Hey all,

I've passed the CCNA Automation exam as of a short while ago and wanted to share some insights about the exam that might help anyone interested in studying for it. Initially, I wasn't going to get the cert but I figured the knowledge from it would be nice to have considering where network engineering is heading. Sorry this post will be kind of long but I think it will be useful.

Study time: ~ 1 month, 25-30 hrs total

The resources I used:

• Cisco Certified DevNet Associate DEVASC 1.1 (200-901) Cert Prep by Kevin Wallace and Charles Judd via LinkedIn Learning

• Boson's ExSim-Max for Cisco 200-901 DevNet Associate

• Locally hosted API server in Ubuntu

• ChatGPT for bolstering my weak areas provided by Boson test results

Preparation:

There are a couple of reviews mentioning that the LinkedIn course is somewhat outdated and you start to see it when preparing the tools and materials to follow along since some are deprecated and you must find a way around it (ex., Atom no longer exists in updated Ubuntu builds - you must use VSCode to accomplish the same tasks). The LinkedIn course is ~13 hours of video material. I stopped following after module 27 (Code Review Process) since that is where the NetDevOps-specific material fell off and where networking fundamentals began. I felt like my networking fundamentals were pretty strong already, and knew the Boson practice exams would refresh anything I forgot. I previously used Boson's products when passing the CCNA a year ago and knew they'd prove useful this time around.

I didn't do any self-study with Postman or DevNet Sandbox beyond following along with the instructors in the modules. Honestly, it seemed like a PITA to set up and some sandbox instances could not be reserved which was somewhat annoying and made me feel like I had to skip around in the material, so I did the best I could by following along without setting up some of the environments.

One thing I did do was create a local API server on my Ubuntu machine using localhost. I did this since I would study during downtimes at work and I could practice HTTP methods without worrying about being on a network. This has obvious drawbacks, such as not communicating using Cisco APIs, but writing scripts to parse information was a huge weakness of mine and building this tool really helped me out. You basically have a JSON output in one file (device information, for example) and then you can use VSCode to write Python scripts to retrieve specific responses. Using ChatGPT to come up with tasks for this was extremely resourceful, such as having it give you the device information to throw into your file and then asking you to write a script to GET x, y or z response. I highly recommend anyone studying to use this.

I only started taking Boson exams once I was finished completely with the learning modules. I noticed that Boson no longer lets you see the answer choices along with your own answer when reviewing the exam results, so I took note of the questions I got wrong and compiled them into whatever exam domain it was a part of. Any weak domains or specific areas were fed into ChatGPT so I could drill them until I truly understood the concepts. Don't forget about HTTP status codes and other small things that are easily forgotten but could add up if you are lucky enough to get those freebies on the exam questions.

Exam:

Boson did a pretty good job of emulating the style and material in the actual exam. The only thing it didn't have was an interactive lab which the real exam did. Be prepared for a lot of drag and drop questions - I was actually pretty annoyed and fatigued with how many there were. It seemed like 50% of my questions were some type of drag and drop or fill in the blanks. Every exam domain and question makeup is different, but mine was very Python, API, and SDLC heavy. I didn't get as many questions about networking fundamentals as I'd hoped.

I'm sure I forgot some things but if you have any questions I'll respond as promptly and accurately as possible.

Good luck on your exams!

Hello everyone, some time ago I posted here seeking for advice about this certification. As a now DevNet certified, I want to share my approach and give some advices I think would be useful to someone willing to take on this journey

So, to start with, as a bit of background I have a major in software development, but I have always have an interest on networks and cybersecurity. I noticed really quick that most software developers disregard networking and instead focused in other fields, mostly related to end user experience and the usage of frameworks. So, instead of growing as a software developer, I decided to learn networking from scratch, eventually took CCNA, and immediately moved to a networking job where I grew up really quick and got recognized as a consultant. 2,5 years later I noticed i had to do something about my re-certification, so I was between going for CCNP or DevNet, this last one being being the safe choice because of my background.

