Expert Level Knowledge and Experience
Certifies expert-level knowledge and skill for building an extensible Service Provider infrastructure to deliver rich managed services.
Requirements for Certification
There are no formal prerequisites for CCIE certification. Other professional certifications or training courses are not required. Instead, candidates must first pass a written qualification exam and then the corresponding hands-on lab exam. You are expected to have an in-depth understanding of the topics in the exam blueprints and strongly encouraged to have three to five years of job experience before attempting certification. You can review the exam preparation materials included on this page for more information.
Step One: CCIE Service Provider Written Exam
You must pass the two-hour, written qualification exam covering concepts and equipment commands related to packet-based networking infrastructure, before you are eligible to schedule the lab exam.
350-029 CCIE SP Exam
Associated Certifications: CCIE SP
Duration: 120 minutes (90-110 questions)
Exam Description
Candidates preparing for the CCIE SP Written exam should possess expert level knowledge as a Service Provider network engineer to implement, troubleshoot, and optimize Service Provider features and technologies including Packet over SONET, IP over DWDM, GE/10GE, BGP, IGP Routing, LDP, MPLS and MPLS TE, Multicast, HA, QoS, and Layer 2 and 3 VPNs.
Exam Format
The written exam is a two-hour, multiple choice exam with 90-110 questions. The exam is closed book and no outside reference materials are allowed. Candidates will be required to answer each question before moving on to the next question. In other words, candidates will not be allowed to skip a question and come back to it at a later time. The overall exam score and the exam passing score will be reported on a scale from 300-1000.
Step Two: CCIE Service Provider Lab Exam
The eight-hour lab exam tests your ability to configure actual equipment and get a service provider network running in a timed test situation. You must make an initial attempt of the CCIE lab exam within 18 months of passing the CCIE written exam. If you do not pass the lab exam within three years of passing the written exam, you must retake the written exam before being allowed to attempt the lab exam again.
Lab Exam
The CCIE Service Provider lab exam is an 8 hour hands-on exam which requires you to build an extensible Service Provider infrastructure capable of delivering rich managed services to given specifications. Knowledge of troubleshooting is an important skill and candidates are expected to diagnose and solve issues. Candidates preparing for the CCIE SP Lab exam must demonstrate skills required of an expert level network engineer to configure, implement, troubleshoot, and optimize SP features and technologies including Carrier Ethernet, Packet over SONET, LDP, AToM, MPLS TE, enhanced Multicast VPN, and high availability (FRR) using IOS and IOS-XR operating environments.Lab Exam Environment
Cisco documentation is available on-line during the exam, however knowledge of the more common protocols and technologies is assumed. The documentation can only be navigated using the index, as the search function has been disabled. No outside reference materials are permitted in the lab room. You must report any suspected equipment issues to the proctor during the exam; adjustments cannot be made once the exam is over.
Lab Exam Grading
Each question on the lab has specific criterion. The labs are graded by proctors who ensure all the criterion are met and points are awarded accordingly. The proctors use automatic tools to gather information from the routers to perform some preliminary evaluations, but the final determination of a correct or incorrect configuration is done by a trained proctor.
Results
You can review your lab exam results online (login required), usually within 48 hours. Results are Pass/Fail and failing score reports indicate major topic areas where additional study and preparation may be useful.
Reevaluation of Lab Results
You may request a reevaluation of results for Routing and Switching, Security and Service Provider labs for up to 14 days following your exam date. Use the link next to your lab record called "Request for Reread". Due to the equipment used, rereads are not available for the Voice and Storage Networking exams. Each reread costs US$250 plus any applicable local taxes. Payment is made online via credit card and your card will be charged upon receipt of the request. You may not cancel the reread request once the process has been initiated and refunds are only given when the results change from Fail to Pass.
A reread consists of a second proctor loading your configurations onto a rack to recreate the test and rescore the entire exam. This process may take up to three weeks after receipt of payment. Only one reread per lab attempt is permitted. The result of the reread is an updated score report with success rates for each major section. Be aware that scores may decrease. Exams receive a Pass mark only when the total exam score exceeds 80%. Before requesting a reread, consider that, historically, only 0.3% of exams have been changed from Fail to Pass.
