We learn from an early age that change is the only constant in life. Sometimes we view change as something to be worried about, something we must shift and adjust for, and that the unknown could bring us…well, anything. On the flip side, some change is good, even needed and refreshing (as anyone who puts a new coat of paint on a house will attest). I guess you could say that even your views on change can change. Especially when you have someone to add context that explains how a particular change benefits you.
It is my hope that this blog series will help you do just that, as we face major changes centered on a topic near and dear to my heart: the updated Cisco Automation Certifications and their associated exam topics.
In case you missed the announcement in May 2025, we are renaming Cisco DevNet Certifications to Cisco Automation Certifications. On February 3, 2026, each certification level (Associate, Professional, and Expert) will transition to the CCNA/CCNP/CCIE taxonomy that is so familiar to our learning community, partners, and employers. Read the announcement.
As of February 3, 2026, the Cisco Certified DevNet Associate and the Cisco Certified DevNet Expert will become known as the CCNA Automation and CCIE Automation certifications, respectively. Same test, new names. It’s that easy.
However, after much thought and consideration, it was decided that the Cisco Certified DevNet Professional certification needed more than a name change. It needed to align with today’s job market.
CCNP Automation: Reimagining the DevNet Professional Certification
We needed to align the CCNP Automation certification to test the skills and requirements being seen in the market today from our customers who are employing network automation engineers. Much work was put into job role and task analysis, as well as determining the qualifications of a qualified candidate.
After all that work was done, it was time to lock a bunch of subject matter experts from various backgrounds and focus areas in a room to work out the exam topics list, the three of which were released at the end of July.
A new approach to testing
All Cisco certification exams undergo an update and change process once a year. We change only up to 10% of the exam topics, and sometimes not even that much. But in the case of the CCNP Automation, we just couldn’t make that number fit with how the exams needed to be reshaped.
When first released, the Professional-level DevNet exams were focused very much on transforming network engineers into individuals who were comfortable with writing applications for network automation. These “network automation developers” needed to be familiar not only with Cisco APIs and their functions but also with the software development lifecycle, application deployment, and platforms, and how to make sure those applications were secure, accessible, resilient, and scalable.
What automation skills do today’s engineers need?
These skills are great to have in your base of knowledge, but the market needed something different. Engineers who are comfortable with automation frameworks and tools and can:
- Create digital twins for pre- and post-change validations
- Leverage programmability principles for operations and monitoring
- Comfortable navigating the new world of AI
We needed to test a skillset that wasn’t “application developer who understands a bit of networking,” but “network engineer with experience in network-specific automation frameworks to implement an end-to-end solution.”
Lofty goals, but I feel that our new exam topics hit all those areas (I may be just a little biased, since I was one of those individuals locked in that room for hours).
Cisco Automation Certification exam topics are now available!
Download exam topics
So, what did we change in the AUTOCOR?
In-Scope Platforms
At the top of the Exam Topics PDF, specific in-scope platforms are called out.
- This reduces repetition in the exam topics.
- Focuses on the platforms you should study for.
- Provides boundaries for the scope, so you don’t need to study every single Cisco product.
Keep these platforms in mind as you move through each of the domains.
Domain Changes
- The exam moved from five domains of study to four.
- This increases the exam weight on the first two domains: Network Automation and Infrastructure as Code.
- These sections will be familiar to network automation professionals, but with a changed focus.
- Rather than testing on single-platform APIs, each task in the Network Automation section is focused on a solution that involves an automation tool, such as Ansible, Terraform, or Python.
In some instances, not all platforms can be configured for each task (like using NETCONF for ACI). This wasn’t an oversight; as a network automation professional, you will be looked at as someone to help guide an enterprise towards a proper solution and toolset, so you must know and understand limitations and capabilities as well as how to accomplish a goal using automation.
Infrastructure as Code section
While tools like Git are still important, again, the focus has shifted towards using a CI/CD pipeline and GitOps to deploy network automation solutions, either against real hardware or leveraging a digital twin simulation tool.
Professionals need to understand:
- CI/CD processes.
- Cisco Modeling Labs.
- Network sources of truth (for pulling data into pipelines for variables, configuration, etc.).
The focus is on the solution rather than individual components.
Operations section
The emphasis is on how to keep an automation solution functional past initial testing and deployment. To do this, key areas include:
- Security and secret management (passwords, API keys).
- Ensuring deployed automation solutions remain functional through network-centric testing.
- Using model-driven telemetry on various platforms to improve network observability.
Keep in mind, though, that the security/secret management (like passwords and API keys), certificate management, and logging only pertain to the network devices or the automation solution being tested on, not on the entire application stack (which is something an application developer would care about).
We’re trimming the topics to home in on that network automation engineer persona and testing it through actionable skills.
The change we all knew was coming: AI
No modern engineer will be able to function without some understanding of AI, its impact on our industry, and how to safely and effectively use its capabilities. Network automation engineers won’t be any exception to this, either. However, we wanted the exam topics to be crafted in such a way that brought tangible, valuable skills and AI applications to the test, and I feel like we hit the mark with these.
We wanted the candidates to understand the implications behind using AI for their roles, including:
- Ways that AI could cause harm to an organization, including IP theft, data sovereignty, and just “code that doesn’t work.”
- Likewise, network automation engineers should be able to figure out when solutions will work and when they are just plain made up.
- This reinforces the use of AI as a tool and assistant, rather than outsourcing everything to a model; if something breaks at 3 a.m., “AI made it” won’t be an acceptable excuse to your leaders.
- The practical applications of AI in the networks.
- With the quick rise of model context protocol (MCP) servers being used as conduits and extensions to LLMs for network automation, it was a no-brainer to include a Pythonic framework of MCP server development as a task item.
We also wanted to make sure that our engineers could construct an AI agent that would allow them to naturally talk to an LLM and perform some sort of network automation, possibly even using one or more MCP servers.
While we understand the world of AI is rapidly evolving, we felt that the skills tested by these exam topics will be sought after and used by our customers and learners, and will become part of the baseline knowledge that any network automation engineer should know.
Does this change my DEVCOR studies?
With such a major rewrite of an exam, the answer to this question will always be “yes”. While we know that this could potentially interrupt your studies, hopefully, the additional context and reasoning why we made this change will help you feel more confident and comfortable with making that change. Also, remember that you have until February 2, 2026, to take and pass the existing DEVCOR exam, so if you feel that you’re close, continue moving on to get that pass before then.
If you do have to change your studies, though, all is not lost. Many of the concepts that exist within DEVCOR, like API usage, git commands, use of Python, Ansible, and Terraform, and understanding Cisco platforms, will all come in handy in AUTOCOR. Your studies will be accelerated with those concepts, so you can focus on applying those concepts in a complete automation solution.
Upleveling your automation thinking
You’ll also be able to uplevel your automation thinking and conversations, not just understanding the how, but the why, which will benefit you in your professional career. Finally, while you don’t want to forget everything you learned about application development and the associated lifecycle, you won’t be required to recall it on the new exam.
This is a change, but this is a change for the better. I’ll also be putting out a similar breakdown of the ENAUTO 2.0, as well as the new DCNAUTO (I contributed to all three exams), so that you can feel comfortable with those changes as well.
Finally, I promise that I will change something about the following parts of this series: I promise not to use the word “change” nearly as much as I did here. 😉
As always, you can find me on LinkedIn or X (formerly Twitter) if you have any questions regarding this or any other exam. Happy studying!
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