The Cisco 200-201 exam is necessary for obtaining the Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate certification. It validates the candidates’ skills in performing security monitoring, understanding different security concepts, and developing procedures as well as policies in the security domain.

Candidates for 200-201 Test

The candidates who decide to take the 200-201 exam are interested in consolidating their knowledge of the fundamental Cisco cybersecurity operations. Luckily, this test doesn’t have any prerequisites for the examinees. However, it is recommended that they are familiar with Windows & Linux operating systems and have previously worked with TCP/IP and Ethernet models. What is more, the candidates who enroll in this evaluation are interested in consolidating their skills in managing security concepts and performing host-based and network intrusion analysis. Additionally, this test helps them learn about security monitoring and developing coherent policies that protect the company’s systems from malware, Trojans, and other unexpected threats.

Cisco 200-201 Exam Overview

Overall, the 200-201 evaluation has a total duration of 120 minutes. The vendor doesn’t offer details on the number of questions, type, and minimum passing score. Still, the candidates should prepare for a quite difficult test that will validate their skills in advanced security topics. The registration fee for this exam is $300, however, additional fees might apply depending on the country chosen for taking the test. Also, the Cisco 200-201 exam is available in the English language only. In all, the candidates have two options to schedule the final exam. Thus, they can choose to take the exam online. As long as they have a secure and stable internet connection, they can take the test from the comfort of their home. The second option would be to take the 200-201 test in an official test center available in their city. The registration process though should be performed on the Pearson VUE platform. The applicants will need to follow the instructions that appear on the screen and confirm the payment for the registration fee. Once all these steps are completed, they are eligible for choosing the option they prefer for taking the main test.

Topics Tested in Actual 200-201 Test

When they start preparing for the 200-201 evaluation, the candidates should begin with having a detailed look at the exam blueprint. In particular, it offers consolidated information on the topics tested during the exam and gives them a clear view of what’s expected from their side. Therefore, in case they want to get the passing score in the 200-201 test from the first attempt, the test-takers should gain knowledge of the following topics:

• Understanding how to manage and implement different security topics

  Within this chapter, the candidates will learn about managing the CIA triad and how to compare different types of security deployments. Additionally, they will gain expertise in using various security terms such as reverse engineering, threat intelligence, hunting, and threat actor. Besides, this section helps the candidates understand how to make the comparison between threat, vulnerability, exploit, and risk concepts. When they prepare for the 200-201 exam, the applicants should also learn about the principles they can apply in defense-in-depth strategy and how to compare the models involved in access control.

• Develop security monitoring strategy

  A successful candidate for the 200-201 exam should know how to differentiate the vulnerability from the attack surface. Additionally, the test-takers should be able to identify what data types are provided by NetFlow, web content, or email filtering technologies. When they reach this chapter, the test-takers will also learn that they should consolidate their knowledge of managing the impact that different encapsulation, tunneling, and other related technologies might have on data visibility and security monitoring. Additionally, the examinees should be able to identify the related certificate components while they work with PKCS, cipher-suite, X.509 certificates, and other similar scenarios.

• Performing host-based analysis

  This scope focuses on exploring the candidates’ skills in understanding the functionality particularities of different endpoint technologies. For example, they should learn about host-based firewalls, antivirus, antimalware, and so on. Also, the partakers who want to get certified should augment their dexterity in understanding the role played by attribution in an investigation and identifying what types of evidence they can use when working with logs.

• Providing network intrusion analysis

  The test-takers who want to pass the Cisco 200-201 exam from the first try should demonstrate good knowledge of mapping different types of events to its related source technology. Besides, examinees should know how to compare no impact and impact situations for false negative and positive or true positive and negative items. Other topics included in this section focus on validating the candidates’ skills in identifying an intrusion’s key elements after examining a PCAP file as well as Wireshark.

• Developing security procedures and policies

  The candidates who want to become skilled in keeping the organization’s systems secure should also know how to develop the proper policies as well as procedures to prevent any threats. Therefore, this chapter helps them understand how to document the concepts included in NIST.SP800-86 protocols or apply and manage incident handling phases and processes. The examinees will also increase their skills in describing management concepts or follow the NIST.SP800-61 process steps.

Career Path

A candidate who successfully passes the Cisco 200-201 exam can demonstrate to any international recruiter that s/he is proficient when it comes to security topics. Therefore, the exam-passers can apply to different related positions, such as:

• Security Engineer;
• Information Security Specialist;
• Network Engineer.

According to the benchmark developed by Payscale.com, a beginning Security Engineer can reach an annual salary of $63k. Also, if you decide to grow your career as an Information Security Specialist and clear the 200-201 exam, you can receive an annual salary of $77k. Finally, certified Network Engineers can ask for a yearly income of $75k.

Certification Path

As mentioned, the Cisco 200-201 exam is necessary for obtaining the Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate designation. As it is the last one from the Associate category of validations, the candidates can continue their certification path and enroll in the Professional certificates. For example, takers can follow the steps to obtain the Cisco Certified CyberOps Professional certification, which requires candidates to pass one core exam coded 350-201 and a concentration test with the code 300-215.