CCNA v2.0 (2027): What's Changing in the 200-301 Exam

Cisco has announced CCNA® v2.0, the first major refresh of the 200-301 exam since it launched in 2020. If you’re studying right now, the first question is the only one that matters: does this change what I should be doing today?

Short answer: for most people, not yet. Here’s the full picture.

First, the dates: this is the part that actually matters

The current exam (v1.1) is available through February 2, 2027. The v2.0 exam’s first test date is February 3, 2027. Cisco published the v2.0 exam topics on May 20, 2026 so candidates can prepare ahead of time.

So sort yourself into one of two buckets:

• Testing in 2026 or January 2027? You’re taking v1.1. Study the current blueprint. v2.0 is not your exam. Don’t let the news distract you.
• Testing February 2027 or later? You’ll sit v2.0. Start factoring the changes below into your plan now.

v1.1 is a full, valid CCNA, but it has a firm end date. If you want room for a retake on v1.1, plan your first attempt by mid January 2027. We map it out date by date in CCNA v1.1 ends February 2, 2027: take it now or wait.

The headline change: it got more hands-on

The single biggest theme in v2.0 isn’t a shiny new topic. It’s a bump in difficulty across the board. Cisco moved the bar up one notch on many existing topics:

• Topics you used to just describe, you’ll now be expected to configure.
• Topics you used to configure, you’ll now be expected to troubleshoot.

Translation: memorizing definitions gets you less far than ever. v2.0 rewards the people who’ve actually typed the commands, and broken, then fixed, a real config.

If your current study is mostly reading and watching videos, this is the wake-up call: start doing.

A brand-new AI section

v2.0 retires the old standalone Automation & Programmability domain and folds Ansible, SNMP and syslog into a new combined section (REST APIs, JSON and Terraform were dropped), alongside genuinely new AI topics: the basics of AI in network operations and prompt engineering for generative AI. The single AI-adjacent topic from v1.1 was dropped and replaced with broader AI coverage.

This is Cisco acknowledging the obvious: AI is now part of a network engineer’s toolkit, and entry-level certs are starting to reflect that. It’s still a small slice of the exam (don’t over-rotate on it), but it’s no longer absent. Objective by objective breakdown, with practice prompt questions and an Ansible playbook: CCNA v2.0 AI domain guide.

Fewer domains, more weight on the core

Cisco consolidated the six v1.1 domains into five and doubled down on fundamentals: networking basics and switching now make up roughly half the exam. Security no longer has its own domain: it is combined with network services in Network Services and Security (20%), with more applied scenarios such as AAA, SFTP/SCP and Layer 2 security. A handful of older topics were trimmed to make room.

The message is unmistakable: master the core. Subnetting, switching, VLANs, routing. These aren’t going anywhere, and they’re worth more than ever.

What this means for how you study

Whether you test on v1.1 or v2.0, the changes all point the same direction:

1. Type the commands. Reading about VLANs ≠ configuring a trunk. Both exams, and v2.0 especially, want the hands.
2. Break things on purpose. Troubleshooting is a bigger slice now. Build a router-on-a-stick, leave off the encapsulation dot1Q line, and watch what happens to inter-VLAN traffic. That’s how the lesson sticks.
3. Get the fundamentals airtight. Half the exam is core networking. If subnetting still makes you sweat, fix that before anything else.
4. Don’t ignore automation/AI if you’re a v2.0 candidate, but keep it in proportion. Fundamentals first, always.

What to do now

CCNA v2.0 isn’t a reinvention. It’s the same foundation, raised a notch, with AI added and a heavier lean on doing over describing. If your prep already includes real configuration and troubleshooting practice, you’re building exactly the skills both versions reward, so you’re future-proof either way.

That’s the whole point of practicing on a live console instead of a slide deck. Every config topic in our hands-on practice library lets you type the real commands, see what breaks, and fix it, which is precisely what CCNA v2.0 is asking for.