Dear Reader,
It’s been a long time since we’ve connected; unfortunately, I haven’t been able to post here as much as I’d have liked over the past 2–4 years. I had plans—for example, to write the usual Techtorial/ITBN experience reports, network security case studies, and even some documentation of my CCIE Service Provider preparation.
Sadly, none of that happened—and I won’t be catching up. What’s in the past is already gone.
In exchange, there are now plenty of exciting areas worth exploring, especially for those interested in networking. For example, the rise of AI in network monitoring and management systems, or “new,” paradigm-shifting solutions like segment routing.
Currently, my main focus is on the CCIE exam and its successful outcome, so I’ll soon write a brief experience report about Segment Routing and other related innovations, such as FlexAlgo, PCE, or NetConf/NSO and similar technologies—which, while they may not fundamentally change the traditional MPLS/BGP architectures, they definitely impact them.
Before that, let me sketch out the events of the big day and some thoughts around it.
Exam Policy
You know very well I can’t share specifics about the exam. However, I can say that, alongside the official exam topics, Cisco’s practice labs provide an excellent foundation for anyone attempting the certification a second time, giving them a greater chance of success.
Naturally, this is similar to the Football World Cup/Euro or Champions League: whoever scores the most goals advances. I managed to succeed this time in the rematch. 🎉
The CCIE is a bit different from what the legends say. In the old 8-hour lab, there was: Deploy, Optimize, Troubleshoot… and you could use your time “freely”—as long as you fit everything into 8 hours. In the current format, as the official guides describe, there are fixed 3 hours for design, and fixed 5 hours for deployment, troubleshoot, and optimization tasks. At first, it feels like an 8-hour lab session squeezed into 5 hours. But with enough practice—even for someone less IT-proficient like me, who can’t touch type perfectly—the implementation can be done in 3.5–4.5 hours (including double-checking).
If you’re preparing for this exam, my advice is: five hours isn’t much, so practice every possible configuration scenario at skill level.
For example, it’s not enough to know how to create an IGP template with group configuration; it’s worth seeing the whole picture—even if I can’t fully describe it without specifics. It’s useful to know how to keep IGP and MPLS in sync, and how much to rely on or deviate from basic IGP settings on IOS-XE and IOS-XR.
Exam Preparation
So, when you prepare, try to work through complex tasks and have configuration solutions ready for various scenarios. It’s not enough just to know the basics and advanced settings of IGP/MPLS/Segment Routing or BGP. The main topics’ questions are generally clear, but there are hidden hints that you might need to modify certain bits to complete a task. Sometimes there’s no direct connection between the logs and configs—you need to find the best solution. Don’t be surprised; this is a CCIE exam, not a kids’ party.
The Last Day of Preparation
It might be worth writing a separate post about the tools I used for preparation. For now, I’ll say that besides EVE-NG, I took advantage of Cisco Modeling Lab, which is free up to five nodes, with no extra license needed.
Design
Thanks to the fixed time, you can comfortably think through the design part, which you'll need since they'll guide you through a case with an enormous description – it takes about half an hour/20 minutes just to read it through once. In many cases, you can find the right answer within it, but in certain situations, it can also be misleading, so it's worth thinking through each question thoroughly, but!
Since the entire exam is mentally very demanding, I suggest going through the design part as quickly as possible while ensuring you've answered in the best possible way, and don't overthink. After 1.5-2 hours, it's better to move on to the deployment/optimize/operate part so that your brain can start the grinding as fresh as possible.
Deployment, Optimize, Operate
It’s worth reviewing deployment tasks briefly before you start churning through them, so you can see which depend on each other. When implementing, I recommend completing tasks separately, with configuration and verification written together for each part. Usually, these exams feature a main “attraction” related to all sections, which is time-consuming and complex—and you can easily mess it up, yet it’s not worth many points. To solve it, you need a fresh mind and sharp focus; here, time management is critical:
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If you start before lunch, at least reach the verification step by lunchtime.
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If the proctor is nice, ask for a little more time if you feel you’ll finish by lunch.
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Try not to be under a time crunch in this part (although the whole exam feels like a time crunch).
Unfortunately, I pushed myself into a time crunch by asking for five extra minutes until the lunch break, thinking I'd finish just in time. But, in the end, I made a mistake (the BGP didn’t come together), so I had to fix everything after lunch. That 1–2 minutes as they stood over me saying “it’s lunch” while I was still searching was stressful—but I survived it in the end. ;-)
Issue Spotting
Luckily, it’s easy to spot these “tricks” in the tasks. Maybe only one task penalized me for following/not following the written instructions, and there’s one at the end that can ruin the whole exam if not done carefully. Fortunately, it's not a complex task, but its execution order is tricky at first, requiring solid IOS XR and IOS XE configuration skills—but it's doable.
End
So, having finished all the tasks, what should you do or not do?
The first time, I barely completed all tasks; there was no time for double checks, but I doubt that would have helped—no one else in this track succeeded until September that year. I just exited config mode and checked accessibility.
The second time, I had 1–1.5 hours left of the five; I calmly checked all command outputs for verification, already in privileged exec mode. After that, I still had 30–20 minutes left, and saw no point in reviewing again—felt I'd only make it worse—so I submitted the exam at around 15:00, left for my accommodation, and awaited the result, counting down due to the 24-hour policy (luckily, I got a US Pacific Time proctor), and got the good news at 17:30. This is why a Friday exam is preferable—maybe.
Thanks & Gratitude
I’m very grateful to those who praised me after the exam, but this was no one-man show. Supportive environment, family, and workplace were crucial during preparation, so I’d like to thank my “small” family for tolerating me and forgoing my mental presence during the prep sprint, my colleagues and bosses for covering for me while I was “just” studying, and especially my employer for trusting me to earn this certification and providing all necessary resources so that we could succeed together.
And thanks to everyone who set an example and inspired me—I couldn’t ask for better mentors.
Everyone around me deserves a pat on the back, not just me. :-)
Summary
I posted a summary of the exam earlier, but for me this is the fulfillment of a 10-year goal, with many milestones along the way—from CCNA, through HCIE, all the way to here. It’s a huge joy, which will leave a bit of a void, but the supportive environment that helped me achieve it fills it nicely. I’ll continue with humility, now also as a CCIE# engineer.
Respectfully,
#Telecommer
CCIE# 69065
HCIE# 22949
Fresh Solution Architect
