Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate - 200-201 Info

R6Raven

I figured I'd put this up because I decided to take the new Cyberops exam but could find near-zero information about the exam, so I'm hoping someone else looking for info might find it useful. Some common questions I had:

- What's different from this one compared to the last?

A: I took the first of the two for the old one (but never finished it) so I can't say with certainty how similar or not they are, but it reminded me of the CCNA R/S exam in that you can only be tested on so much and everything at the same time.

- What did you use to study?

A: Not a whole lot since I Have over a decade in IT and my list of active certifications looks like a Scrabble board. Since there is so, so little official study info though I signed up for the CBTNuggets free week trial and focused on the second half material. Note: this is for the old exam and not the new one, but was still VERY relevant.

How long did you study?

A: One week with two days off. Combines, maybe 8-10 hours.

- What was on the exam?

A: I'm certainly not going to violate the NDA, but check out the exam outline provided by Cisco. It was vague, but actually very representative of what was on the exam. I did get some questions I thought were unreasonable (the wording was terrible and I left feedback for the same) and some where you have to interpret the output from an application you may or may not have used, but if you have broad knowledge on the subject you should be able to muddle through it.

- How does it compare to the other CCNA exams?

A: When I took the R/S I studied for weeks, took a bootcamp, and still failed the first time. This one was not nearly as hard, but if you're new to the security space it can be a lot of information. IF you've recently taken the ISC^2 SSCP though, you'll probably be alright.

- Should I take it?

A: It depends on what you want to get out of it. For me, I needed to renew my other Cisco certs and, surprisingly, this one renews the traditional ones as well. If you check your certification track on Cisco's site it doesn't list it as one which will renew them, but I opened a TAC case and they confirmed. If you want to gain additional security knowledge, you might, but remember it's a Cisco exam and therefore weighted toward their technology in some respects whereas others are vendor agnostic.

What was the format like?

A: Standard stuff (single answer, multiple choice, D&D). This was my first time taking a Cisco exam from home though and it was bit strange. I had to take pictures of my ID, my office, my face, etc., submit it all to the proctor, sit in "PearsonVue Purgatory," and after a few minutes the faceless proctor started my exam and watched me to be sure I didn't break any rules. Note, covering your face is one of those rules. It makes sense, but I tend to rest my hand over my mouth out of habit. This was more of an annoyance than anything, but I get it.

If anyone has any questions about something I did not cover let me know. Good luck with whichever certification you're going after next!

spiderjericho

Hi, I’m assuming you passed the exam. And you only studied only 8-10 hours?

What did you study? What other security certifications do you have?

For others, there’s a rough cut of the exam guide on O’Reilly if you have a subscription.

R6Raven

Wow, I guess I left out the answer to the most obvious... Yes, I did pass. I have my CISSP, SSCP, CISA, CISM, CRISC, CCNAx2, and a bunch of inactive certs. I only took this one to renew the CCNAs. Correct, I only studied 8-10 hours and focused solely on the CBT Nuggets videos for topics I wasn't certain about and the NIST docs in the exam outline.

c5rookie

@R6Raven  Based on what you mentioned here, "I only took this one to renew the CCNAs."  Did this actually renew your CCNA R/S ?  I have not gotten a straight answer from Cisco, and from what answers they were giving me, taking the CyberOps exam would NOT renew my CCNA R/S certification.  Hopefully you can validate or debunk what Cisco was trying to tell me. Thanks!

yoba222

When I passed CCNA Cyber Ops in 2018, it renewed my 2016 R&S and pushed its expiration out to 2021. Hmm that's next year....
Seeing as Cisco retired the CCNA Cyber Ops and now offers the Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate, I'm not confident that taking it would renew a CCNA.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications/certifications/associate/ccna-cyber-ops.html

R6Raven

@yoba222 is correct that they retired the CCNA CyberOps along with the rest of the associate level specialty exams in favor of the plain CCNA and the Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate. I was *only* going to take this test again if it did in fact renew my CCNA so I opened a TAC case and had them confirm before I went. Technically my CCNA R/S and CCNA Security are collapsed into that one CCNA cert now and my CyberOps one is separate, but it DID extend my CCNA.

I just logged into my Certmetrics account to be sure 'cause y'all were making me question TAC again but it's still there 

JDMurray

This Cisco Recertification page indicates that passing any Associate cert exam will recertify any other Associate cert. I assume this is regardless of the track either cert is on, so CyberOps Associate would renew CCNA.

The information on this Cisco Recertification page is severely out of date and should not be used.

R6Raven

Yeah, what I didn't understand when I was looking into it - the re-certification page lists the *exact* exams you can take to renew the CCNA and (at least when I looked) the old CCNA CyberOps tests were on there, but the new CCNA CyberOps was nowhere to be found. That's why I opened a case and had them confirm before I spent $300 on a cert I didn't need in case I had to spend it studying for and renewing the CCNA separately.

yoba222

I'm under the impression you can also renew by dropping $1500 on one of their Cisco approved on-demand training courses. I suspect their target audience for these are large companies that are deeply entrenched in the Cisco ecosystem and have training credits available to employees that would cover this expense.

Over the years I've lost considerable admiration and respect for Cisco for this kind of behavior and get the impression that Cisco is so large that they aren't fully ware of what their own company is even doing. Totally unwarranted opinion on my end, I know. Based on Internet anecdote, it's possible to weasel your way through a renewal by subscribing to a few of the "bottom offerings" of those on-demand courses that happen to be free of charge. As long as it adds up 30 CEs, good to go. Even if the trainings are largely unrelated to the content of the intended CCNA. Back to my so-large theory on that one.