Yesterday, I passed the JNCDA certification exam. I know I mentioned in my JNCIA-Junos article that it might have been my last Juniper certification, but things changed since then.

Exam Details

The JNCDA exam that I took has an exam code of JN0-1101. It is one of the Associate-level Juniper certifications. While it is reasonable to compare this to the retired Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA) certification, I believe the CCDA was a step above JNCDA.

Here are some details about the exam:

• 65 multiple-choice questions
• 90 minutes to finish the exam
• Take the exam at an authorized testing center or in your own home
• Can skip and go back to the questions
• The passing score is quite low, so it’s easy to pass the exam

Exam Objectives

The JNCDA exam expects you to know about Request For Proposal (RFP) process, data center, WAN, automation, network management, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR), etc. at the fundamental level.

For obvious reasons, Juniper wants you to know their offerings in DC, security, automation, etc. That’s the part where it would feel like a sales exam.

To view the exam objectives, then click here.

Preparation

I used Junos Genius Juniper Open Learning for the JNCDA exam preparation. It is part of Juniper’s Open Learning self-study courses. If you don’t have an account, make sure to sign up for one. It’s free!

The JNCDA self-study course consists of 14 open learning modules, seven certification prep videos, two practice tests, and a voucher assessment test.

If you complete all of these, then you’ll be eligible to get a JNCDA exam voucher, worth $200. To get the free exam voucher, you will have to score a 70% score with a maximum of three attempts.

The practice tests were relatively easy to pass because of the low passing score. Don’t even sweat the voucher assessment test because it came from the two practice tests. I was able to pass all three tests in the first and only attempt.

Exam Experience

Since this is my second time taking a Juniper exam, I’m already familiar with their exam format. What was foreign to me was the online proctoring format (OnVUE).

The JNCDA was my first OnVUE experience. I’m happy to report that it was a pleasant experience. However, I was worried they would stop the exam if I look away from the screen since I tend to do that when I’m thinking.

In my opinion, the exam wasn’t as hard as the free practice tests found in the Junos Genius site. It could be because I did more reading after taking the practice and voucher assessment tests.

Final Thoughts

Juniper Networks is very generous to give away free training and exam vouchers for their Associate-level certifications. I don’t want to speculate anymore on why they are doing this. But, I welcome free training and an exam attempt!

Will I take the other Associate-level certifications? There’s a possibility that I will look at their JNCIA-DevOps, but most likely not this year. I have other things I need to learn that won’t result in a certification.

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