Cisco would have recently announced major changes of certification programs and they all would be taking place on February 24, 2020. Herein, we would be talking about the CCNA Exam and the changes which are going through. But it is a recommendation, that you take it before the changes hit. If you wish to do so, you should opt for the courses which are being offered at the SPOTO Club, to help you out.

CCNA Exam Changes (200-301)

The official new exam name for CCNA 2020 is Cisco Certified Network Associate v2.0 or CCNA 200-301. I know it is quite confusing since CCNA exams have already been changed for a couple of times in recent years. I would be calling this 2020 CCNA by its exam code “200-301” instead.

Compared to the current single 200-125 exam, more topics and questions would be tested in the new 200-301, such as Wireless LAN, Automation and Programming. The exam time is also increased. In short, the new CCNA exam would be more challenging for preparing over the current exams.

The good news is, we still have around a few months to take the current single 200-125 exam, before February 24, 2020, from today so, that we wouldn’t have to take the difficult exam.

If you are in the middle of CCNA preparation, I recommend keep going, which is also what Cisco recommends. Eight months should be enough for you, no matter you plan to dedicate days to take classroom training, online training, or use self-studying kits, as tools for exam preparations.

 Impacts on CCENT holders

If you plan to achieve CCNA by passing 2 exams in 2 stages, the 2020 changes could impact you the most. This would be because CCENT certification itself is also gone after February 24, 2020! Your CCENT passing status couldn’t be re-certified after February 24, 2020.

You are needed to acquire your CCNA, and for that, you must pass both ICND1 (100-105) and ICND2 (200-105) before the changes hit. Otherwise, you could be able to only restart your whole CCNA certification process after February 24, 2020.

Impacts on specialized CCNA

Specialized CCNA certifications, such as CCNA Wireless, would all be gone after February 24, 2020! They all would be becoming a single certification: CCNA. No more individual specialized CCNA anymore. Here is the list of “specialized CCNA” which I came to know that would be gone:

• CCNA Cloud
• CCNA Collaboration
• CCNA Cyber Ops
• CCNA Data Center
• CCDA
• CCNA Industrial
• CCNA Routing and Switching
• CCNA Security
• CCNA Service Provider
• CCNA Wireless

Cisco would be sending you a new CCNA certificate if you would be still a valid specialized CCNA holder on February 24, 2020. Since you have paid extra efforts for specialized CCNA, Cisco would be recognized and count them in credits. These credits would be accounted for your future CCNA recertification.

For short, if you would have already been specialized CCNA certificate holder, you would be still preserving your extra efforts over plain CCNA. If you are in the middle of taking specialized CCNA exam, unless your exam costs are sponsored or requested to do it anyway, then I recommend waiting until February 24, 2020.

I want to clarify that Cisco does also announce new Cisco Certified Specialist (or CCS for short) certifications. However, do not confuse them with specialized CCNA. Your specialized CCNA exam passing status wouldn’t help you to acquire the new CCS certifications. Although the tested topics might be overlapping with your specialized CCNA, you would be still required to take new CCS exams after February 24, 2020, to acquire your new CCS certification.

Hence, if you wish to have the CCNA Certification, do it before the changes hits and for that, you should opt for the courses, which are being offered at the SPOTO Club.