CCSP newbie

shepwad

Hi all,

I'm thinking of having a crack at CCSP, I'm already CCNP but would like to get to grips with the security elements that Cisco offers. Looking at the CCSP page on the cisco site it looks like a lot of the exams have recently been changed? and that there arent any self study guides for the new exams yet? I guess I start with the SND? Can anyone recommend a study guide for that exam? Realistically how long does it take to complete all 5 exams?

Any advice apreciated.
Shep

Ahriakin

I haven't looked over the latest changes but you can always try the old faithful of getting the latest exam guide and exam blueprint then filling in the blanks with Cisco.com documentation. Not as neat as a dedicated guide but it works. How long it takes depends on your experience/existing knowledge etc. I did mine with a few MSoft exams in between but all in all it took about 6 months, with your CCNP behind you and regular access to the equipment you could probably do faster. Cisco do recommend the SND first but just about everyone here agrees you're better off leaving it until last, at which point it's a breeze to do. But I'd only recommend that if you have already done some other Infosec courses (e.g. Security+) to give you the fundamentals that will help when studying the device specific exams, if you haven't then at least read over the SND recommended reading list even if you don't sit the exam, it'll be a good primer for the others - the biggest problem with the SND is that there are device specific questions and some sim.s, not to the depth of the indvidual exams but enough to throw you, with no real study guide (last time I checked anyway) it's very hard for you to gauge just how far you should go into each device for this one generalised exam, if you sit it last then you don't have to worry about that since you will already have delved deeper into each device and only need to bone up on Infosec principals.