Cisco CCNA Automation Exam 200-901 CCNAAUTO Study Guide: Automating Networks Using Cisco Platforms (Todd Lammle Authorized Study Guides 2026 Editions)

This complete study guide, written by best selling author Todd Lammle, covers the complete CCNA Automation certification, which is the first step in your network automation career. Cisco renamed the Cisco Certified DevNet Associate to CCNA Automation , and the exam short code from DEVASC to CCNAAUTO . The exam number — 200-901 — and the blueprint it measures are unchanged. If you have already started studying, none of that work is wasted. This is the complete study guide for that exam, from best-selling networking author Todd Lammle .

Written for the engineer in the middle The 200-901 is not a programming exam and it is not a networking exam. It sits deliberately in between, and that is exactly where most candidates struggle: developers get caught by VLANs and NAT, and network engineers get caught by unit tests and Dockerfiles. This book assumes you are strong on one side and builds the other, without condescending to either.

What's inside
One chapter per blueprint domain , in blueprint order, sized to its exam weight
Software development and design — Python, JSON, YAML, XML, Git, TDD, and design patterns
Understanding and using APIs — REST constraints, HTTP methods and status codes, authentication, webhooks, rate limits, and pagination
Cisco platforms and development — Meraki, Catalyst Center (DNA Center), ACI, SD-WAN, NSO, UCS, Intersight, Webex, and the security platforms, each with its authentication pattern and key endpoints
Application deployment and security — containers versus VMs, Dockerfiles, CI/CD, unit testing, secrets, OWASP threats, and Bash
Infrastructure and automation — YANG, NETCONF, RESTCONF, Ansible, Terraform, pyATS, CML, unified diffs, and sequence diagrams
Network fundamentals — addressing, VLANs, routing, the three planes, DHCP, DNS, NAT, SNMP, NTP, port numbers, and connectivity troubleshooting

Hands-on labs that need no lab Every lab runs against Cisco DevNet's free, always-on sandboxes and a local Python install. Query a live Catalyst Center inventory. Create and delete an interface with RESTCONF. Snapshot device state with NETCONF, change it, and diff the result. Containerise a small API service and watch the layer cache work. No hardware, no licences, no subscriptions.

220 questions — and every wrong answer explained Twenty review questions close each chapter, plus a 100-question practice exam . The answer key does not just tell you the letter. For every question, all four options are explained: why the correct one is correct, and why each of the other three is wrong . Cisco builds its distractors out of adjacent concepts — 401 against 403, a leaf-list against a list, delivery against deployment — and articulating those differences yourself is the only reliable defence.

Correct answers are distributed evenly across A, B, C, and D throughout. There is no letter pattern to find.

Ten appendices you will actually reopen A full objectives-to-chapter map, HTTP status code reference, protocol and port reference, Python for network automation, a Cisco platform API quick reference, Git and Bash commands, data formats and YANG, Docker and Ansible, the practice exam, and a 120-term glossary.

Pair it with CCNA Automation Practice Questions: 400 Practice Questions for Exam 200-901 CCNAAUTO , the companion volume — every question different from the ones in this book.