Cisco Certified Design Professional Certification

Falling under the Network Engineering and Design heading, the CCDP begins where the CCDA ends. It is an intermediate-level certification and as Cisco says, its "journeyman" and "advanced" knowledge of network design. Routed and switched networks involving LAN, WAN and dial access services" for installations of up to 500 nodes, can be designed by its holder. The CCDP requires both CCNA and CCDA as prerequisites, for its candidates to be entrenched with its basic knowledge.

This professional-level certification, the CCDA requires multiple sets of examinations; two or three depending upon the options that are availed. Since the two-exam track requires taking a Foundations exam that basically combines three of the individual exams in the four-exam track, they differ neither in subject matter nor coverage. The two-exam track costs less than the three-exam track, but candidates are required to grill themselves over studying it for much longer, and more intensely, as a trade-off. Due to their professional status, CCDPs are more likely to be able to find employment based on that very credential (though the importance and validity of on-the-job experience cannot be overstated or overrated).

CCDP Exams

Two-Exam Track:

• 642-892 Composite Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI)/Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN)
• 642-873 ARCH Designing Cisco Network Service Architectures (ARCH)

Three-Exam Track:

• 642-901 BSCI Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI)
• 642-812 BCMSN Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN)
• 642-873 ARCH Designing Cisco Network Service Architecture (ARCH)

CCDP certifications are valid for three years. To recertify, any 642 exam that is part of the professional level curriculum after 01/01/06, or a current CCIE or CCDE written exam is supposed to be passed. CertPaper offers study supplements for all the CCDP related exams.