Cisco certifications

Cisco's two exams here are consecutive tiers. CCST Networking — Cisco Certified Support Technician — is the entry-level credential for people beginning in network support: standards and concepts, addressing and subnets, endpoints and media, infrastructure, diagnosing problems and security, with no published domain weights. It is delivered exclusively through Certiport, Pearson VUE's academic and entry-level testing arm. CCNA is the associate credential most network jobs name, delivered by Pearson VUE, organised into six weighted domains from network fundamentals through automation and programmability, and valid for three years.

Neither has a formal prerequisite; CCST is designed as preparation for CCNA rather than a gate to it. Cisco does not publish a CCNA passing score, and the exam mixes question types including simulations. Recertification is by exam or by Cisco's continuing-education credits.

Cisco's exam topics are versioned and each version carries a code — the current CCNA is the 200-301 exam — so the topic list to study is the one matching the code on the registration. The CCNA blends multiple choice with drag-and-drop and simulation items that require configuring or troubleshooting in a simulated command line, which is why lab practice matters as much as reading. Certiport's CCST exam is multiple choice and shorter, aimed at candidates who have not yet touched real equipment.

How to use this family page: open the exam guide for the current topic list by domain weight, work the practice sets by domain, and spend real time in a lab or simulator before CCNA, because the simulation items decide more results than the multiple-choice ones. CCST has no lab component and can be sat sooner.

Which first: CCST when you have never configured a device and want a credential on the way to CCNA; CCNA directly when you have. Nothing in CCST is required for CCNA, and the associate credential is the one that appears in job requirements.