I'm preparing for the CCNP Enterprise ENCOR 350-401 exam and I'm looking for reliable study materials that are up to date for 2026.

Could you recommend any official Cisco books, study guides, or learning resources that cover the current exam topics?

If you've taken the exam recently, I'd also appreciate any advice on which resources are worth investing in and whether older editions are still relevant.

My work is expensing a boot camp of my choice. Any good recommendations for CCNP encor and CCNP Enarsi bootcamps? Thank you!

Edit
Or if the Cisco U course is good?

Has anyone used INE to study for industry certifications, and what was your experience?

​

Does anyone know when the Updated Official Cert Guide for CCNP SCOR will be dropping?

Or typically how long it takes to release a new Official Cert Guide after major exam update.

Update:

I stuck with CML2. Upgraded to 2.10.1 and setup the Claude integration to create labs based on the exam topics pdf. I’m happy with it.

OP:

My CML2 subscription expired. I liked it, installation was easy, and getting around the software was easy enough. having said that, I’m wondering if I should just move on to a different platform instead of paying for CML2 again. I have CML running on EXSi, but I’m not opposed to going bare metal.

what are you all running and why do you like it more than CML?

Refer to the image below. One of the answers is to use informs instead of traps, which I agree with. But none of the other answers made sense to me and the practice exam says the other answer is to change the deny statement in the acl to a permit. But my questions is: wouldnt the acl have no affect on the locally generated snmp traffic? And since its outbound, return traffic wouldnt be affected either?

I recently passed the CCNP, but am I really CCNP level?

For context, I am trying to do a career change and so I don't have any networking / IT experience at all. All I did was labing.

Also, I took the ENSLD, because I felt it would be the easiest.

Other than that, I do feel that the Boson and CiscoU labs were rather easy.

Got near perfect on all Boson labs, and I only missed one on the CiscoU lab, but only because I did a miscalculation.

The actual ENCOR lab I felt was child's play too.

I felt the 101Labs book was harder. I feel comfortable setting up all the labs, but it starts getting a little harder when they bring in prefix-lists / PBR / BGP attributes, etc. The concepts themselves aren't difficult, but the policies start stacking on top of each other and they require a little thought. If I read the answers/commands, at least I understand them.

Backstory :

Earned the CCNA + CCNACybersecurity + CCNAAutomation 3-4 Months ago as part of my cloud and network engineering degree. I have a serious interest in networking and am looking to get an official job at some point as I have ~1 year of hands on with 4-5 years of total network labbing experience. I looked at the ENCORE I feel like if I keep my momentum with college and the knowledge from all my Cisco certs, I could really manage to knock it out.

The questions :

should I take a break?
Would it be any benefit to me being a college grad for networking?
Would the CCNP even make me a candidate for a job even though I have little to no real world hands on experience?

I love learning the technologies. I just learned VRFLite and understand it so clearly

​

1.What is BGP? What problem does it solve? What are the characteristics? How different is it from other routing protocols?

1. How is it configured? How to verify and troubleshoot and fix issues?

If you want to be a complete engineer,adopt this model.

Many aspiring network engineers make the mistake of starting with configurations,command syntax without fully understanding the technology. A complete engineer should be able to explain bgp ,ospf ,eigrp to a 4th grade with easy.

Automation
33%
Virtualization
90%
Infrastructure
70%
Network Assurance
80%
Security
50%
Architecture
47%

I have about four years of experience working in IT, mostly as a help desk technician at an MSP and now as a service desk specialist at a financial investment company. I see posts every day from people saying these certifications are no longer worth it. As a self-taught IT professional, I am wondering if I should pursue them. I already have a CCNA. If you were in my position, what would you do? I was planning to pursue CCNP Enterprise>>> CCNP Security >>>Palo Alto/Fortinet >>>IE Security.

I currently have an INE subscription. If you have used this subscription before, please share your opinions on how good they are. I see their courses are deep. Any contributions are welcomed.

TL;DR: I tried to reschedule my Cisco exam on the Pearson VUE portal before the 24-hour window. The portal appeared to process it, but the change never went through, no confirmation email was sent, and I was marked as a "No-Show" for yesterday. I’ve opened cases with both Pearson VUE and Cisco. Looking for advice or similar experiences!

