CCNA Exam Preparation: Practice Labs and Review

Review all six CCNA (200-301) domains with Packet Tracer practice labs, learn a structured troubleshooting method, and prove your skills on a multi-site network you build and then fix.

Intermediate · Networking · about 14 hours · 4 modules · certificate on completion

Taught by Chaiyapòn Srisomboòn, Carlòs Ramirèz, Sekouù Camàra, AI Learning Companions.

About this course

This course is the last stage before the CCNA (200-301) exam: a structured review of all six domains in Cisco's published exam topics, built around practice in Cisco Packet Tracer. It starts with the exam itself, what it covers and how to prepare efficiently, and with a troubleshooting method you'll use in every lab. Then three review modules cover the domains in groups: network fundamentals and network access, with fast subnetting, IPv6, VLANs, trunks, EtherChannel and Rapid PVST+; IP connectivity, with routing tables, static routes and single-area OSPFv2; and IP services, security fundamentals and automation, reviewed with the exam's favourite traps in mind.

Each review module ends with a practice lab in two halves: build and verify a working network, then paste in a colleague's faulty change and use the method to find and fix every fault. The capstone puts it all together in a head office and branch network that you build, break and troubleshoot back to health, with a log of every fault. The course is independent of Cisco and is meant to sit alongside Cisco's own exam topics and preparation materials.

What you'll learn

  • Plan your CCNA study around the exam's six domains and Cisco's published topics
  • Subnet IPv4 networks quickly and work confidently with IPv6 addresses
  • Build and verify VLANs, trunks, inter-VLAN routing, EtherChannel and Rapid PVST+
  • Configure and verify static routes and single-area OSPFv2, and read any routing table
  • Review IP services, security and automation topics with the exam's traps in mind
  • Troubleshoot networks with a structured method, layer by layer

Skills you'll gain

CCNA exam preparation, Subnetting, IPv6 addressing, VLANs and trunking, EtherChannel, Spanning tree, OSPF, Static routing, Network troubleshooting, Cisco IOS

Tools

Cisco Packet Tracer, Cisco IOS

Before you start

You should already have studied the CCNA topics: this course reviews and practises them rather than teaching them from the beginning. Install Cisco Packet Tracer (free with a Cisco Networking Academy account) on Windows, macOS or Linux.

Aligned with: Cisco CCNA (200-301) exam topics: all six domains

Modules

  1. Plan your preparation, and troubleshoot with a method

    What the exam covers and how to prepare for it, how to practise efficiently in Packet Tracer, and the structured troubleshooting method used in every lab that follows.

    • The six domains and the exam topics (10 min)
    • How to study: recall, spacing and practice labs (10 min)
    • A structured troubleshooting method (12 min)

  2. Review: Network Fundamentals and Network Access

    Addressing at speed, then switching: VLANs, trunks, inter-VLAN routing, EtherChannel and Rapid PVST+, with a practice lab that ends in a fault to find.

    • IPv4 subnetting and IPv6 addressing at speed (14 min)
    • VLANs, trunks and inter-VLAN routing (14 min)
    • EtherChannel and Rapid PVST+ (12 min)
    • Hands-on lab: Build and fix a switched campus block

  3. Review: IP Connectivity

    Read routing tables the way the exam does, configure static, default and floating routes, and run single-area OSPFv2, with a practice lab across three sites that ends in a fault to find.

    • Reading the routing table (12 min)
    • Static, default and floating static routes (12 min)
    • Single-area OSPFv2 (14 min)
    • Hands-on lab: Route between three sites, then fix them

  4. Review: IP Services, Security and Automation

    The last three domains, reviewed for the exam: the services that keep networks running, the controls that protect them, and how controllers and automation change network management, with a practice lab on an edge router.

    • IP services: what to configure, verify and recognise (12 min)
    • Security: the exam's favourite traps (12 min)
    • Automation and programmability (12 min)
    • Hands-on lab: Services and security on an edge router, then fix them

Project: Build and troubleshoot a multi-site network

Design, build and document a network for a company with a head office and a branch, joined by a WAN link, with internet access at head office. Head office has a staff VLAN and a guest VLAN on two access switches joined by an LACP EtherChannel, running Rapid PVST+ with a chosen root bridge, and a router on a stick. The branch has one LAN. Run single-area OSPFv2 between the sites, with the default route originated at head office. Head office's router is the DHCP server for every LAN, so the branch relays. Hosts reach the internet through PAT, the routers take their time from an NTP server and send it their logs, management is SSH only and only from the staff VLAN, an ACL keeps guests out of the staff VLAN and the branch, and access ports have port security. Give the staff VLAN and the branch LAN IPv6 addresses too, with IPv6 static routes between the sites. When it all works, save a copy, break it with three faults (swap files with a study partner, or use the fault cards provided), and troubleshoot it back to health with the structured method, documenting each fault.

Part of

Cisco, CCNA, Cisco IOS and Cisco Packet Tracer are trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. This course is independent: Cisco hasn't made or endorsed it, and it doesn't give you a Cisco certification.

Start the course free