Cisco CCNP Enterprise — ENCOR core exam
CCNP Enterprise is a professional-tier certificate built from two exams: the ENCOR core paper covering enterprise infrastructure, virtualisation, assurance, security and automation, plus one concentration exam of your choosing.
Two hours for the core, no prerequisites, and a structure people routinely misunderstand.
Exam facts
- Exam code
- 350-401
- Level
- Professional
- Field
- Networking
- Duration
- 120 minutes
- Questions
- count not published; multiple choice, drag-and-drop and lab-style items
- Passing score
- pass/fail — Cisco does not publish the cut score
- Languages
- English, Japanese
- Price
- 400 USD (read 12 September 2026)
- Validity
- 3 years, renewable
- Exam delivery
- Pearson VUE (test centre or online proctored); registration through the Cisco Certification Tracking System
Prerequisites: None enforced. Cisco recommends three to five years of enterprise networking experience; the CCNA is the natural base but not required.
Renewal: Pass any professional-level or higher Cisco exam, or earn 40 Continuing Education credits within three years; passing ENCOR also renews an existing CCNA
Source: exam page at Cisco · Price: Core exam ENCOR, per Cisco's certification page (read 2026-09-12); the concentration exam needed for the full CCNP costs 300 USD on top. Cisco Learning Credits accepted.
How to prepare
1. The vendor's free learning path
Cisco publishes the exam objectives and a learning path free of charge — the authoritative source for scope and weighting. Open the learning path (opens in a new tab)
2. Online courses
Courses and practice questions from the directory that target exactly this exam — details, price and the provider link (affiliate) are on the course page.
3. A practice test in the exam format
MeasureUp sells a practice test for 350-401 with questions in the exam format, an explanation for every answer and a timed mode; the price shows in your currency on the shop page. Affiliate link.
Practice test for 350-401 at MeasureUp (opens in a new tab)Book the exam
Delivered by Pearson VUE (test centre or online proctored); registration through the Cisco Certification Tracking System. Schedule with Cisco (opens in a new tab)
Affiliate disclosure: the course and practice-test links above are affiliate links — buying through them may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. The vendor's learning path and booking links carry no commission.
The structure is the thing to get right first
- The core exam alone is not the certificate. ENCOR must be paired with a concentration exam before CCNP Enterprise exists.
- Concentration exams are shorter and cheaper, and cover advanced routing, SD-WAN, design, automation, cloud connectivity or network assurance.
- Two fees, two bookings, two sittings, which is the part budgets miss.
- Passing ENCOR alone still earns a specialist credential, so stopping at that point still leaves you with something.
- ENCOR moved to version 1.2 in March 2026, so material written for the previous version is now out of date.
Choose the concentration by the work rather than by difficulty. An engineer heading toward large routed networks and one heading toward network programmability end up with the same certificate name and substantially different skills, and interviewers who know the scheme will ask which concentration you took. Picking whichever seems easiest produces a credential that describes somebody you are not.
Core and concentration, side by side
| Aspect | ENCOR 350-401 (core) | Concentration (one of six) |
|---|---|---|
| Time | 120 minutes | 90 minutes |
| Fee | 400 USD, or Cisco Learning Credits | 300 USD each |
| Languages | English, Japanese | Varies by exam |
| Choices | One paper | ENARSI 300-410, ENSDWI 300-415, ENSLD 300-420, ENAUTO 300-435, ENCC 300-440, ENNA 300-445 |
| What it earns alone | A specialist credential | Nothing without the core |
What version 1.2 weights
Infrastructure is the largest domain at 30 percent: routing, switching, wireless and the services that sit on them. Security follows at 20, then architecture and automation at 15 each, with virtualisation and network assurance at 10 apiece. The automation share is the one that surprises engineers who came up through the command line, because it assumes you can read a script and an API response and know what a controller-based network does differently. Cisco does not publish the question count or the cut score; the paper is pass or fail, and it mixes multiple choice with drag-and-drop and lab-style items that expect you to work rather than recognise.
Renewal renews the rung below as well
The certificate runs three years. Keep it by passing any professional-level or higher Cisco exam, or by earning 40 continuing-education credits inside the window. Passing ENCOR also renews an existing CCNA, so an associate holder climbing to this tier gets the CCNA renewed at the same time.
Cisco enforces no prerequisite and recommends three to five years of enterprise networking experience, with the CCNA as the natural base. Read the recommendation as a description of who passes: the paper assumes you have run a network large enough to need the design, assurance and automation material it examines, and candidates coming straight from the associate tier find the breadth rather than any single topic to be the obstacle. Book the concentration while the core material is still fresh, because the two overlap and the gap between sittings is where people stall.
