CCNP Enterprise study plan

Draw a three-tier campus topology and label the L2/L3 boundary, STP root placement, and where FHRP and routing adjacencies live.

Compare OSPF area types (backbone, stub, totally stubby, NSSA, totally NSSA) and state which LSAs each one suppresses.

Map a PIM-SM multicast flow from first-hop router to last-hop router and identify the role of the rendezvous point and the source tree.

Explain the SD-WAN architecture in terms of controller, underlay, and overlay, and describe how OMP distributes routes and policy.

Distinguish StackWise, VSS, and vPC at the control-plane and data-plane level and give one failure scenario for each.

Build a comparison table of VLAN, VXLAN, LISP, and GRE showing encapsulation header, identifier space, and control plane used.

Trace a packet through a VXLAN fabric step by step: ingress VTEP encap, underlay transit, egress VTEP decap, and where the distributed anycast gateway answers ARP.

Describe SD-Access fabric roles (control-plane node, edge node, border node, fusion router) and explain which node performs which lookup.

Explain vPC peer-link and peer-keepalive functions, then walk through what happens when the peer-link fails versus when the keepalive fails.

Compare hypervisor-level overlays with network-level overlays and state one operational trade-off for each.

Configure and verify a multi-area OSPFv2 topology across at least three routers in a virtual lab and confirm adjacency states and LSDB contents.

Configure eBGP peering with a route reflector and prove best-path selection by forcing three different tie-break steps.

Implement HSRP or VRRP with preemption and object tracking, then trigger a tracked-object failure and capture the failover.

Configure EtherChannel with LACP in both active/passive modes and explain how the hashing algorithm affects a specific flow.

Tune EIGRP or OSPF metrics with offset-list or distribute-list so that a specific prefix takes an engineered backup path, and verify with traceroute.

Configure syslog to a collector, SNMPv3 with auth and priv, and NetFlow export on a lab device, then verify each data stream arrives.

Design an IP SLA probe (ICMP echo plus jitter) and interpret the resulting statistics to declare a path degraded.

Compare SNMP polling with model-driven telemetry (gNMI/gRPC with YANG models) on cadence, scale, and data fidelity.

Use SPAN or ERSPAN to capture a specific flow and analyze it in Wireshark, isolating at least one retransmission or MTU issue.

Walk the Catalyst Center assurance workflow from client onboarding failure to root-cause view and list the evidence each screen contributes.

Configure 802.1X with MAB fallback on a switch port and verify authentication and authorization for both a supplicant and a non-supplicant device.

Explain how SGTs are propagated inline versus via SXP and how an SGACL enforces policy between two groups.

Build an IKEv2 site-to-site IPsec tunnel and verify phase 1 and phase 2 status plus encrypted traffic flow.

Describe MACsec on a wired link: where encryption terminates, key agreement, and the effect on an inline capture.

Compare Cisco ISE deployment models (standalone, distributed, and pxGrid integration) and match each to a scale scenario.

Write a Python script using requests or netmiko to collect show ip interface brief from two devices and parse the output into structured data.

Author an Ansible playbook that pushes a configuration change with the ios_config module and verifies it with ios_command.

Query a device over NETCONF or gNMI using a specific YANG model and extract one operational value.

Write a short comparison of RESTCONF, NETCONF, and gNMI covering encoding, transport, and the use case each fits best.

Explain how a Python or EEM-based compliance check compares running config against a golden template and flags drift.

Re-drill the four heaviest domains using missed practice questions, re-teaching each concept from primary documentation rather than memory.

Redraw the VXLAN packet walk and the campus topology from memory and diff against your week 1 and week 2 artifacts.

Reconfigure the one lab scenario that failed in week 3 until it passes twice in a row without notes.

Build a one-page decision table for routing protocol selection, overlay choice, and first-hop redundancy based on scenario cues.

Sit two full-length timed practice exams under exam conditions with no pauses or notes.

Re-teach every missed item from domains 4, 5, and 6 until you can explain the concept aloud without prompts.

Review the week 7 error log end to end and confirm each entry is genuinely closed.

Rehearse exam-day logistics: time-per-question budget, flagging strategy, and review-pass plan.