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CCNA 200-301 study plan: pass in 4 weeks

Updated October 9, 2026

Four weeks is realistic for the CCNA if you already work with networks or have studied them, and can give 10 hours a week. Start with addressing and infrastructure, because everything else depends on subnetting; add switching in week 2; routing in week 3; and finish with services, security and operations in week 4. With no networking background, plan eight to twelve weeks instead.

Before you start

  • Read the official v2.0 exam topics once. It is three pages and lists every objective.
  • Install Cisco Packet Tracer or another network simulator. You will configure and break something every week.
  • Take any free practice test cold, such as the 20-question test on this site. The score does not matter; the weakest domain does.
  • Decide how you will drill subnetting. Ten minutes a day beats two hours on Sunday.

Week 1: infrastructure and connectivity (25%)

Goal: subnet in your head and read an interface.

  • Subnetting: IPv4 prefixes from /8 to /30, network, broadcast and usable range, public versus private ranges, and VLSM.
  • IPv6: address types, prefix sizes, link-local, and modified EUI-64.
  • Interfaces and cabling: duplex and speed mismatches, collisions, CRC errors, copper versus fiber, straight-through versus crossover.
  • Wireless principles: 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, non-overlapping channels, RF characteristics, interference and security protocols.
  • Virtualisation: hypervisors, virtual machines, containers.
  • DHCPv4: DORA, relay with ip helper-address, troubleshooting a client with a 169.254 address.

Lab: a router with two subnets, a DHCP pool, a relay to a server on a third subnet, and one deliberate duplex mismatch to diagnose.

Week 2: switching and network access (25%)

Goal: build a loop-free, segmented Layer 2 network.

  • VLANs and trunks: access ports, 802.1Q, native VLAN, allowed VLAN list.
  • EtherChannel: LACP active/passive, consistent member configuration.
  • SVIs and inter-VLAN routing: router-on-a-stick versus a Layer 3 switch with ip routing.
  • Edge ports: voice VLAN, PoE, access points.
  • CDP and LLDP: validating documentation against reality.
  • Rapid PVST+: root bridge election, port roles and states, PortFast, BPDU guard, root guard, loop guard.

Lab: three switches in a triangle with two VLANs, a trunk, an LACP bundle, a chosen root bridge, and a PC on a PortFast port with BPDU guard that you trigger on purpose.

Week 3: IP routing (20%)

Goal: know why a packet takes the route it does.

  • Routing table: longest prefix match first, then administrative distance, then metric. Default routes.
  • Static routing: network, host, default and floating static routes for IPv4 and IPv6.
  • OSPF: single area OSPFv2 and OSPFv3; neighbor requirements (hello/dead, area, subnet, MTU); DR/BDR election on broadcast networks; router ID selection.
  • FHRP: HSRP and VRRP states, priority and preemption.

Lab: four routers with OSPF in area 0, a floating static backup default route, and an HSRP pair. Break adjacency by changing the hello interval, then fix it from show ip ospf neighbor and show ip ospf interface.

Week 4: services, security and operations (30%)

Goal: protect and operate the network.

  • AAA and management: local usernames, TACACS+ versus RADIUS, SFTP and SCP for files.
  • NAT/PAT: inside local, inside global, overload, verifying with show ip nat translations.
  • DNS: A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, PTR records.
  • VPNs: IPsec site-to-site versus remote access, tunnel versus transport mode.
  • ACLs: standard, extended, numbered, named; wildcard masks; placement.
  • Layer 2 security: DHCP snooping, dynamic ARP inspection, storm control, RA guard, port security.
  • Operations and AI: SNMP, syslog severity levels, Ansible, management approaches, agentic AI, prompt components.

Lab: PAT on an edge router, an extended ACL that blocks one service, port security on an access port, and an Ansible playbook that pushes a banner (if you have a Linux machine).

Finish the week with a full-length practice test under the 120-minute limit.

If you are already experienced

If you have run Cisco networks for a year or more, compress the plan to two weeks: day one on the topics document to find gaps, then focus on what daily work rarely touches. Typical gaps are IPv6 EUI-64, Rapid PVST+ port roles, floating static routes, wildcard masks, DNS record types, and the new AI and Ansible objectives.

How to know you are ready

  • You subnet any /8 to /30 in under 30 seconds without a calculator.
  • You score 85% or more on two different full-length practice tests.
  • You can read show ip route, show spanning-tree and show ip ospf neighbor and name the problem.
  • You have configured every item in the blueprint at least once, not just read about it.

See the study resources for official material and the cheat sheet for the last evening.