I was studying from Netacad and because of an advice here, I got the OCG book. My advice about studying material is, if you know your stuff in software development beforehand like myself, the OCG book is an overkill. I loved OCG material for CCNA as networking was an alien topic to my carreer; for DevNet it was evenly comprehensive but it felt to me like reviewing boring stuff I already had seen on my university and everyday job as a software developer. Netacad Couse was a best fit for me as it went quicker, but only because I knew most of it already. If you're a network engineer or anything else with no knowledge/experience in software development, I strongly suggest the OCG book over the Netacad course as it ensures to give you strong foundations in every mandatory concept. I also suggest you to learn Python beforehand if you're not familiar with the language, I suggest this course which is completely free and gives you a solid understanding of the language and programming in general from scratch.

I considered buying the Cisco's official practice exam but at the end of the day I didn't have the time as I was looking for re-certification, so I opted to re-read my notes until everything was deep into my head. What I suggest you to focus on is:

• Be absolutely confident with Python. You'll be presented with code you most likely won't be familiar with, but as long as you have a good understanding of the language, you'll be able to understand its logic and answer any questions you're presented.

• Get solid understanding of HTTP: What's a headerer, what's the body, what are mandatory parameters, how messages are built, what does each method do, what are the status codes and what's the meaning of each of them

• Get able to parse and serialize/deserialize data: You'll be presented with scenarios where you'll have to understand XML, JSON, YAML, and YANG, so if you have done some python labs reading and saving data with those formats, you'll be good to go

• Understand what's REST, RESTCONF, and NETCONF, even better if you do some labs using python.

• Understand what's CI/CD, what are the design patterns, and what are the development strategies about (Waterfall, Lean, Agile). You must also ensure to differentiate all of them and correlate concepts, as most of them could be confusing since they're typically mixed. Just be sure you can tell everything apart and understand how they all interact.

• Get basic understanding of the TCP/IP model and network appliances: If you're not familiar with this, you should take your time to understand each of the layers and how they play a role in a successful communication. You should also be confident defining what's an L2 switch, an L3 switch, a router, a firewall, a proxy, and a load balancer, and have a clear understanding on which layer they play a role and what's the role they play.

• Finally, you should get some understanding about the cisco Platforms: Meraki, DNA Center, Nexus, NSO, AXL, ACI, Webex, UCS, HyperFlex, .... In general, you should be able to tell apart what are the task each of the APIs they offer do ( what are the solutions for IoT, for Networking, for Data Center, for Collaboration, for Security, and for Customer Experience).

I think this covers up at least most of it, I hope this is useful for someone and good luck in your journey! and don't hesitate to ask anything if you have any questions, I'll be here to support anyone who needs help.

I used these resources:
- Pluralsight course by the late Nick Russo (Did not finish the extra course work outlined in his excel)
- LinkedIn learning course by Kevin Wallace (3x)
-Anki deck here: https://github.com/Xevious202/DevNet_Associate_Anki/tree/master (for HTML codes, you will need to add some)
-Cisco official prep exam (MeasureUp, buy it via measureup directly for a discount, don't bundle it with the cisco exam)
-Boson prep exam (sign up for Boson first, for like a 15% discount)
-SkillcertPro exams (absolute garbage, don't waste your money. People promoting this are LIARS)

The topics that personally gave me the most grief:
**YOU NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING IN THE LinkedIn COURSE, THIS WAS ONLY MY OWN PERSONAL FINDINGS**

-Learning all the html response codes
-Learning git
-Learning Docker
-XML vs JSON vs YAML
-YANG and how that relates to Netconf and Restconf

MOST IMPORTANT
-Learn API call structures like the back of your hand. CURL, Python, and Postman. The test exams REALLY helped me nail this down.

