Is CCNP Encor Really That Hard? Real Passing Experience
CCNP Encor 350-401 is a step-change above CCNA. Here's the real difficulty, what actually appears on the exam, and how long it takes.
'Is CCNP Encor Really That Hard?' is the question people ask before spending a week's salary on an exam voucher. This piece gives you the honest verdict on CCNP Encor - what makes it hard, where beginners get stuck, and a realistic path through it. No vendor marketing, just what actually happens on exam day.
Verdict up top: Hard. Everything below is why.
§The honest difficulty scorecard
| Signal | Reality |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 8/10 |
| Pass rate | ~45–50% |
| Study time | 250–350 hours |
| Format | 120 min, ~90 items, no lab |
§Why it's actually hard (or not)
- 120 minutes for 90+ scenario-heavy questions - pace kills more people than content
- OSPF, BGP, EIGRP shown at expert depth, not the CCNA summary level
- Wireless section is dense and CCNA barely touched it
- Automation, YANG, RESTCONF, Python basics - new territory for old-school Cisco engineers
- Virtualization (VRF, VXLAN, LISP) shows up in ways CBT videos oversimplify
§Where beginners struggle most
- BGP path selection order under exam pressure
- Wireless RF fundamentals - dBm, dBi, SNR, and roaming behavior
- Reading YANG models and matching to RESTCONF URIs
- Multicast basics (PIM sparse vs dense) most engineers never touched
"'Hard' is not the useful question - 'hard for whom, and hard how' is. Pick the right prep, ship the labs, and CCNP Encor becomes just another Tuesday."
§How to make it easier
- Kevin Wallace + Nick Russo courses back-to-back - different teaching styles cover each other's gaps
- Build a CML or EVE-NG lab with 6+ routers for BGP path selection labs
- Do 50+ pyATS or Ansible network automation labs - automation is 15% of the exam
- Boson ExSim Encor is the closest thing to the real exam
- Give yourself 4–6 months, not 8 weeks
§Difficulty vs adjacent certifications
| Cert | Difficulty | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CCNA | 6.5/10 | Feels like preschool after Encor |
| CCNP Encor | 8/10 | Broad + deep, painful pacing |
| CCIE Written (400-401) | 9/10 | Same scope, harder questions |
| JNCIS-ENT | 7/10 | Similar tier on Juniper side |
§Salary payoff after passing
| Role | Location | Salary band |
|---|---|---|
| Senior network engineer | Dhaka | BDT 120k–220k/month |
| Network consultant | Dubai | AED 18k–32k/month |
| Sr. network engineer | Riyadh | SAR 16k–28k/month |
| Remote network architect | Global | USD 55–95/hr |
§Bottom line
CCNP Encor is hard. If you follow the plan above, treat labs as non-negotiable, and book the exam at the score-based checkpoint, you'll pass with margin. The cert is a signal - pair it with real projects and it'll open the doors you're aiming at across Dhaka, Dubai, and Riyadh.
Certified practitioner and lead curriculum architect at KNScert. Writes about cert strategy, exam tactics, and the real-world skills employers actually pay for.
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