The Cisco Certified DevNet Associate certification is designed for candidates who need to gain skills in creating and operating applications based on Cisco platforms. To gain this associate-level certification you need to pass one exam (200-901) that validates the basics of software development and design for Cisco platforms. Though there are no strict prerequisites for this Cisco accreditation, having at least 1 year of experience in working with software development involving Python programming will be beneficial.
Exam 200-901 is also called Developing Applications and Automating Workflows using Cisco Platforms (DEVASC). This evaluation checks your proficiency in network fundamentals and access, IP services and connectivity, security basics, automaton and programmability. The exam lasts for 2 hours and is priced at $300. Before sitting for this certification exam it’s highly advised to take the Developing Applications and Automating Workflows Using Cisco Core Platforms course.
The first topic is centered in software development and design, that’s why you should be able to identify various data formats, such as XML, JSON, YAML, be ready to explain parsing of main data format incorporated in Python data structures, along with the concepts related to test-driven development. You also will be required to deal with agile, lean, and waterfall development methods, and be able to compare them, be knowledgeable of the advantages of organizing codes into methods, and recognize the benefits of the main design patterns. Your ability to show the benefits of using version control and perform general version control procedure using Git will also be tested.
The second topic deals with understanding and using APIs. This implies your skills to design a REST API request to complete a task, recognize the constraints while using APIs, as well as your knowledge of utilizing patterns allied to webhooks. This topic will measure your proficiency in applying the main HTTP response codes, fixing a problem in the HTTP response code, defining the parts of an HTTP response. Your ability to implement API authentication mechanisms, distinguish main API styles, and creating a Python script will also be tested in this part.
The third part of this exam is devoted to Cisco platforms and development. In this section, you should demonstrate your skills to use a Python script in relation to the given SDK document, recognize the Cisco network management platforms capabilities, as well as the features of the Cisco collaboration platforms along with APIs. Within this topic you will be asked to explain the characteristics of the Cisco security platforms, show dynamic interfaces for IOS NX-OS and XE, find and implement the suitable DevNet resource for a given task, and use concepts of model driven programmability. Finally, your skills to build a code to carry out a definite procedure will be evaluated.
The fourth topic refers to application deployment and security. The aim of this domain is to check your competence in using Bash commands, the principles of DevOps practices, and building a Python unit test. You should be able to recognize the contents of a Dockerfile, perform how to implement Docker images in the given environment, DNS, firewall, and load balancers in the app, as well as how to define the attributes of various app deployment models. To add more, you should be proficient in the top OWASP threats, such as XSS, CSRF, and SQL injections.
The fifth part is dedicated to infrastructure and automation. You will need to know everything about code, automation tools as Cisco NSO, Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and know how to use them, the workflow automation by utilizing a Python script. You also should be knowledgeable of the controller-level and device-level management, parts of CD and CI pipeline, along with principles of a code review process. In addition, your ability to deal with results of NETCONF and RESTCONF query, basic YANG models, a unified diff, along with sequence diagram will also be evaluated.
The sixth topic spins around network fundamentals. In this part, you should demonstrate your knowledge of how MAC addresses, IP addresses, gateways function and should be used. You will be asked to show your skills to work with the components of the network topology diagram and describe the function of control planes, data and management as well as basic port values. In addition, your ability to define the reason for application connectivity issues and describe how network constraints influence the apps will be measured.
As stated on the Glassdoor.com website, your annual salary with the Cisco Certified DevNet Associate certification will be about $66,984.