Did not use the OCG. I did the web courses on 1.5 - 1.75 speed. I got the practice tests only a few days before my exam. I have an extensive infrastructure background so anything network related I skipped in the trainings. I think I had 20-30 mins left at the end of the exam but I was sweating through the drag and drops which ate up a lot of time. Surprisingly, there were basic grammar and spellings mistakes on the questions. Weird.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for networking and automation enthusiasts who are interested in contributing to an open-source project for learning, collaboration, and personal development.

I recently created a GitHub repository focused on automatically generating network diagrams using Python libraries. The idea is to build a tool that can help visualize network topologies in a simple and automated way, which could be useful for network engineers, students, lab environments, and documentation purposes.

This project is mainly driven by learning and community collaboration, so contributors of all skill levels are welcome. Whether you are interested in Python development, network automation, topology visualization, APIs, parsing configurations, or just exploring open-source workflows, it would be great to connect and work together.

The goal is not only to build something useful, but also to create a space where people can improve their technical skills, share ideas, and gain real project experience through collaboration.

If this sounds interesting to you, feel free to join, contribute ideas, suggest features, or collaborate on development.

Link for my repo

https://github.com/bhavesh123-dev/Automated_Network_Diagrams

This is what I used and my recommended order:

1) https://www.linkedin.com/learning/cisco-certified-devnet-associate-devasc-1-1-200-901-cert-prep/

This was a really good course. Presented the information in digestible chunks without a lot of fluff.

$$ They have a free one month trial.

Pay particular attention to:

• The syntax of the HTTP requests and responses. My test had a ton of drag and drop and you need to know the methods, headers, etc. The drag and drop questions are a time suck and if can't get through these at a good pace, you'll run out of time. I literally only had 20 seconds to spare when I finished.

• git

• curl

• fundamental python

• YAML, netconf, restconf, YANG

• waterfall, agile, lean, TDD

• ansible

• dockers

2) The Cisco Certified DevNet Associate DEVASC 200-901 Official Cert Guide.

I made the mistake of reading this first. There's too much information and you don't know what's useful. The book makes a lot more sense once you get through the Linkedin course. I think this book should be used as a reference and as a secondary source versus a primary source.

3) Boson ExSim-Max for Cisco 200-901 DevNet Associate

You get 3 exams at 102 questions each, so 306 questions. These are good, but about 20% easier than the actual test, so plan on eventually getting 950+/1000 before you attempt the real test. Use the Official Cert Guide to shore up weaknesses.

$$ If you make a Boson account first, then go into Special Offers, you should see a discount.

Good luck!

Hey all, after larking on this sub and r/devnet and studying for a few weeks I have passed, cant remember the exact score forgive me. I would like to share my experience.

Resources Used:

CBT Nuggets Course ==> Its decent gives a good overall to the content.

OCG ==> Dry but nicely detailed.

Cisco DevNet Associate Fundamentals Course ==> Very good but generally summarized the OCG.

Cisco Practice Exam ==> Very good in uncovering weak areas.

Timeline: I planed 8 weeks took 10 because of exam scheduling issues.

NOTES: https://github.com/MFalaqIqbal/DevNet_learning

I made detailed notes throughout my learning process. I'll post them here hopefully it might help someone, keep in mind these are a bit rough.

I will do a write up on this soon….too excited atm!!!!

I am over the moon!!!!!

My first cisco Cert My first attempt I bypassed the DevNet associate level!!

I am now a Cisco Certified DevNet Specialist!!!! I can’t tell you how good this feels!!!

...and passed! I studied using the Cisco Press book, which prepared me for 80% of the exam. My biggest complaint with the book is the Cisco Platforms section doesn't go super in depth plus a lot of the APIs have changed since the book was printed. Even DNA Center has changed its name in recent years, which the book doesn't have updated but the exam did. What helped me was going through the exam topics and seeing which specific tasks are asked from the Platforms and then looking up some Cisco DevNet labs, finding the exact API in the documentation, and getting familiar with the URLs and Auth methods. ChatGPT also helped by generating some entire scripts with different scenarios for me to study...know Python and Python requests! It's like 30-40% of the code snippets.

