Cisco Implementing and Operating Cisco Security Core Technologies (350‑701 SCOR) Practice Exams
About the Cisco 350-701 SCOR exam
Exam at a glance
Professional tier. The Core exam for both CCNP Security and CCIE Security written. 90–110 questions, 120 minutes, scaled passing score, $400 USD. Valid 3 years plus CE-credit recertification.
Dual role: CCNP and CCIE
350-701 SCOR sits at the centre of Cisco's security track. It satisfies two paths simultaneously:
- CCNP Security = SCOR + one Concentration exam (e.g. 300-710 SNCF for Cisco Secure Firewall / Firepower, 300-715 SISE for ISE, 300-720 SESA for email, 300-725 SWSA for web).
- CCIE Security written — pass SCOR, then book the 8-hour CCIE Security lab within 3 years.
Passing 350-701 on its own also earns the standalone Cisco Certified Specialist - Security Core badge, so the exam delivers a credential even before you complete a full track.
Domain weighting
- Security Concepts — 20%
- Network Security — 25%
- Cloud Security — 15%
- Secure Service Edge — 10%
- Endpoint Protection and Detection — 15%
- Network Access, Visibility, and Enforcement — 15%
Prerequisites
No formal prerequisites — Cisco removed the CCNA requirement for CCNP-level exams. Cisco recommends three to five years of hands-on enterprise security experience. Most successful candidates hold a current CCNA (200-301) and have spent two-plus years deploying Cisco security products in production.
Why take this certification
- Single test, two career tracks. No other Cisco professional exam satisfies both CCNP Security and a CCIE written. SCOR is the most leveraged exam in Cisco's portfolio for security engineers.
- Senior-engineer credential. CCNP Security is a long-standing benchmark in security-engineering job descriptions and signals real production-grade firewall, identity, and threat-hunting ability.
- Gateway to CCIE. Passing 350-701 starts the 3-year clock for the CCIE Security lab — Cisco's highest-tier expert credential in the security track.
- CE-credit value. SCOR is worth 40 Continuing Education credits, which can keep your other Cisco professional certifications current without sitting another full exam.
What you'll learn in the 350-701 SCOR exam
SCOR is deliberately broad — Cisco wants senior security engineers who can speak fluently across network, cloud, secure service edge, endpoint, and identity. Most questions are scenario-driven, often presenting partial configs, policy snippets, or topology diagrams.
Security concepts
- CIA triad, defense-in-depth and Cisco SAFE (Secure Architecture for Everyone), zero-trust architecture.
- Attack threats across on-prem, hybrid, and cloud (phishing, malware, ransomware, MITM, DoS/DDoS, supply-chain); vulnerabilities and exploits (OWASP Top 10, CVE/CVSS prioritisation).
- AI/LLM model vulnerabilities — prompt injection, system-prompt leakage, vector/embedding weaknesses, supply chain.
- Cryptography components (hashing, PKI, SSL/TLS, IPsec) and post-quantum cryptography (PQC); VPN deployment types (IPsec, SSL VPN, DMVPN, FlexVPN, GETVPN).
- Security intelligence authoring, sharing, and consumption; interpreting Python scripts that call security-appliance APIs.
Network security
- Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower / FTD) — deployment modes (routed / transparent / inline IPS), access control policy, prefilter policy, intrusion policy, file/malware policy.
- NAT rules (manual / auto, identity NAT), NGFW vs traditional ASA policy concepts.
- Site-to-site and remote-access VPN — IKEv1/IKEv2, IPsec, SSL VPN with AnyConnect (now Cisco Secure Client).
- Cisco Secure Workload (formerly Tetration) for application-dependency mapping and microsegmentation.
- Cisco Secure Network Analytics (formerly Stealthwatch) — flow-based detection, encrypted traffic analytics (ETA).
Cloud Security
- Cloud shared-responsibility models across AWS, Azure, and GCP — native vs Cisco controls, NIST 800-145 SaaS/PaaS/IaaS, CASB.
- Cisco Multicloud Defense and Cisco Secure Workload — network, application, and data security across multicloud environments and microsegmentation.
- Application and workload security including eBPF; container and Kubernetes security — image scanning, runtime protection.
