Enterprise Network Design Professional Certification
Architect campus, data center and WAN networks that scale and stay up
Key facts
- Level: Professional
- Field: Networking & Infrastructure
- Estimated study time: about 36 hours
- Credential price: $149
- Exam: 100 questions · 160 minutes · pass mark 75%
About the Enterprise Network Design Professional certification
The Enterprise Network Design Professional certification validates that you can architect enterprise networks end to end — campus, data center and wide area — against real requirements for scale, availability, performance and security. You will reason from the hierarchical model (core, distribution, access) and modern spine-leaf data-center fabrics through to addressing plans, routing design and resilience. The exam covers campus design (access/distribution/core, collapsed core, Layer-2 vs routed access, StackWise/VSS/vPC), data-center fabrics (spine-leaf, ECMP, oversubscription, VXLAN/EVPN overlays), WAN design (MPLS L3VPN, SD-WAN, Internet and leased-line transports, hub-and-spoke vs full mesh, DMVPN), enterprise routing at scale (OSPF multi-area, EIGRP, BGP for the enterprise and edge, route reflectors, route redistribution and filtering, summarization), high availability and redundancy (FHRP — HSRP/VRRP/GLBP, multichassis link aggregation, fast convergence with BFD), scalable IP addressing (hierarchical addressing, summarization, IPv6), QoS design (classification and marking, queuing, policing vs shaping, the trust boundary), multicast basics (IGMP, PIM, RP), security architecture (segmentation, zero trust, NAC/802.1X, firewalls, DMZ, micro-segmentation), wireless at scale, network virtualization (VRF, VXLAN, overlays), DNS/DHCP/IPAM design, capacity planning and oversubscription, monitoring and telemetry (SNMP, NetFlow/IPFIX, streaming telemetry, syslog), automation readiness and structured migration strategy. It is vendor-neutral: the principles transfer across Cisco, Arista, Juniper and others. Candidates should already hold the Routing & Switching Associate credential or equivalent hands-on networking experience.
What you will learn
The official Enterprise Network Design Professional study course covers:
- The Hierarchical Campus — Access/distribution/core, collapsed vs dedicated core, distribution blocks and summarization, and escaping spanning tree with routed access and MLAG.
- Data Center Spine-Leaf Fabrics — Clos spine-leaf topology, ECMP and east-west traffic, oversubscription and capacity sizing, and VXLAN/EVPN overlays for L2 stretch and mobility.
- Wide-Area Network Design — WAN transports (MPLS, internet, leased lines, LTE), hub-and-spoke vs mesh and DMVPN, and SD-WAN with app-aware path selection and breakout choices.
- Enterprise Routing at Scale — Scaling OSPF with areas and EIGRP with feasible successors and stubs, BGP for the edge with route reflectors and traffic engineering, and safe redist…
- Resilience, Addressing and Virtualization — First-hop redundancy and availability math, hierarchical addressing with DHCP/DNS/IPAM and anycast, and network virtualization with VLANs, VRFs and V…
- QoS, Security and Operations — QoS classification/queuing/policing-and-shaping, security architecture with zero trust, segmentation, DMZ and NAC, and operations: monitoring/telemet…
Prerequisites
Frequently asked questions
- Is the Enterprise Network Design Professional certificate verifiable?
- Yes. Every issued Hootix Academy certificate carries a unique credential code that anyone can verify online.
- How is the Enterprise Network Design Professional exam structured?
- It is a 160-minute proctored multiple-choice exam of 100 questions; you need 75% to pass.
- Do I need to buy the course to take the exam?
- You can purchase the certification exam on its own, or bundle it with the full study course at a reduced price.
- How long does the Enterprise Network Design Professional course take?
- About 36 hours of self-paced study.