Cisco Certified Design Professional (CCDP)

The CCDP picks up where the CCDA leaves off, also falling under the Network Engineering and Design heading. It’s an intermediate-level certification to which Cisco attributes “journeyman” or “advanced” knowledge of network design. Their description of the credential goes on to mention that it enables its holders to “design routed and switched networks involving LAN, WAN and dial access services” for installations of up to 500 nodes. To ensure the right knowledge base in its candidates, the CCDP requires both CCNA and CCDA as prerequisites.

As you’d expect from a professional-level credential, the CCDP requires multiple exams (either two or three exams, depending on the options chosen). Because the two-exam track requires taking a Foundations exam that basically combines three of the individual exams in the four-exam track, the two tracks differ neither in subject matter nor coverage. The two-exam track costs less than the three-exam track, but requires candidates to study for a much longer, more intense exam as a trade-off.

Because of their more professional status, CCDPs are more likely to be able to find employment based on that credential (though the importance and validity of relevant, on-the-job experience is impossible to overstate or overrate).

CCDP Exams
Two-Exam Track:
642-892 Composite  Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI)/Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN) 
642-873 ARCH Designing Cisco Network Service Architectures (ARCH)

Three-Exam Track:
642-901 BSCI  Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI) 
642-812 BCMSN  Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks (BCMSN) 
642-873 ARCH Designing Cisco Network Service Architecture (ARCH)

TestKing offers study products for all the CCDP related exams.  CCDP certifications are valid for three years. To recertify, pass any 642 exam that is part of the professional level curriculum after 01/01/06, or pass a current CCIE or CCDE written exam.