In a nutshell, the Cisco 400-007 CCDE certification exam is purposed to affirm an interested individual’s potential in creating networks according to the following specifications. In other words, passing this test showcases expert-level skills to design complex networks and guarantees to obtain the Cisco Certified Design Expert or just the CCDE v3.0 certificate.

Additional Exam Details

The 400-007 evaluation is to affirm technical expertise in developing complex scalable networks and is taken along with a practical evaluation in order to earn the CCDE certification.

The second test is a scenario-based hands-on exam that is taken in eight hours. This is a great way to validate, in a laboratory setting, the candidate's experience with key enterprise architecture technologies. In addition, you must show your expertise in your chosen area, which could be Large Scale Networks, On-Premises and Cloud Services, or Workforce Mobility.

Given that Cisco certifications keep pace with technology the exam content is often subject to change. Therefore, as of November 2, 2021, updated tests related to the CCDE v3.0 certification will be available.

Written Exam Details

Still, let's go back to the 400-007 written exam. This evaluation composes 90 to 110 questions and is allocated 2 hours to complete. You will meet MCQs, testlets, and other formats of questions, which are all delivered only in English.

Concerning delivery mode, Pearson VUE has the mandate to register and test concerned participants either through a supervised online test or an in-person setting. Anyway, the cost of registering for the final exam is $450.

The Topics Explored in this Exam

After the registration procedure, you can begin thorough preparations. And, to adequately training for 400-007 CCDE, keenly looking at its objectives is important. Therefore, technical skills in specific subject areas that may be tested are:

• Business strategy design (15%)

  To start, professionals who wish to pass the 400-007 evaluation will need to have knowledge and expertise in a couple of fields. The first is the skill to determine the effects of a variety of methods used in customer project management for network design, execution, along with optimization, for instance, agile and waterfall methodologies. The second skill area is the ability to provide solutions based on operational sustainability and business continuity.

• Control, management plane, data, as well as operational design (25%)

  The 400-007 test may also include questions that verify the comprehension of technologies for management plane, data, and control. For that, candidates will also need to be well conversant with the flow of end-to-end IP traffic in a network that has many features. Tasks concerning control planes that may be hybrid, centralized, or decentralized might be present. The candidate should also not forget about continued support, integration, in addition to automation design for networks. Finally, test-takers will have to demonstrate their solid knowledge about software-specific architecture and solution design based on the controller. This includes underlay, overlay, SD-WAN, and more.

• Network design (30%)

  The next portions of exam questions can be concerned with knowledge and skills for both traditional as well as software-driven architectures for developing various modular networks that must be resilient, flexible, and secure. To do this, the future expert must take into account execution plans, migration in addition to transformation, the behavior and requirements of an application, the necessities of a business, operational limitations and needs, and finally technical restrictions and needs.

• Service design (15%)

  Next, concerned participants for exam 400-007 should be tested on skills to design a network that is scalable, secure, as well as resilient. The aim of this is to support applications such as video, voice, replication of data center, storage, Internet of Things, along with backups on IP network. As well, candidates must be knowledgeable about solutions both hybrid or cloud in accordance with operations that are vital to the business may be included as well. The factors considered here are compliance with regulations, management of data, service placement, and security. Others are cloud connectivity such as WAN integration, MPLS direct connect, and cloud on-ramp. Meanwhile, PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS are also considered in these solutions.

• Security design (15%)

  Finally, the examinees for 400-007 will be tested on their knowledge of the design and homogenization of network security. This involves visibility, enforcement of the policy, segmentation, alongside the CIA triad. The others are compliance with regulations along with control of access to the network which the candidate will also be required to master when writing the final test.

Career opportunities

It’s important to note, that the Cisco 400-007 evaluation is suitable for professionals who have a desire to join the field as software engineers, network administrators, in addition to network engineers. These are highly lucrative job roles that are in demand due to the rapid development of technology. In more detail, companies are moving their operations to the cloud which means they need network architects and engineers to deliver secure and scalable networks that will enhance general business growth.

Referencing Payscale.com, the Network Engineer with Cisco networking skill earns on average $76k annually. Meanwhile, a Network Architect certified in Cisco networking can qualify for a salary of $124,439 per year.

It’s not a secret that these positions are highly sought after and provide some job security because of this fact. Moreover, passing the test and attracting the Cisco certificate of expert level means that you can get hired in any part of the world since you have been certified by a reputable vendor of IT products and solutions.

Career Path

As you already know, the CCDE v3.0 certificate indicates that an IT professional has reached the final stage of the Cisco certification pathway with the best expertise in networking. But this does not mean that the owner of this accreditation has nowhere to go. You may find that you want to retrain or change your technology field. In this case, Cisco can offer you different professional paths in Collaboration, Enterprise, Security, Service Provider, and others.

Alternatively, you can look at Cisco Certified Specialist Certifications that emphasize a narrower specialization. And a wide sector of directions will undoubtedly interest even the most fastidious specialist.