Cisco Expert-Track Written Examinations

These are the qualifying written examinations for Cisco’s expert tracks, and passing them is what carried CCIE #10042 across successive recertification cycles for two decades.

The corresponding practical laboratory examinations were not sat, so these represent examination record rather than additional expert certifications. The distinction matters and is stated here rather than left for someone to infer: a written pass is not a CCIE in that track.

In the cable case that was not a choice. The written was passed in July 2003 with the intention of sitting the lab; Cisco retired the Service Provider Cable laboratory the following year and the track closed before it could be taken.

The subject matter maps onto the work of each period. The Service Provider Cable written in 2003 sat alongside the DOCSIS plant, the headend design and the subscriber-edge work at Coleman Technologies; the Security writtens in 2006 and 2009 alongside the criminal justice boundary and multi-tenant isolation work at the City; the CCDE written in 2011 alongside the shift from implementation into design and architecture review.

The CCDE Written is being sat again in October 2026, this time as the qualifying exam to return #10042 to active status.

Component exams