're not comfortable with, you might want to put an X by that. I think it's important to do this as you begin your training, because as you go through the videos, if you identify some of your potentially weak spots now, that's going to help you to better recognize those topics as they appear in the course. And after you pass your ENCOR Exam, it's valid for three years. And the big question is, what do we get when we pass the ENCOR Exam? Let's take a look at that. If you pass the ENCOR Exam just by itself, that alone gets you a Cisco Certified Specialist Certification in Enterprise Core. And if you pass your Enterprise Core Exam and then add on to that an Enterprise Concentration Exam, that's going to get you your CCNP Enterprise. And most people going for the ENCOR Exam, this is the goal, to get their CCNP Enterprise certification. But ENCOR also plays a role in some of Cisco's expert-level certifications. Specifically, this replaces what used to be referred to as the written exam for the CCIE Route Switch Lab. Now, the ENCOR Exam serves as the "written" exam for a couple of CCIEs. The CCIE in Enterprise Infrastructure or it could alternately be used for your CCIE Enterprise Wireless certification. And I mentioned that most students pursuing the ENCOR Exam are going after their CCNP Enterprise certification and that's going to require you pass the exam based on this course, the ENCOR Exam, plus an Enterprise Concentration exam. Let's take a look at what those concentration exams are. From my perspective, the most popular concentration exam is ENARSI, that's exam 300-410, Implementing Cisco Enterprise Advanced Routing and Services. And you might hear me from time to time refer to this as the Advanced Routing Exam. And another popular concentration exam deals with SD-WAN. It's the ENSDWI Exam. That's exam number 300-415. And it's implementing Cisco SD-WAN solutions. And you can look through the different exams here on screen. We've got designing enterprise networks, designing enterprise wireless networks, implementing those wireless networks. There's a concentration on network automation. And a brand-new concentration exam introduced in 2023 is ENCC. That's designing and implementing a cloud connectivity. And as you're going through your studies in this course to get ready for that ENCOR Exam, one thing that's going to help you really ingrain that theory is getting some hands-on practice. So join me in our next video, if you would, as we take a look at how we're going to do lab exercises in this course.

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