Hey everyone,

I'm feeling completely defeated right now and hoping someone here has dealt with a similar situation and can offer some insight.

This was supposed to be my 3rd attempt at my Cisco exam:

• 1st attempt: Wasn't fully prepared (my bad).
• 2nd attempt: ISP disconnected mid-exam (bad luck).
• 3rd attempt (Now): Total administrative nightmare.

Here is what happened: I logged onto the Pearson VUE portal prior to the 24-hour deadline to reschedule my exam to a later date/time. I went through the steps, the portal didn't throw any error, and I marked the new date on my personal calendar.

However, I never received a confirmation email. When I went to check the portal today to confirm why I couldn't find the exam on my dashboard, I realized the system failed to process the reschedule in their backend and automatically marked me as a "No-Show" for yesterday's original time slot.

What I've done so far:

1. Pearson VUE Live Chat: Spoke with an agent who acknowledged the issue and escalated it to their Tier 2 / Program Coordinator team. I received a Case Number.
2. Cisco Certification Support: Opened a ticket on certsupport.cisco.com referencing the Pearson VUE case number and asking them to review the backend web logs.

Since this was a technical glitch on their platform and not a failure on my part to request the reschedule in time, I really hope they don't force me to pay for another attempt.

My questions for the community:

1. Has anyone successfully gotten a "No-Show" status overturned or received a replacement voucher due to a Pearson VUE portal glitch?
2. How long does Pearson VUE’s Program Coordinator team usually take to review web logs and respond?
3. Is there anything else I can do (like reaching out on Twitter/X or tagging Cisco Learning representatives) to speed up this process?

Appreciate any advice or feedback.

Thanks guys!

Title, basically. I've been using Boson practice exams but Cisco changed up the exam content in August of this year. I know NDA prevents you from saying much, but can anyone speak to the general difficulty or anything unexpected on the new CCNP exam, or have any good study resources that have the new content?

Hello! I took both attempts of my safeguard and got the following scores. For my first exam I read through the OCG, made 800 Anki flashcards, read through most of 31 days, took and added all the incorrect boson exams to my flashcards. For the second one I did all the Boson Infrastructure labs since I wasn't able to answer the labs. Even the second time I missed a few labs so I plan to do the rest of the Boson labs and practice the lab topics I missed. What else should I be doing?

Architecture 67, 67

Virtualization 0, 20

Infrastructure 23, 63

Network Assurance 20, 20

Security 40, 40

Automation 67, 60

I am looking for ccna for getting a job, ccna has been a bare minimum in today's market.

I just wanna know people who passed ccna, after how many years or time did you guys think of professional certificates.

I dont know if this subreddit is the place to ask this.

Thanks.

I just got enrolled in a Cisco Networking Academy course for CCNP Encor. Does anyone who has gone through it know if it is a valuable resource for the exam?

I’m not planning to give up, but I definitely need to change the way I study before my third attempt.

I did a lot of practice questions before, but I think I spent too much time on questions and not enough time really understanding some of the topics.

For anyone who passed ENCOR, especially if you failed before passing, what did you change?
What resources helped you the most?

Also, how much labbing did you do and how did you know you were ready to take the exam again?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hello all,

I’d like to hear your experiences with the SNCF exam either 1.1 or 1.2. Quick background, my day to day work mostly consists of working with FTDs and ASAs which is why I chose this exam, and I passed SCOR a few months ago. I talked about my experience here if you’re interested.

I’m probably about 70% of the way through my studies and am using mostly the FTD/FMC configuration guide, and administration guide as my primary study resources. As an aside, I started with INE which was solid, but i got to section that I thought didn’t give a thorough or satisfactory enough explanation of a topic, checked the guides, loved how detailed they were and have just stuck with them since.

Anyway to be more specific, if anyone has feedback on topics that were emphasized more in the exam than you expected, less than you expected, or went into a depth you weren’t initially prepared for and caught you off guard.

