ENCOR FAQs & Tips

In this article, I will try to summarize all the Frequently Asked Questions in the ENCOR 350-401 v1.1 Exam. Hope it will save you some time searching through the Internet and asking your friends & teachers.

1. Please tell me how many questions in the real ENCOR exam, and how much time to answer them?

You have 120 minutes to answer 102 questions, include multiple choice and drag drop questions. There are some lab sims (from 3 to 4) in this exam currently. But if your native language is not English, Cisco allows you a 30-minute exam time extension. But there are a few requirements to get this extension, so the best way is asking your teacher or mentor before taking the exam.

2. How much does the ENCOR 350-401 cost? And how many points I need to pass the exam?

This exam costs $400. You need at least 825/1000 points to pass this exam. But you will no longer see your exam score after your test. You will only see if you passed or failed as well as details on each section performance (in percent). Sometimes you will see the status remains “Score Pending” and you have to wait for a few days (up to 72 business hours) in order for the PearsonVUE portal to reflect your actual score (“Pass” or “Fail”).

3. I passed the ENCOR exam, will I get a CCNP certificate for it?

No, ENCOR is only the core exam of the CCNP Enterprise certification. In order to get the CCNP Enterprise certification, you need to pass the ENCOR exam and one of the following concentration exams:
– 300-410 ENARSI: Implementing Cisco Enterprise Advanced Routing and Services (ENARSI)
– 300-415 ENSDWI: Implementing Cisco SD-WAN Solutions (ENSDWI)
– 300-420 ENSLD: Designing Cisco Enterprise Networks (ENSLD)
– 300-425 ENWLSD: Designing Cisco Enterprise Wireless Networks (ENWLSD)
– 300-430 ENWLSI: Implementing Cisco Enterprise Wireless Networks (ENWLSI)
– 300-435 ENAUTO: Implementing Automation for Cisco Enterprise Solutions (ENAUTO)

For example, you need to pass the ENCOR and ENARSI exam to get the CCNP Enterprise certificate.

4. So which concentration exam should I choose to complete my CCNP Enterprise cert?

First you should understand each of the concentration exams above:

– In ENARSI exam you will learn more about routing (EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, VPN & VRF-Lite) and services  (DHCP, AAA, SNMP, uRPF, IP SLA, NetFlow), mainly about how to troubleshoot them.
– In ENSDWI exam you will learn mainly about Cisco SD-WAN architecture (about vBond, vSmart, vManage and vEdge) and how they work. If your company is using them or you have a special reason to know about them then you should learn this exam.
– In ENSLD exam you will learn how to design popular routing protocols, WAN; describe SD-Access and SD-WAN.
– Two exams ENWLSD and ENWLSI will teach you about Wireless in detail
– The ENAUTO exam allows you to learn how to program and automate your network with APIs (JSON, XML, YANG; NETCONF and RESTCONF) using Python. The “network” here includes IOS XE devices, Cisco DNA Center, Cisco SD-WAN and Cisco Meraki.

In the above exams, only the ENARSI exam teach you about “traditional” network. If you don’t have any special reason to learn other exams then it is the most suitable exam for you. If you used to learn how to program/code then the ENAUTO is also a recommended exam to take.

If you are still in doubt about any exam then we recommend you to find the syllabus of that exam and have a closer look by yourself before deciding, just google it (with keyword: “syllabus” + that exam name). We don’t post direct links here because the subjects of these exams may change in the future so we wish you to find the latest syllabuses of these exams.

5. In the real exam, I clicked “Next” after choosing the answer, can I go back for reviewing?

No, you can’t go back so you can’t re-check your answers after clicking the “Next” button.

6. What are your recommended materials for ENCOR?

There are many options you can choose, but below are materials used and recommended by many candidates:

Recommended Books

• CCNP and CCIE Enterprise Core ENCOR 350-401 Official Cert Guide 2nd Edition by Brad Edgeworth, Ramiro Garza Rios, Jason Gooley, David Hucaby
• CCNP and CCIE Enterprise Core & CCNP Enterprise Advanced Routing Portable Command Guide: All ENCOR (350-401) and ENARSI (300-410) Commands in One Compact, Portable Resource 1st Edition
  by Patrick Gargano, Scott Empson
• 31 Days Before Your CCNP and CCIE Enterprise Core Exam by Patrick Gargano

Video training

• CBT Nuggets
• INE

Simulator (all are free)

• GNS3 – the best simulator for learning ROUTE
• Packet Tracer
• EVE-NG

7. Are the exam questions the same in all the geographical locations?

Yes, the exam questions are the same in all geographical locations. But notice that Cisco has a pool of questions and each time you take the exam, a number of random questions will show up so you will not see all the same questions as the previous exam.

8. I passed the ENCOR exam. Do you have any site similar for CCNP Enterprise exams?

We have certprepare.com for CCNP Enterprise ENSDWI (a concentration exam of CCNP Enterprise certification) and networktut.com for ENARSI (another concentration exam of CCNP Enterprise certification).

We also have other sites (but only for sharing experience) like voicetut.com for Voice/Collaboration track, securitytut.com for Security track, dctut.com for Data Center track, sptut.com for Service Provider track, wirelesstut.com for Wireless track, opstut.com for DevNet track. Hope you enjoy these sites and find useful information too!

9. How many CCNP tracks does Cisco support now?

Cisco supports 7 CCNP tracks, which are:

1. CCNP Enterprise
2. CCNP Security
3. CCNP Service provider
4. CCNP Collaboration
5. CCNP Data Center
6. Cisco Certified DevNet
7. Cisco Certified CyberOps

In each track, you need to pass a dedicated core exam then pass one concentration exam of that track. Please check the picture below for more detail:

Note: With these new tracks, CCNA is no longer a prerequisite for CCNP. You can go directly for CCNP certs. But the knowledge of CCNA is highly recommended if you want to reach CCNP.

10. I passed (old) CCNP but my CCNP cert is going to expire and I want to recertify it. Which exam should I get?

According to Cisco Recertification Policy page, you need to complete one of the following things:

– Pass one technology core exam
– Pass any two professional concentration exams
– Pass one CCIE lab exam

Therefore if you only want to take one exam to recertify then you must pass the ENCOR 350-401 exam or any technology core exam of other tracks (for example the DCCOR 350-601 of Data Center track or the SCOR 350-701 of Security track).

Also if you earn 80 CE credits then you can also recertify your CCNP Enterprise cert.

Is there anything you want to ask? Just ask! All of us will help you.