What is the hardest CCIE Lab?
by Nivon de Carvalho e Silva Junior
I am not going to say what is the hardest CCIE Lab. Coworkers, students at the training center, and even friends in the bar are constantly asking about it. And the truth is there is no hardest one. They are all damn hard.
In the early days when I was studying for my security lab I could see that I almost knew nothing about security and Cisco security products and man I’ve been working with Cisco security products way long ago. So when I say it’s hard I mean it.
I remember when the security lab was first released, there were some rumors it was the hardest lab ever, way harder than the R&S one. Then the voice lab was released and once again another rumor about another hardest ever lab. I even heard it was impossible to do it (lol). Funny thing is that there’s always this mystery about the CCIE. People constantly telling stories about it. Most of these stories are just speculations and should not get any credit. Things like you never pass at the first attempt, or if you’re not in a channel partner your chances are low, or Cisco will fail you if you consult too much the documentation guide. My suggestion is if isn’t confirmed, don't pay attention to it. Do you want to know the real deal? I will tell you. Study as hard as you can. We are talking about an expert level not a professional or entry level. I can see juniors who have just passed the CCNA saying “I want to take the CCIE Lab”. That’s cool bro, saying or dreaming doesn’t hurt, but reality is another thing.
Some other day I was taking part of a discussion about how 'easy' the R&S lab is getting. And there is even this guy with not that much experience that studied for a month or two and passed the exam. Rubbish! Don't pay attention to it. The exams are still hard as they can be and they are definitely getting harder every day. If someone says he or she passed the exam easily and at the first attempt, gently ask for his or her CCIE number and exam history. Fortunately this is all verifiable. My point here is don’t give any credit to people saying this is an easy exam. Don’t even fool yourself by thinking of it or you will be part of the sad statistics of those who never passed or passed at the 5th or 6th attempt. I believe the reason why in the last two years we had a dramatic increase of R&S CCIEs is that they are really studying harder and harder. And you want to know something, Cisco needs it. Cisco has recently released the CCIE 360 Learning Program to help learning partners certify their team. If Cisco is doing it, it’s because they need it.
From my experience it is definitely the hardest exam indeed. I am sorry, but I can’t see any other vendor certification as harder or as recognized as the CCIE. We have so many against us - money, time, thousands of commands, troubleshooting, a lot of procedures and not to mention the completely unknown way your exam is going to be analyzed by the proctors after you’re done with it. Believe me I’ve heard a lot of conspiracy theory about how Cisco deals with the exams but one thing is for sure only Cisco knows the truth and they are not going to tell ya.
Getting back to the harder lab, well, today I am studying for my double CCIE, in R&S. Is it hard for me? Damn hard, especially because I don’t have that much experience with IPv6, Multicast and some others. Does that make it harder than the Security Lab? Yes, but only for me. My strong background has always been network security, but you can be damn sure I have experience in advanced networking and advanced routing, but that is not enough. If I was going to pick the Voice Lab, it would be 100 times harder, because the voice world with all of its features and products is a complete mystery for me. It’s the same that getting a voice guy and make him take the Security lab. It would be funny to see him creating a signature for the IPS appliance. For him it would be the hardest exam, no doubt.
How to pass the exam? Determination is the key. Don’t spend hours and hours surfing the web for forums or comments about the labs, use that time to study even more. Don’t listen to all those rumors about the lab, if you want to know how to pass, just study and take the exam. One good idea is to read success stories about the exam, how people passed, how they managed the time, what material they used for study, what bootcamps they attended, etc. Constantly visit cisco.com/go/ccie, there you will have the latest info about the exams. Don’t get too much into “how much time will I need to study”, that depends and only you should know the answer, be realistic. As Marcellus Wallace said “This business is filled to the brim with unrealistic #@$&*” (lol) and by being unrealistic you will just lose money and maybe pass. If someone passes studying for 3 months, don’t think this is the way to go. Just make your own studying schedule and make sure to include your personal life and your job duties. Make the CCIE pursuit just a part of your life, don’t live your life just for it. Have a clear mind and know your limitations, and then welcome to the Elite
Nivon Silva, CCIE #19481 in Security and candidate for Double CCIE in R&S, CCSI #30851, MCSE, MCSA has been in the IT business for the last 8 years. Nivon is a Senior Consultant and Technical Leader at Multirede, a Multinational Cisco Solution Partner, designing and implementing Network and Security solutions across many countries. Nivon is also an official Cisco Systems Instructor delivering Cisco’s Security, Routing, Content Switching and WAN Acceleration courses, bringing to classroom real life project experience, being a tutor for students during their learning process.
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