Cisco 200-901: DevNet Associate certification is an excellent opportunity for IT professionals to enhance their skills and knowledge in network programmability and software development. It is an entry-level certification that validates the candidate's knowledge and skills in software development and network programmability using Cisco platforms and APIs. With its numerous benefits, the certification is an essential step towards becoming a certified Cisco DevNet professional.

Certification Path for DevNet Associate Exam v1.0 (200-901) Exam

If you have met all the DevNet Associate Exam v1.0 (200-901) certification objectives, then you can proceed to take the following certification path.

• Associate - CCNA Routing and Switching
• Associate - DevNet Associate Exam v1.0 (200-901)
• Associate - Cisco IoT Developer Certification
• Associate - Cisco Certified Architect certification

Cisco 200-901 Exam: Content in Detail

The Cisco 200-901 exam covers a wide range of knowledge areas. These domains and their weight are enumerated below:

• Cisco platforms – 15%

  This domain combines the questions that check the candidates’ ability to write a Python script incorporating Cisco SDK given SDK documentation; explain the capacity of Cisco APIs and network management platforms (Cisco DNA, Center, ACI, Meraki, NSO, Cisco SD-WAN); explain the capacity of Cisco APIs and compute management platforms (Intersight, UCS Director, UCS Manager); explain the capacity of Cisco APIs and collaboration platforms (Cisco Unified Communication Manager, Webex devices, Webex Teams, Finesse); explain the capacity of Cisco APIs and security platforms (Umbrella, Firepower, ISE, AMP, ThreatGrid); explain the device level dynamic interfaces and APIs for IOS XE and NX-OS; define the proper DevNet resource for a particular scenario (Code Exchange, Sandbox, Learning Labs, support, forums, API documentation); apply the principles of model driven programmability (NETCONF, YANG, RESTCONF) within a Cisco environment; build code to execute a particular operation on the basis of API reference documentation.

• Fundamentals of networks – 15%

  This topic area involves the following abilities: explaining the role and utilization of VLANs and MAC addresses; explaining the role and utilization of subnet prefix/mask, routes, IP addresses, and gateways; explaining the role of general networking elements (including firewalls, switches, routers, load balancers); interpreting a basic network topology diagram with the components, such as firewalls, switches, load balancers, routers, and port values; explaining the role of data, management, and control planes in a network device; explaining the functionality of IP services, such as DNS, DHCP, SNMP, NAT, NTP; recognizing general protocol port values (including HTTP, SSH, HTTPS, Telnet, NETCONF); identifying cause of application connectivity problems (VPN, proxy, NAT problem, Transport Port blocked); explaining the influence of network restraints on application.

• Infrastructure and automation concepts – 20%

  Within this area, the examinees need to demonstrate that they are capable of explaining the utilization and functions of the network test and simulation tools (including pyATS and VIRL); explaining the elements and advantages of the CICD pipeline in automating infrastructure; explaining infrastructure principles as code; explaining the automation tools capacity (Cisco NSO, Ansible, Chef, Puppet); defining the workflow that is automated with the help of a Python script with Cisco APIs, such as Cisco DNA Center, ACI, RESTCONF, or Meraki; defining the workflow that is automated with the help of an Ansible playbook (user management related to services, management packages, basic service configuration, start/stop); defining the workflow that is automated with the help of a bash script (including app install, directory navigation, file management, user management); interpreting the results of a RESTCONF or NETCONF query; interpreting general YANG models; explaining the principles and advantages of reviewing the code; interpreting the sequence diagram with API calls; interpreting a unified diff.

• Deployment of applications and their security – 15%

  This subject covers the following competencies: explaining the advantages of edge computing; defining the attributes of various application deployment models (hybrid Cloud, private Cloud, public Cloud, edge); defining the attributes of the above-mentioned application deployment types; explaining the elements for the CICD pipeline within application deployments; designing a Python unit test interpreting contents of Dockerfile; utilizing Docker images in a local developer environment; defining application security problems associated with encryption, secret protection, data handling; explaining OWASP threats (including SQL injections, XSS, CSRF); applying Bash commands (directory navigation, environmental variables, file management); defining the DevOps practices principles.

• Understanding and use of APIs – 20%

  This topic encompasses the following skills: constructing the REST API request to accomplish a task given API documentation; describing common usage patterns related to webhooks; identifying the constraints when consuming APIs; explaining common HTTP response codes associated with REST APIs; troubleshooting a problem given the HTTP response code, request and API documentation; identifying the parts of an HTTP response (response code, headers, body); utilizing common API authentication mechanisms; comparing common API styles (REST, RPC, synchronous, and asynchronous); constructing a Python script that calls REST API using the requests library.

• Development of software – 15%

  This objective includes differentiating various data formats (YAML, XML, JSON); explaining parsing of general data format (YAML, XML, JSON) to Python data structures; describing the principles of test-driven development; differentiating methods of software development (waterfall, agile, lean); explaining the advantages of uniting code into functions, modules, and classes; defining the advantages of general design patterns (Observer and MVC); explaining the benefits of version control; utilizing general version control operations with Git.

Reference: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications/exams/current-list/devasc-200-901.html?wcmmode=disabled