How does one get cisco certified?

Question

and is it hard?

Answer 1

You get certified by taking and passing the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) exam. Basically, it covers material covered in a couple of very fat (1000 page) books, "CCNA 1 and 2", and "CCNA 3 and 4" (both published by Cisco), plus doing work on a number of hands-on exercises covered in the companion lab books.

I suppose you could "do it yourself" if you have access to a few routers, switches, and computers, but generally you take classes to get through the material. Prices for the classes vary, from around $1000 per quarter (at for-profit training centers) to considerably less at public institutions. I took my classes at a community college, 5 units per class at around $40 per unit, so about $800 (and 9 months) to get through it all. Then you generally cram for a few weeks and take the CCNA exam. If you don't pass, you can just take it again (at something like $130 a pop) a month later. I managed to pass the fist time, but according to my instructor, most from his program have to take the test a few times. (Of those who finished, virtually all ended up passing the exam.) (However, over half the people who started the program with me dropped out without finishing the program.)

As to the material, how hard it is depends a lot on your aptitude and background. If you have real world experience with setting up networks and working with computers, that helps a lot. If not, you're going to have to work at it.

Answer 2

You pass the exams. They are pretty tough. If you can't subnet IP networks quickly in your head or if you don't know the Cisco CLI cold, you'll fail for sure.