I’ve took a CCDE practical earlier today, and for the second time I’m pretty clueless how it went, however I have a strong feeling that it was similar to my first take: no go.
this time I’ve spent 7 hours, not 5, to do the test, however most of the time I was trying to answer questions based on the small set of information provided. again I’m under strong feeling, that the set of information was not enough to judge on some of the questions, not to mention the effect Russ White describes as “you’d be confused for the whole time”. it basically boils down to the fact that you answer a question from the design that’s clearly up to the explicitly given scenario information, just to notice that couple of questions forward, the design, topology or set of “going forward” information is different. confusing, to say at least :)
it’s a great time to flex all your networking muscles at some less obvious choices, and as I already described in my previous post - a lot of knowledge comes here in to give you a hand and provide progress with the tasks. your IGP and BGP knowledge will be tested very often, and more technologies will just add to the mix of questions to answers and problems to solve. QoS, MPLS TE and a bit of security - all have it’s place, and obviously - cause trouble :)
i’m more than happy that the changes in the exam will take place in the next edition - they unfortunately are more than needed to properly assess individual networking skills. not the CLI one - the design one. existing CCDEs were asked to provide more than extensive feedback and assistance in preparing the “v2” of the certification. we’ll see which way it will evolve.