- DevSecOps — Infrastructure-as-Code security, CI/CD pipeline, container orchestration, secure software development.
- Ingesting cloud logging and monitoring data into Splunk from other security solutions.
Secure Service Edge
- Security Service Edge (SSE) and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) — converged, cloud-delivered security and network access.
- Cisco Secure Access — Secure Internet Access (SIA: the evolution of Umbrella DNS-layer security, SWG, and Cloud-Delivered Firewall) and Secure Private Access (SPA) for zero-trust access to private apps.
- Data loss prevention (DLP) and AI guardrails for secure internet access.
- Cisco Secure Access Investigate — interpreting risk scores and threat indicators.
Endpoint protection and detection
- Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) vs Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) — behavioural analysis, indicators of compromise (IoCs).
- Cisco Secure Endpoint (formerly AMP4E) — connector deployment, exclusions, retrospective security, file trajectory, interpreting malware detection events.
- Cisco Secure Client and Cisco Secure Malware Analytics (formerly Threat Grid) for endpoint protection and detection.
- Endpoint device management and asset inventory (MDM); endpoint posture assessment.
- Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense — cloud email security with anti-phishing, malware, and DLP filtering (the v2.0 successor to the Secure Email Gateway in this blueprint).
Network access, visibility, and enforcement
- Cisco ISE — identity management, guest services, profiling, posture, BYOD; 802.1X and MAB; network access with CoA.
- Device compliance and application control; EAP method selection (PEAP, EAP-TLS, EAP-FAST).
- Cisco Duo in a zero-trust architecture — MFA, Device Trust, Trust Monitor, health checks, Adaptive Access, SSO.
- Exfiltration techniques — DNS tunnelling, HTTPS, email, FTP/SSH/SCP/SFTP, ICMP, NTP, cloud storage.
- Cisco XDR and SIEM/SOAR with Splunk — network visibility and enforcement using telemetry and native AI/ML, plus orchestrating and automating security information and events.
How the practice exams help
Each free question and every premium exam mirrors the scenario-driven format Cisco uses — partial configs, policy excerpts, multi-step reasoning across products. Detailed explanations cover not just why the right answer is right but why the distractors are wrong, so you learn the product trade-offs (Secure Endpoint vs Secure Network Analytics, Cisco Secure Access SIA vs SPA, FTD policy ordering) rather than memorising answers.
How to prepare for the 350-701 SCOR exam
SCOR is a wide exam covering many Cisco security products, so successful preparation balances book study with deliberate hands-on lab time. Recommended approach for a security engineer with two-plus years of Cisco production experience:
- Study the six domains (6–10 weeks). Work through the official Cisco 350-701 exam topics domain by domain. The Cisco Press CCNP and CCIE Security Core SCOR 350-701 Official Cert Guide is the canonical text. Focus extra time on Network Security (~25%) and Security Concepts (~20%) — they carry almost half the exam between them.
- Hands-on labs (4–8 weeks, in parallel). Use Cisco dCloud for free, pre-built security labs covering Secure Firewall / FTD, ISE, Secure Access (Umbrella), Secure Endpoint, and Cisco XDR. Pair dCloud with Cisco DevNet sandboxes for hands-on time without buying physical appliances. Build a working ASA-to-FTD migration and an end-to-end ISE 802.1X deployment from scratch.
- Cloud and automation week (1–2 weeks). If you have not worked across AWS / Azure / GCP security controls, dedicate a focused block. Map the shared-responsibility model and walk through one Cisco Multicloud Defense deployment per cloud. Also brush up on REST API basics for Cisco XDR integration and security automation (interpreting Python scripts that call security-appliance APIs).
- Practice exams (2–3 weeks). Take timed full-length tests and review every wrong answer with the explanation. Aim for consistent 85%+ before scheduling — the scaled passing score is unpublished, so over-shoot the bar.
Recommended timeline
16–24 weeks of focused study (10–15 hours per week) for security engineers with two-plus years hands-on Cisco experience. Add 4–6 weeks for engineers without recent firewall / ISE / cloud-security exposure.
Official resources
Start with the official Cisco 350-701 SCOR exam topics page on the Cisco Learning Network. Pair the Cisco Press CCNP and CCIE Security Core SCOR 350-701 Official Cert Guide with Cisco dCloud security labs for hands-on practice and Cisco DevNet sandboxes for ISE / Cisco XDR / Secure Access work without owning hardware.