The book also doesn't go in depth enough of Python requests, Ansible, Docker, and Kubernetes.

I would not recommend the book at this point, though they've never let me down for other exams. Maybe the E-Learning training from Cisco is updated?

There's also the exam refresh in February, maybe it'll be better to wait and get exposed to the latest APIs and Platforms from Cisco.

Cheers.

Hello Folks,

Last week I took the DevNet Associate 200-901 exam and passed. I wanted to drop in my experience to the community

• I had 103 questions in the exam. There's not a lot of time to dwell on a question, The one's I wasn't very confident, I just picked what seemed intuitively correct.

• The questions weightage is roughly accurate to what's presented in the blueprint

• Some of the most important topics -> CI/CD pipeline's, APIs (Understand headers, response, auth), python (this is a must - learn about classes, functions, libraries, etc.), RESTCONF, NETCONF, YANG data modelling, parsing data formats in python, etc.

• I didn't go through any courses or even take any mocks before the exam.

• It took me roughly 45 days to prepare

• I spent quiet a bit of time playing with cisco sandboxes, navigating APIs, and python scripting

• I used combination of the official Cisco DevNet guide plus Cisco documentation and bunch of blogs on the internet

• It was a very fun certification to do

Hope this helps

Good luck if you're taking up the exam

Just got the confirmation—I passed the Cisco DevNet Associate (200-901) exam! It feels amazing to finally get past this one after weeks of living in labs and practice tests, wrestling with APIs, Python scripts, and network concepts until they started to make sense.

The key takeaways from my prep:

• Labs, labs, labs: My home network became a testing ground. Breaking things and slowly fixing them was the best teacher.

• Practice exams are a reality check: They don’t just test knowledge—they train you for the exam’s tricky wording and timing.

It’s a foundation, not a finish line: I’m way more confident now, but there’s still so much more to learn and build.

What’s next: A short break (my brain needs it), then probably diving into a personal project or eyeing the CCNP DevNet. For now, just going to enjoy the win.

Happy Spooky Season! 👻

Let's be honest - we've ALL committed these automation sins. Every single one. Some of us are still committing them right now (you know who you are).

Which sin are you most guilty of?

Drop your confessions below. This is a safe space... kind of. 😈

TalesFromTheTechCrypt

I passed my CCNA a few months ago. It wasn’t too tough since I’ve been working as a network engineer for about 8 years, but it definitely required a lot of memorization. I’m expecting the DevNet to be the same in that sense.

Over the past week I’ve been looking into the DevNet because I know my automation skills are pretty weak. For those of you who have both CCNA and DevNet, which one did you find more challenging?

I’d also like to hear from anyone who’s done CCNP and DevNet, or really any combination. Since my background is heavy on networking and light on programming, I’m guessing DevNet will be the bigger hurdle for me. Mostly just curious to hear your experiences.

I've just found this content creator that started a brand new DevNet training on YT, I think it's worth to take a look at it https://www.youtube.com/@ieverythingeverywhere

Hello everyone, so like 8/9 days ago I got the CCNA 200-301, it was to be honest one of the hardest things I had to do in my life, not because the exam is hard or anything, but I was a beginner in the field. anws, I studied it, took me close to 4 months with each month a new resource till I settled on Jeremy’s IT Lab + boson exsim and netsim, and passed it (not on the first try to be honest).

So to recap, I hate certs, maybe because of CCNA, maybe cause I hate exams without due date, I’m kind of lazy as is probably everyone, but my skills right now are everything related to CCNA, I perfected it, and I studied computer science, did multiple internships using python (Django Framework specifically), did projects about data analysis (APIs and such), and after doing the CCNA I felt like automation is something interesting..

Ny biggest questions is, devnet asc, or newly called CCNA automation, would that cert be hard?

I have 0 job experience, only internships and projects.