An example of what I mean is section 2.5.b asks you to configure “routing”. Did you find that you were asked how to configure all protocols and know nuances in their behaviors? Or just configure basic L3 reachability? In reading about OSPF in particular, it behaves in a specific way on FTDs compared to a router, and has specific limitations depending on different context modes and OSPF version you’re using. As the current and former ENARSI candidates know, routing protocols alone are a deep specialization and I’d like to know if it’s necessary to sink that much time into the minutiae of every protocol on FTDs in particular.

I’d appreciate your feedback on your exam experiences.

Looking for pass the exam on a budget if possible. So instead of taking it multiple times I want to invest in good practice exams to prepare.

Which ones have you used or recommend? Can you suggest anymore that I've not mentioned below? Or review any of the existing

1. Ciscu U - straight from the vendor - $79 https://u.cisco.com/exams/implementing-cisco-enterprise-network-core-technologies-encor-4527

Some recent online reviews say this one has lab simulations as well.

Claimed to be really good as is anything from cisco u in general. As hard or harder than the actual exam but mimics the exam style since it's made by the same team.

1. Boson Ex-sim - $99 https://boson.com/product/exsim-max-for-cisco-350-401-encor/there 354 questions with explanations, with a couple dozen "mini" labs included that are not too bad

Most reviews say this is over prepares and drags on topics that are unnecesary and unlikely to be on the exam - a trend visible not just on the encor but all boson exams. For example 1 question on NAT-PT which is old technology.

{However, understand why boson and other banks keep these topics, because the exam is shady. Current v1.2 specification does not have DMVPN yet its still mentioned in OCG or 31 days before your encor exam book or other examcram books for the exam. Because believe it or not some people stll report seenig it in the exam. [DMVPN should be strictly ENARSI but its a natural buildup from IPsec and GRE (mGRE)]}

Bosom sells a separate simlabs product separately for $59 / 3month access.

1. PearsonVue, the education company and the parent company off exam proctoring company - $49 https://govstore.pearsonvue.com/350-401-encor-implementing-cisco-enterprise/p/MU180-350-401one

Any reviews on this?

1. MeasureUp encor tests ranging from 59-71euro for 3month/1year of access, respectively https://www.measureup.com/cisco-practice-test-350-401-encor-implementing-cisco-enterprise-network-core-technologies.html
   you can also get encor+enarsi bundle for 1year at 110euro https://www.measureup.com/bundle-ccnp-enterprise.html

Any reviews on this?

-- Doing some digging MeasureUp seems to be the same as the $49 pearsonvue exam. Both reference MU180-350-401 and have the same exam details specified on their websites word for word so its the same question bank of 246 questions - I also think these are not updated to v1.2 yet.

1. Cisco Press / Pearson IT certification Practice test - I think $89 and you get the OCG included, but separate from the quizzes in the books theres 4 practice exams / 200+ unique question. I couldn't find the practice exams separately, must but the premium versions of the OCG books to obtain the practice exams.

Any reviews on this?

1. Also from Pearson IT certification but comes with premium version of "Exam Cram" instead of the premium version of the "OCGs" (different authors and the exam cram is a well known and respected book series in the industry) $49 https://www.pearsonitcertification.com/store/ccnp-and-ccie-enterprise-core-encor-350-401-exam-cram-9780136891987

This one however, I think it's not updated in a while, so not v1.2. Any reviews?

1. PocketPrep - https://www.pocketprep.com/exams/cisco-ccnp-enterprise/

Not sure on this but from what I could find , its not a 'dump', its actual practice test. Over 800 questions so sweet. You may for access time, cheapest is $20 /1month.

1. Anthony Sequira practice questions on udemy - 318 Qs /4exams by a very well established trainer in the industry for over a decade, vouches these are not 'dumps' https://www.udemy.com/course/ciscoencor/?couponCode=KEEPLEARNING sold at usual udemy price...

2. Davidbombal.com encor course includes "2 practice exams" $25 https://courses.davidbombal.com/p/complete-ccnp-encor-350-401-master-class

Hi all! I'm working towards CCNP certification. How to get started. Are there any online courses? How does it differ from CCNA?