JNCDS-WAN study guide
JNCDS-WAN · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
JNCIA-Design, also listed as Design, Associate, is the associate-level certification in the Juniper Networks design track. It is aimed at networking professionals and designers with beginner-level knowledge of network design, theory and best practices, and the written exam verifies understanding of network design fundamentals rather than hands-on configuration skill. There is no prerequisite certification. The published objectives group the material under six headings: customer network design requirements (life-cycle approach, proposal boundaries, greenfield versus brownfield, top-down design, capacity planning, product roles); securing the network (general security design, data center and campus WAN security, zero trust, SASE); network management or reliability (business continuity, link and device redundancy, ESI LAG, SRX firewall redundancy, virtual chassis, automation and management strategy); campus and branch LAN design (modular and VLAN design, EVPN-VXLAN, oversubscription ratios, WLAN design phases and RF planning); campus and branch WAN design (WAN connectivity, VPN, high availability, SD-WAN); and data center design (fabric architectures, IP fabric, spine-and-leaf placement, underlay and overlay). The JNCDS-WAN study guide has 6 sections and about 1,346 words.
01Customer Network Design Requirements
This domain tests whether you can turn business goals into a Juniper-appropriate WAN design, not just list products. Expect requirements gathering, constraints, availability targets, growth, and trade-off reasoning.
257 words, about 1 min02Securing the Network
This domain examines security design for Juniper SRX Series and Junos OS: zones, policies, IPsec, NAT, segmentation, and secure management. Default-deny between zones; permit only required applications and addresses.
243 words, about 1 min03Network Management or Reliability
This domain tests design for manageability and resilience in Junos networks: OOB access, telemetry, configuration safety, and high-availability mechanisms. Build out-of-band management with a dedicated VRF, console servers, and ACLs.
209 words, about 1 min04Campus and Branch LAN Design
This domain covers Juniper EX and QFX LAN design for campuses and branches: hierarchy, VLANs, spanning tree, MC-LAG, PoE, and access security. Use a hierarchical access-aggregation-core model; collapse core and aggregation in small branches.
222 words, about 1 min05Campus and Branch WAN Design
This domain tests WAN topology and transport choices for branches: MPLS, Internet, IPsec, SD-WAN, routing, and QoS. Choose topology from traffic patterns: hub-and-spoke for centralized DC, partial mesh for peer traffic.
213 words, about 1 min06Data Center Network Design
This domain covers Juniper QFX data center design: spine-leaf, EVPN-VXLAN, IP fabric, and DC interconnect. Build a spine-leaf IP fabric with eBGP underlay; use ECMP and avoid STP in the fabric.
202 words, about 1 min