The Internet industry is changing rapidly. In order to urge network engineers who have passed Cisco certification to update their knowledge and skills in time, Cisco certification has a validity period. People who have passed Cisco certification need to complete re-certification to ensure that their certificates are valid. At the same time, re-certification also helps to proves that you understand the new technology of the Internet industry and always keep your technology updated. So how long is Cisco certification valid? How do network engineers complete re-certification?
How long is Cisco certification valid?
The Cisco certification system is mainly composed of CCNA, CCNP and CCIE certification, and the validity period of these three certifications is three years. That is to say, after three years, the Cisco certificate you have obtained will expire. Therefore, the holder must register and pass the corresponding Cisco re-certification exam. But now there is another new way to keep your certificate valid, that is, individuals can be re-certified by completing learning activities and obtaining continuing education points within three years. If you don’t know your certification status, you can also access the Cisco career certification tracking system through Cisco’s official website to check your certification status.
Validity period of Cisco CCIE certification
In particular, in addition to the validity period of the whole certification, we know that CCIE certification can only be obtained after passing both the written exam and the lab exam, and the result of its written exam also has a validity period. For example, the validity period of CCIE certification written exam is 18 months. After you pass the CCIE written exam, you must ensure that you take the CCIE lab exam at least once within 18 months. If you fail the written exam, you need to take it again after 15 days. However, you should pass the lab exam within 3 years after you pass the written exam, otherwise, your written exam result will expire, and you will have to take it again.
The validity period of CCIE lab exam result is 2 years, that is, after passing the CCIE written exam and CCIE Lab exam and successfully obtaining the CCIE certificate number, you need to pass a CCIE written exam in any direction within 2 years to complete re-certification. Of course, Cisco’s official website will remind you to activate your CCIE certificate by email a few months before the expiration. If there is no-recertification within 2 years, the CCIE certificate will not be activated in the third year. At this time, if you want to activate your CCIE certificate, just take a written exam in any direction of CCIE. This will be introduced again later.
How to complete Cisco re-certification? There are two ways of Cisco re-certification. As mentioned earlier, one is through taking the exam and the other is to participate in continuing education.
CCNA certification
You can choose to complete re-certification by passing any CCNA certification exam, any CCNP core exam, a technical core exam or the CCIE lab exam, or you can recertify yourself by earning 30 CE credits.
CCNP certification
You can choose to complete re-certification by passing one of the technical core exams, any two professional exams and one CCIE lab exam, or passing any professional centralized exam and obtaining 40 CE credits, or earning 80 credits.
CCIE certification
You can choose to pass any expert level certification exam, any CCIE lab exam, any three professional optional exams or one technical core exam and one of any professional optional exams, or pass one technical core exam and obtain 40 CE credits, or pass any two professional centralized exams and obtain 40 CE credits, or pass the centralized exam of any major and obtain 80 CE credits or earn 120 CE credits to complete re-certification.
