For many years, I’ve thought about taking a Juniper certification. Today, I have successfully achieved my first one, the JNCIA-Junos. This exam is the associate level certification for multiple tracks such as Data Center, Enterprise Routing & Switching, and Service Provider Routing and Switching.
JNCIA-Junos Exam
I took the exam during the COVID-19 period which means it was an online proctored exam with Pearson VUE taken at home. The exam code I tested for was JN0-103. You have 90 minutes to take the exam of 65 multiple-choice questions. The exam is based on Junos software release 19.4.
The exam is $200 USD. But if you go through Junos Genius, fully complete the online training and score 70% or higher on the practice exam then you are presented with a discounted voucher.
Previously, they provided a 100% discount voucher but they have changed that early August 2020 which is now a 75% discount voucher.
I took about 35 minutes to complete the exam.
The online exam itself allows you to review questions, which is great. My strategy is to select what I thought was the best answer and for the tricky questions, I mark for review.
You can find your score report in Pearson VUE by clicking on View Score Reports under My Account.
Study Material
I relied heavily on Junos Genius to study for JNCIA-Junos. Over the course of 3 days, I spent time going through each module in preparation for the exam.
The JNCIA-Junos Genius training includes 15 modules. The training platform itself was outstanding. It was easy to use, videos played well, and they included labs.
Junos Genius included 3 total practice exams. Two of them were, I guess you could consider as a pre-practice exam? The last practice exam you take is for the voucher. You must score a minimum of 70% to get your voucher. The other two practice exams you can take unlimited tries at it and they provide you with the answers to the questions. The main practice exam for the course is a simulated exam with no view of the answers.
Once you pass your practice exam you will be presented with your voucher immediately. If you do not see your voucher you could open a ticket and you will receive it via email.
The practice exam questions gave a similar experience on the proctored exam. But I would recommend doing actual labs to fully understand what you’re looking at.
So speaking of labs, you can head over to Juniper’s jlabs and start getting hands-on experience with Junos using the vMX and vSRX. Those are the only two you’ll need to be familiar with. But for the exam, you should understand what platforms are routing, switching, and security.
Additionally, you’ll be able to use various routing labs. So take advantage of this prior to your exam!
After I had completed Junos Genius training, I was too excited so I scheduled my exam for the next morning (Saturday). My plan was to use jlabs to nail down topics such as routing policies and to get used to the output of Junos. But when I had logged in the night before, jlabs was under maintenance! I had no labs to work on! So I headed to Juniper’s website to download a trial of vMX, and long story short I did not privileges.
So I watched the labs from Junos Genius, woke up early on Saturday, and passed my first Juniper certification 🤗
My Prior Experience
I have little experience with Junos. My workplace has Juniper routers and switches so I have some familiarity moving around Junos but I did not have knowledge at a certification level.
But I do have experience with Cisco as I have my CCNA. I found JNCIA-Junos a lot easier than CCNA and didn’t go in-depth with some of the routing and switching concepts.
My current job role is a network engineer so the concepts were familiar and in the exam I could rule out wrong answers quickly to increase my chances of getting the correct answer.
If you have your CCNA then JNCIA-Junos will just be a way for you to understand how Junos implements routing, switching, and security on their platform.
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