Rate the difficulty of these exams in order...

/usr

CCNA
Server+
Security+
MCSA

I want them all and have already ordered Sec+ material, but as I read over the board I'm seriously rethinking it...again. Are all of these certs around the same difficulty? BTW, I just mean the cert as a whole in reference to MCSA.

viper75

I think the CCNA is the most difficult one...from what I was told the new CCNA exam has some material from the CCNP exam according to my Cisco Academy Prof.

JDMurray

You have apples and oranges here. The MCSA is not an exam. It's a certification that is obtained by passing (at least) four exams. The CCNA exam has both a lab and a written test.

Of them all I'd say the Server+ is the easiest (6/10), and Security+ being somewhat more difficult (7/10). I don't have the other certs, so of them I can't say. How difficult anyone finds any exam depends largely on their experience with the exam's topics.

Webmaster

I would say CCNA is most difficult, mostly because of the large amount of details, the depth, the high passing score and the exam simulations.

There is not a separete written and lab test for the CCNA exam. You can take 1 exam with all the topics to become CCNA or 2 seperate test of which the first is similar to Network+ but a little more indepth and it includes basic router configuration. All three exams have multiple choice as well as drag-and drop and simulator questions. The simulator involves correcting/expaning 1 or more routers' configurations.

The new CCNA exam do include topics of the CCNP program, from 1 exam in particular: the BSCI exam, also known as the 'routing' exam. Topics include VLSM, advanced subnetting and more indepth questions about routing protocols such as ospf and eigrp.

I think Sec+ is more difficult than the Server+ or 1 of the MCSA exams (depending a lot on the elective you take), but the MCSA exams are typically harder than the regular CompTIA exams such as Server+.