Everything mapped to the CCNA 200-301 blueprint. Articles tagged CCNA cover the exam topics in the order you actually learn them, each one backed by a lab you can build yourself.
Subnetting has exactly one right answer and the exam gives you under a minute to find it. Learn the block-size method, walk a VLSM plan the way you would on a real network, and verify it all with real Cisco IOS XE output.
The technical and behavioral questions network engineer interviews actually ask, with strong answers, 2026 salary bands, career paths after CCNA, and resume keywords that pass the ATS.
Still worth it for most people, with one big caveat. The honest take on the 2026 to 2027 exam change, what the cert actually gets you, and the AI question.
Build an automated config backup and drift detector with Netmiko: snapshot every device to a golden baseline, re-check the fleet on demand, and print a unified diff with a nonzero exit code your scheduler can alarm on. Captured on CML Free.
Install Ansible on the HOST1 automation node, aim it at four Cisco IOS XE devices, and back up every config with an eleven-line playbook. You also hit a real paramiko host-key failure and fix it the way working engineers do.
Learn REST APIs by driving your own CML controller: get a 401, trade credentials for a bearer token, and pull live JSON, covering the HTTP verbs, authentication, encoding, and response codes CCNA topic 6.5 expects.
CCNA exam topic 6.7 says interpret JSON encoded data. In this lab you read JSON, write JSON, and use it as the data backbone of a working automation tool against live Cisco IOS XE devices, separating data from code.
Your Python script enters config mode on three routers, provisions a loopback on each, verifies its own work, and saves to NVRAM using Netmiko's send_config_set(). All output captured from real IOS XE 17.18.
Scale the single-router Netmiko connection from Lab auto-01 to the whole topology: R1, R2, R3, and SW1 interrogated in one pass from one Python file. Read-only show command collection, captured live on IOS XE 17.18 in CML Free.
Build your first network automation host inside the lab: Alpine Linux, Python 3.12, and Netmiko 4.7 SSH into a Cisco IOS XE 17.18 router and pull live output. A free lab for CCNA Domain 6.
Three faults across three layers, one ticket: the branch is down. This CCNA troubleshooting capstone tests sequencing, fixing the lowest layer first, with every output captured on Cisco IOS XE.
Three security troubleshooting tickets on the five-node base topology: an ACL dropping traffic it should permit, a secured port shutting itself down, and a management ACL lockout. Fits CML Free, all output captured on Cisco IOS XE.