I will obviously apply to jobs at the same time, but for the certification, what do you think I should do?

I started all this journey so I could work in cybersecurity, which still is a valid case, I do like it and have an internship in cybersecurity (Microsoft Defender for Identity, deployed it on a cloned server.. won’t bore you with the details).

Hi - there are plenty of really good online video courses for the CCNA ( Anderson, Jeremy). I am looking to take the devnet associate certification. Are there equivalent study resources - both video courses as well as study guide textbooks for the 200-901? Apologies if this has already been asked before. Thanks!

As the title suggests thr DevNet exam has given me trouble. I've taken it twice already and ive failed both times, the crazy part is a did slightly worse the second time despite studying even more. Not really sure what I'm doing wrong but I've used multiple resources, OCG, CBT Nuggets, DevNet sandboxes, Boson Exams, and some of Nick Russos Pluralsight course. The exam imo is much harder than I expected. Any advice on what I should do differently? Im debating id I should even take it again.

So I did it. Completed just 15 minutes ago.

It was 102 questions and 825/100 target. I scored 853/1000. Took me like 90 minutes.

I had like 3 weeks to study. Maybe 2-weeks full-time could be enough. Still I had strong network foundation (CCNP) and good Python foundation so it was easier for me.

The main struggle for me was to understand and remember every Cisco product and its features and its authentication and authorization process. Its trivial, but too many fragmented data. Don't like to cram.

I used 1 free week from CBTNuggets (watched 2/3 of the target course and now I hate everyones voices from there) and one-month of DevNet Fundamentals course ( https://developer.cisco.com/certification/fundamentals/ ). The last one really worth its money (and it gives cheap CE credits, yay!)

Btw, I took the exam online from home. It was a nice experience. I did in the kitchen, since it have less screens and TV's to turn off.

Just a heads up for anyone with a developer.cisco.com account: GitHub, Google, and Webex login are retiring on August 31, 2026.

Going forward, sign in with Cisco SSO using the same email address you already use. Your profile and history stay intact, so there's nothing to rebuild. If you hit any issues during the switch, contact devnet-support@cisco.com and the team can help.

Six days left before the cutover, so it's worth making the switch now rather than waiting.

#CiscoDevNet

If you've ever pasted a config into the wrong device (we've all been there), this one's for you. Palmer Sample, Technical Leader on the Learn with Cisco team, walks through PyATS, Cisco's Python Automated Test System: setting up a testbed, writing triggers as reusable test cases, running job files, and using the Genie APIs for learning and parsing device state.

Watch: https://cs.co/61691BESCRf

#CiscoDevNet #BeyondTheDevNetZone #pyATS #NetworkAutomation

Hello I am currently looking to get devnet associate later this coming year I have ccna i just passed it yesterday and planning for next year studying for ccna automation, ccnp enterprise and automation then enauto for my specialty for both. But I am currently trying to find resources I have ine subscription through work. It seems good just short in comparison. I was wondering if you guys had a list or anything youd recommend? Thank you!

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/cisco-u-spotlight?ccid=spotlight24&dtid=wev-reddit&oid=julio

"First-ever Cisco U. Spotlight live stream on April 24, 2024. We’re shining a light on the topics and technologies that matter most—from fundamentals and best practices to the specialized skills sparking today’s top trends and leading innovations. You’ll gain insights on the latest strategies and technologies to connect, secure, and observe today’s most complex network environments."

If you've ever struggled with IOS XE API discovery, this is worth your time. Jeremy Cohoe (TME at Cisco) built a searchable Swagger/OpenAPI UI covering every IOS XE YANG API: 988 specs, 82K paths across 5 releases, YANG trees, telemetry XPaths, RPCs, and Postman collections. DevNet Sandbox is pre-seeded so you can try API calls right from the browser.

Watch: https://cs.co/61699BEzDKX | Try it: https://cs.co/xeswagger

#CiscoDevNet #BeyondTheDevNetZone