my journey with expert-level Cisco certification began already quite far long time ago - 15 years. and with Cisco certification overall - even couple years earlier than that. I was finally able to get hands-on practice with Cisco Continuing Education program. apart from the fact, that trying to pass exams right now remotely during pandemic has abstract requirements I do generally believe it makes sense. one way or another - I’m recertified until April 2024....
every two (or three, depending how desperate you are) years, in life of every CCIE and CCDE there is this looming deadline called ‘recertification’. panic is usually short lived and ends with ‘push’ - succesful recertification. in variable styles and techniques, but successful nonetheless. i had opportunity recently to execute this dance. and wise words people say, that if you loose daily connection with networking gear and technologies, you very quickly loose and forget expert level skills....
i came back yesterday from Brussels and today at 5:30am the verdict came in - definitely “PASS” :) so… let me share some advice and tips for those of you preparing to take CCIE SP practical exam (without breaking NDA of course). first of all - if you have that luxury of training on any software version - please try to check with the current Cisco page and align. software is quite “specific”, and you may be hit with interesting behavior that may be a little bit different from mainline versions....
CCIE #15929. nothing more, nothing less :)