Frequently asked questions
Are these actual exam questions?
No. All Nex Arc Cisco 350-701 SCOR practice questions are original content based on the provider's published exam blueprint, official documentation, and real-world scenarios across every topic the exam covers. We do not offer brain dumps, leaked questions, or actual exam content. Using or distributing real exam questions violates certification provider agreements and can result in certification revocation.
How many questions are in the Cisco 350-701 SCOR exam?
Cisco does not publish an exact question count for the 350-701 SCOR exam, but candidates typically report 90 to 110 questions delivered in 120 minutes. Item types include multiple choice, multiple response, drag-and-drop, and simlet items. Once you move past a question Cisco does not let you go back, so commit to each answer before clicking next.
What's the 350-701 SCOR passing score?
Cisco does not publish a fixed passing score for 350-701. Scoring is scaled and the cut score is set by Cisco using statistical analysis of item difficulty. Aim for consistent 85%+ on full-length practice tests with detailed explanations — that gives a comfortable safety margin against the unknown scaled cut.
How do I access the full 350-701 SCOR practice exam?
Click the Buy Now button in the sidebar to purchase the complete Cisco 350-701 SCOR course. After payment you get instant access to 10 practice exams with detailed explanations on every option, and lifetime access to updates.
What are the prerequisites for the 350-701 SCOR exam?
There are no formal prerequisites — Cisco removed the CCNA requirement for CCNP-level exams. That said, Cisco recommends three to five years of hands-on experience implementing enterprise security solutions before attempting SCOR. Most successful candidates hold a current CCNA (200-301) and have spent at least two years working with Cisco security products (firewalls, ISE, VPN, email/web security) in production.
How long is the 350-701 SCOR certification valid?
Passing 350-701 grants the Cisco Certified Specialist - Security Core badge plus the Core component toward CCNP Security / CCIE Security — all valid for three years. You can recertify by retaking 350-701, passing a higher-level Cisco exam, or earning Continuing Education (CE) credits through Cisco's CE program. SCOR is worth 40 CE credits when used to recertify other Cisco professional-level certifications.
What's the exam cost and can I retake it if I fail?
The 350-701 SCOR exam costs $400 USD (plus local taxes), delivered through Pearson VUE at testing centres or via online proctoring. If you fail, Cisco enforces a five-day waiting period before your next attempt, and after four failed attempts you must wait six months. Each retake is full price — Cisco does not offer fail-and-retake discount vouchers. Practice thoroughly before your first attempt.
What does SCOR cover and what topics are most heavily tested?
SCOR (v2.0) covers six domains: Security Concepts (20%), Network Security (25%), Cloud Security (15%), Secure Service Edge (10%), Endpoint Protection and Detection (15%), and Network Access, Visibility, and Enforcement (15%). Network Security and Security Concepts are the heaviest domains — expect deep coverage of CIA, defense-in-depth, MITRE ATT&CK, and threat intelligence. Network Security focuses on Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower / FTD) policy, IPS, NAT, and VPN. The cloud, Secure Service Edge, and endpoint domains together cover Cisco Umbrella, Secure Email and Web security, Secure Endpoint (formerly AMP4E), and SASE/SSE.
Does 350-701 SCOR give me CCNP Security on its own?
No — CCNP Security requires passing two exams: the 350-701 SCOR Core plus one Concentration exam of your choice (e.g. 300-710 SNCF for Cisco Secure Firewall / Firepower, 300-715 SISE for Identity Services Engine, 300-720 SESA for email security, or 300-725 SWSA for web security). Passing just 350-701 still earns you the standalone Cisco Certified Specialist - Security Core badge, so the exam delivers value even if you delay the Concentration.
How does 350-701 SCOR relate to the CCIE Security certification?
350-701 SCOR serves a dual role: it is also the qualifying written exam for CCIE Security. After passing 350-701 you have three years to schedule and pass the 8-hour CCIE Security lab exam. The lab books up months in advance and costs $1,600 USD per attempt, so most candidates use the CCNP Security path (SCOR + Concentration) as a credentialed checkpoint while preparing for the lab.