- Exam Identity Snapshot: What 300-710 Actually Is
- Fees, Delivery and Retake Rules on One Screen
- Domain Weights and Where the Points Sit
- Deployment (30%): Must-Know Facts
- Configuration (30%): Must-Know Facts
- Management and Troubleshooting (25%)
- Integration (15%): Must-Know Facts
- Certification Path and Renewal Numbers
- Scheduling Your Review Around the Weights
- Cheat Sheet FAQ
- Deployment and Configuration are each 30% of the 300-710 objectives, together making up 60% of the exam.
- The exam costs USD 300 plus tax, runs 90 minutes, and is closed book through Pearson VUE.
- Cisco publishes no fixed passing score, so aim for broad mastery instead of a target percentage.
- Passing satisfies the CCNP Security concentration requirement; full CCNP Security also needs 350-701 SCOR.
Exam Identity Snapshot: What 300-710 Actually Is
The 300-710 exam, known on this site as Securing Networks with Cisco Firepower (SNCF), is Cisco's concentration-level firewall exam within the CCNP Security track. Cisco now markets the same exam under the name Securing Networks with Cisco Firewalls, so you will see both names in circulation. Passing earns the Cisco Certified Specialist - Securing Networks with Cisco Firewalls credential and satisfies the concentration requirement for CCNP Security. If you want the full CCNP Security certification, you also need the 350-701 SCOR core exam.
There are no formal prerequisite qualifications and no mandatory training courses. That said, "no prerequisites" does not mean "no preparation." Our SNCF requirements guide covers eligibility in detail, and the overview of what SNCF certification is explains where the credential sits in Cisco's portfolio.
Fees, Delivery and Retake Rules on One Screen
Logistics questions never appear on the exam, but they derail more candidates than any single technical topic. Here is the quick reference.
| Item | What to Know |
|---|---|
| Exam code | 300-710 (SNCF) |
| Fee | USD 300 plus tax; Cisco Learning Credits accepted |
| Duration | 90 minutes |
| Delivery | Proctored, computer-delivered written exam at Pearson VUE test centers or eligible OnVUE online appointments |
| Reference materials | Closed book; personal books and notes are excluded under the Cisco Candidate Rules Agreement |
| Passing score | Not published; standards are set statistically and can change |
| Question count | No fixed count verified |
| Retake wait | Five calendar days, beginning the following day |
| Language | The exam page lists English; verify the language offered for your specific booking |
For a deeper cost breakdown including retake budgeting, see the SNCF certification cost guide. Scheduling windows and deadlines are covered in SNCF exam dates and scheduling.
Closed-Book Means Closed-Book
You must accept the confidentiality agreement as part of current Cisco exam policies, and personal notes are not allowed in the testing environment. Plan to carry everything in your head: CLI-style syntax recognition, policy-order logic, and the purpose of each Firepower and Secure Firewall component.
Question Style: What Is and Is Not Known
Cisco's general guidance for Associate and Professional exams describes multiple-choice items, drag-and-drop, and possible performance-based lab items. It does not guarantee a particular item mix for every SNCF delivery. Prepare for all three formats rather than betting on one. Drag-and-drop items typically reward knowing ordered processes (for example, the sequence of policy evaluation), and performance-based items reward hands-on familiarity with the management interface rather than memorized definitions.
Domain Weights and Where the Points Sit
| Domain | Weight | Character of the Content |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Deployment | 30% | Getting the platform and traffic path right |
| 2. Configuration | 30% | Policies, inspection, and access control behavior |
| 3. Management and Troubleshooting | 25% | Operating, diagnosing, and maintaining |
| 4. Integration | 15% | Connecting to the wider Cisco security ecosystem |
Deployment and Configuration are jointly the largest. Together they account for 60% of the objectives, so a weak performance in either one is very hard to offset elsewhere. Cisco also cautions that related topics may appear beyond the listed bullets and that objectives may change, so treat the blueprint as a floor, not a ceiling. For a full walkthrough of each area, read the SNCF exam domains guide.
Deployment (30%): Must-Know Facts
Domain 1: Deployment
Deployment questions test whether you can place the firewall into a network correctly and choose the right operating mode for the requirement described.
- Distinguish routed, transparent, and passive/inline deployment modes and when each fits a scenario.
- Understand how traffic reaches the inspection engine, including interface roles and security zones.
- Know the difference between managing devices individually and through centralized management.
- Understand high availability and clustering concepts at the level of purpose and prerequisites.
- Recognize the role of the Encrypted Visibility Engine in the current objectives and what problem it addresses (visibility into encrypted traffic).
The current objectives also place ZTNA and VPN topics in the exam's scope. Expect scenario wording such as "a remote workforce needs secure access to private applications" and be ready to choose between a VPN-style approach and a zero trust network access approach based on the stated requirement.
Configuration (30%): Must-Know Facts
Domain 2: Configuration
Configuration is where policy logic lives. Candidates who only memorize menu paths struggle here; candidates who understand why traffic is allowed, blocked, or inspected do well.
