Cisco introduced CCNA and CCNP in 1998. For the first 25 years of those certification tracks, Cisco updated the exams on average every 3–4 years. However, Cisco did not pre-announce the exam changes, so exam changes felt very sudden. Usually, a new exam would be announced, with new exam topics, giving you 3–6 months before your only option was to take the new exam. As a result, you could be studying with no idea about Cisco’s plans, and the next day, you had a 3- to 6-month timeline to either pass the old exam or pivot to prepare for the new exam.
Thankfully, Cisco changed its exam release approach in 2023. Called the Cisco Certification Roadmap (https://cisco.com/go/certroadmap), the new plan includes these features:
- Cisco considers changes to all exam tracks (CCNA, CCNP Enterprise, CCNP Security, and so on) annually.
- Cisco uses a predefined annual schedule for each track, so even before any announcements, you know the timing of possible changes to the exam you are studying for.
- The schedule moves in a quarterly sequence:
Privately review the exam to consider what to change.
Publicly announce if an exam is changing, and if so, announce details like exam topics and release date.
Release the new exam.
- Exam changes might not occur each year. If changes occur, Cisco characterizes them as minor (less than 20% change) or major (more than 20% change).
The specific dates for a given certification track can be confusing because Cisco organizes the work by fiscal year quarters. Figure 14-1 spells out the quarters with a sample 2024 fiscal year. The fiscal year begins in August, so, for example, the first quarter (Q1) of fiscal year (FY) 2024 begins in August 2023.

Figure 14-1 Cisco Fiscal Year and Months Example (FY2024)
Focus more on the sequence of the quarters to understand the plan. Over time, Cisco may make no changes in some years and minor changes in others.
Impact on You and Your Study Plan
Cisco’s new policy helps you plan, but it also means that the exam might change before you pass the current exam. That impacts you, affecting how we deliver this book to you. This chapter gives us a way to communicate in detail about those changes as they occur. But you should watch other spaces as well.
For those other information sources to watch, bookmark and check these sites for news. In particular:
- Cisco: Check their Certification Roadmap page: https://cisco.com/go/certroadmap. Make sure to sign up for automatic notifications from Cisco on that page.
- Publisher: Check this page about new certification products, offers, discounts, and free downloads related to the more frequent exam updates: https://www.ciscopress.com/newcert.
- Cisco Learning Network: Subscribe to the CCNA Community at learningnetwork.cisco.com, where you can expect ongoing discussions about exam changes over time. If you have questions, search for “roadmap” in the CCNA community, and if you do not find an answer, ask a new one!
As changes arise, we will update this chapter with more detail about exam and book content. At that point, we will publish an updated version of this chapter, listing our content plans. That detail will likely include the following:
- Content removed, so if you plan to take the new exam version, you can ignore those when studying.
- New content planned per new exam topics, so you know what’s coming.
The remainder of the chapter shows the new content that may change over time.
News About the Next Exam Release
This statement was last updated in October, 2023, before the publication of the CCNP Enterprise Design ENSLD 300-420 Official Cert Guide.
This version of this chapter has no news to share about the next exam release.
At the most recent version this chapter, the CCNP Enterprise Design ENSLD 300-420 exam version number was Version 1.1.
Updated Technical Content
The current version of this chapter has no additional technical content.