What a question looks like
Written by us in the exam's style. It is not a real question from any question bank, and we do not publish those.
An enterprise runs a routed network with multiple paths between sites. After a link failure, traffic recovers but takes a suboptimal path and stays there after the original link returns. Routing adjacencies are stable throughout. What behaviour explains this and what would you change?
Nothing is broken, which is what makes it a professional-tier question. The network is doing exactly what it was configured to do, and the candidate has to recognise which protocol behaviour produces persistence rather than reversion, then decide whether changing it is desirable. Associate-level preparation teaches what protocols do; this tier asks what they do that you did not intend.
What it costs to get and to keep
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Core exam, ENCOR 350-401 | 400 USD | Cisco's page quotes this figure and notes that Learning Credits may be used instead where an employer holds them (read 12 September 2026) |
| Concentration exam | 300 USD | each of the concentration papers is priced at this level and runs ninety minutes; one is required for the certificate (read 12 September 2026) |
| Renewal every three years | not published | pass any professional-level or higher Cisco exam, or earn continuing-education credits. The credit requirement at this tier is higher than at associate level (read 12 September 2026) |
How much preparation, from where you are
- You hold the CCNA and run enterprise networks
- The intended candidate. Expect automation and assurance to need the most work, because they are the areas many enterprise teams have not yet adopted and the syllabus assumes they have.
- You have years of experience and no certificate
- Common at this tier, and the risk is assuming experience covers the syllabus. It covers the parts your employer uses; the exam covers the parts Cisco sells. Map the topics against what you have actually touched before booking.
- You came through the automation associate exam
- You will find ENCOR's programmability section straightforward and its traditional infrastructure content demanding. Consider the automation concentration, where your existing strength compounds.
What passing this does not prove
- Your choice of concentration, which decides what you can actually do.
- Design at architectural scale, which sits at the expert tier above.
- Anything about operating under a change-freeze with a business waiting.
- Equipment from other manufacturers, in a market where mixed estates are ordinary.
Against the alternatives
- 200-301 — Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
- The associate tier beneath, not required but assumed in substance. Passing anything here renews it.
- AZ-305 — Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
- Microsoft's architect exam answers a different question about cloud design rather than enterprise networking. They overlap only where a network reaches into a cloud, which is increasingly often.
- 200-901 — Cisco CCNA Automation (formerly DevNet Associate)
- A cheaper way to cover the programmability material if that is the direction you want, and it does not require the core exam.
350-401 — quick answers
Is ENCOR enough on its own?
Not for CCNP Enterprise. The core exam plus one concentration exam makes the certificate. Passing ENCOR alone does earn a specialist credential, so the work counts for something, but anyone budgeting for one exam and expecting the professional certificate has budgeted for half of it.
Which concentration should I choose?
The one matching the work you want. They differ substantially in content while producing the same certificate name, and interviewers familiar with the scheme will ask which you sat. Choosing on perceived difficulty gives you a credential that describes somebody else.
Does the version change affect me?
Only through your preparation material. ENCOR moved to version 1.2 during March 2026, so anything written for the previous version is out of date. The certificate itself does not name a version.
Why does Cisco not publish a passing score?
Cisco reports pass or fail and keeps the cut score and the question count to itself, which it is entitled to do and which makes practice-test percentages a poor predictor. Aim to be comfortable across every domain rather than strong in some, because you will not know which items counted.
Can I pay with Cisco Learning Credits?
Yes, for the core exam, and the certification page says so. Employers who buy Cisco equipment often hold credits that expire unused, so ask before paying the fee yourself.
What comes next
Concepts this exam draws on
Glossary entries with the reason each one matters for 350-401.
- Load Balancing
Enterprise design questions involve traffic engineering, redundancy and first-hop protocols.
- SSL/TLS
Security domain: MACsec, TLS in REST API security, zero trust and SASE.
- Routing
Infrastructure is the largest domain and advanced routing protocols are most of it.
- Switching
Layer-two infrastructure, spanning tree variants and multi-chassis designs are core material.
- VLAN
Trunking, VLAN design and inter-VLAN routing at enterprise scale.
- Wi-Fi
Enterprise wireless architectures and roaming are examined alongside the wired infrastructure.
- Subnetting
Addressing plans for large enterprise networks, including IPv6, sit in the infrastructure domain.
Last reviewed 12 September 2026 · Getting Digital