- Access control policy structure: rules, ordering, default actions, and what each action does to inspection.
- The relationship between access control, intrusion, file/malware, and URL or application controls.
- Objects and how reusable objects simplify and standardize rule sets.
- NAT behavior and how it interacts with access control decisions.
- Decryption and SSL/TLS inspection concepts, including why some traffic should not be decrypted.
- VPN and remote access configuration concepts at the level the objectives require.
A reliable way to approach configuration questions: ask what the packet experiences at each stage. Which rule matches first? What action does that rule take? Is the traffic handed to deeper inspection or dropped immediately? Drag-and-drop style items often test exactly that ordering. Our difficulty guide for the SNCF exam explains why this domain tends to feel hardest to candidates without hands-on lab time.
Management and Troubleshooting (25%)
At a quarter of the exam, this domain rewards candidates who have actually operated a Firepower or Secure Firewall environment instead of only reading about it.
Domain 3: Management and Troubleshooting
Expect diagnostic reasoning: given symptoms, identify the most likely cause or the best next step.
- Read and interpret connection events, intrusion events, and health monitoring output.
- Use packet-tracing and capture-style tools to determine why traffic is dropped or misclassified.
- Understand policy deployment: what happens when changes are deployed, and why a change may not take effect as expected.
- Know backup, restore, and update concepts and their operational impact.
- Recognize the role of Cisco Security Cloud Control Firewall Management in managing firewalls at scale.
Troubleshooting Logic That Transfers
Work from the outside in: confirm the traffic reaches the device, confirm which policy it matched, confirm the action applied, then check whether deployment actually completed. Many exam distractors describe a plausible fix at the wrong layer. Eliminate any answer that changes a deeper setting before the basics (interface, zone, rule match) are verified.
Integration (15%): Must-Know Facts
Integration is the smallest domain, but it covers the newest material and is where the 2026 blueprint most visibly differs from older Firepower content.
Domain 4: Integration
Know what each connected platform contributes and what data flows between them.
- Cisco XDR integration: correlating firewall telemetry with broader detection and response.
- Splunk integration: forwarding firewall data for search, dashboards, and analysis.
- AI-driven threat intelligence concepts as named in the current objectives.
- Identity and access context sources that enrich policy decisions.
Key Takeaway
Do not skip the 15% domain. Integration questions are often conceptual (what does this integration provide?) rather than procedural, which makes them some of the most efficient points to secure with focused reading.
Certification Path and Renewal Numbers
| Credential | Validity | CE Credits Needed to Renew |
|---|---|---|
| Cisco Certified Specialist - Securing Networks with Cisco Firewalls | Three years | 40 credits before expiry |
| Professional / CCNP Security | Three years | 80 credits |
A qualifying concentration exam pass earns 40 CE credits, and a core exam pass earns 80, which supports exam-based or combined renewal. One subtle point worth memorizing: the three-year window for combining CCNP exam passes is separate from earned-certification renewal. Renewing through continuing education does not extend that exam-completion window, so plan your core and concentration exams accordingly. Our ROI analysis and salary guide look at what the credential does for your career, and the SNCF jobs overview covers roles where firewall skills are in demand, such as network security engineer, security analyst, and firewall administrator positions.
Scheduling Your Review Around the Weights
Because the blueprint is so front-loaded, the review order should be too. Here is a compact way to schedule a focused review, tied directly to the domains.
Deployment first
- Deployment modes, interface roles, zones, and management options
- Encrypted Visibility Engine and ZTNA/VPN concepts
Configuration, with lab time
- Access control policy ordering, actions, and inspection hand-off
- NAT, decryption, and objects; rebuild policies from memory
Management, troubleshooting, integration
- Event reading, tracing, deployment behavior
- Cisco Security Cloud Control, XDR, and Splunk roles
Cisco's current exam page recommends the SFWIPF course followed by SFWIPA. A consolidated SNCF course was announced for the end of calendar year 2026, but that announcement does not establish present availability, so verify before you plan around it. For a full preparation framework, see the SNCF study guide, and when you are ready to test yourself under realistic conditions, use the SNCF practice tests and review every miss against the domain it belongs to.
Cheat Sheet FAQ
Cisco does not publish a fixed numeric passing score. Standards are determined statistically and can change, so prepare for broad coverage instead of targeting a specific percentage. See the passing score article for more context.
Deployment and Configuration are jointly largest at 30% each, followed by Management and Troubleshooting at 25% and Integration at 15%.
You must wait five calendar days beginning the day after the failed attempt before retaking the same exam. Budget for another USD 300 plus tax per attempt.
No. It earns the Cisco Certified Specialist credential and satisfies the CCNP Security concentration requirement, but full CCNP Security also requires the 350-701 SCOR core exam.
No official pass rate was verified, and we will not invent one. The pass rate article explains what can and cannot be said from available data.