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Submit bugs, feature requests, and feedbackCisco · 3-year cycle · 80 CEs
Cisco Certified Network Professional — Security. Professional-level certification covering network, cloud, content, and endpoint security architectures plus secure access and visibility.
Renewal cycle
3 years
Between full re-certifications.
Credits required
80 CE
Roughly 27 CE per year.
Indexed here
2
Opportunities mapped to this cert.
CCNP Security carries a 3-year validity from your most recent qualifying pass. Like all Cisco professional certs, it has no annual maintenance fee — you maintain it by exam, by Continuing Education credits, or by a combination. The choice matters a lot in cost and time.
If you were starting fresh
CE TOTAL
5.0
COST
$0
TIME
5 hrs
ACTIVITIES
2
Free pool gets you 5.0 CE toward the 80.0 gap. Add paid options to close it.
Path 1 — Exams. Pass the current Security core exam (350-701 SCOR) again, or a qualifying higher / concentration exam from Cisco's recertification list. A single core or qualifying-exam pass recertifies CCNP Security and renews your CCNA underneath it. This is the path most active engineers take.
Path 2 — Earn 80 Continuing Education (CE) credits through Cisco's CE Program. Path 3 — combine some CE credits with an exam. CCNP's 80-credit requirement is far higher than CCNA's 30, which changes the math (below).
Cisco's CE Program tracks credits in your Cisco Learning Network profile, earned strictly from Cisco-authored sources: Cisco U / Learning Network instructor-led courses (3–40 credits by length), Cisco Press books (≈8 credits each, read and assessed), and Cisco Live sessions (≈1 credit per eligible on-site session). Third-party training — CBT Nuggets, Pluralsight, INE — counts for zero, no matter how Cisco-relevant.
Reaching 80 credits without an exam is a genuine project: roughly two long Cisco U courses (~16 credits each), a couple of Cisco Press books (~16), a Cisco Live's worth of eligible sessions, and additional courses to close the gap. The content cost (subscriptions plus a Cisco Live registration around $2,200 in-person) typically runs well past the price of a single $300 exam.
The CE route makes sense mainly if your employer already funds Cisco Live and Cisco U and you're accumulating credits anyway; otherwise the exam is cheaper and faster.
For most CCNP Security holders, re-taking the 350-701 SCOR core ($300, ~120 minutes) is the cleanest recert: you keep the core current, you recertify CCNP Security for a fresh 3-year cycle, and you renew your CCNA at the same time via Cisco's stack-renew rule.
The SCOR core is the shared foundation of the whole CCNP Security track, so the study overlaps with day-job work — Firepower/FTD, ISE, secure VPN, ASA, and Cisco's cloud and zero-trust security. If you've been doing the work, a focused refresh on what's changed since your last pass is usually enough.
A CCIE Security qualifying exam also recertifies CCNP Security, but that's a stretch goal — viable only if you were heading for CCIE regardless.
Pitfall 1: Counting third-party study toward CE credits. Cisco's CE Program is Cisco-content-only. Engineers who prep with non-Cisco material for two years and then try to claim CE credits learn the rule too late. Audit your activities against Cisco's eligible-activity list every 6 months if you're on the CE path.
Pitfall 2: Assuming a failed exam attempt buys time. Cisco only credits a PASS. Starting a concentration exam and failing does nothing for your recert clock. Schedule the qualifying exam with buffer, not on the expiry date.
Pitfall 3: Date math. Your 3-year window runs from the qualifying exam-completion date, not badge issuance. Cisco's completion email is canonical; there's no grace period, so plan at least 90 days of margin.
80 for CCNP Security versus 30 for CCNA — Cisco scales CE requirements by level (Associate 30, Professional 80, CCIE 120). The higher bar is a big reason most CCNP holders recertify by exam instead.
Yes. Passing the current Security core exam recertifies CCNP Security for a fresh 3-year cycle and renews your CCNA underneath it via Cisco's stack-renew rule. It's the most common path for working engineers.
No. Cisco charges no annual maintenance fee. Your only cost is the recert path you pick — the exam fee or the Cisco-authored CE content. That's a real advantage over CISSP ($135/year) or CompTIA's $50/year CE fee.
No. Cisco's CE Program requires Cisco authorship — Cisco U, Cisco Press, and eligible Cisco Live sessions only. Strong third-party prep (Pluralsight, INE, CBT Nuggets) earns zero CE credits, though it's still fine exam preparation.
Cisco offers no grace period. After expiry you'd re-pass the current requirements to reinstate (the SCOR core plus, for the full CCNP, a concentration exam). The lapse is visible on your Credly profile; Cisco doesn't otherwise penalise re-takers.
2 results mapped to CCNP Security, ranked by what’s coming up next.
A vendor-led learning path on Cisco's SSE and ZTNA stack, including ISE policy design and Umbrella DNS security. Three modules, hands-on with dCloud labs.
Vendor walkthrough of the SecureX orchestration story — integrations, response workflows, threat hunting via cross-product pivots.
Jump to a focused view — free webinars, short lessons, exam-prep tracks — curated for CCNP Security renewal.
Maintaining more than one credential? A single activity often counts toward several — here’s what pairs with CCNP Security.
Suggest any webinar, course, or training URL. We’ll classify it with Claude and queue it for review.
ImportantRecertHero is an independent aggregator. Credit estimates are guidance only — always verify with your certifying body.