Cost Estimate for the CCDE

Yesterday I received an interesting comment to one of my previous CCDE blog posts.  Jack asked:

My employer is asking for cost estimates for the whole process [CCDE]. I have seen that your estimate is 3000 dollars. Does this include the tests themselves or just the materials?

I contend that the real cost of this certification is in the time required to master the material.  That said, the actual out of pocket costs are very important too!  Here is a breakdown.

 

Costs

Fixed Costs

Cost	Item
$350 (each attempt)	Written Exam (352-001)
$1400 (each attempt)	Practical Exam (352-011)

Variable Costs

Cost	Item
Minimal	Travel to Written Exam
Potentially Expensive	Travel to Practical Exam
~$400	Books
Unknown	Formal Training

You almost must factor in the opportunity costs of your time, as many of aspiring candidates need to delay or avoid other time commitments.  At the very least, you’ll likely miss some family and friend events to concentrate on studying.

 

Travel to Written Exam

Hopefully this is minimal for everyone.  The exam is offered at all Vue testing centers, so this should be a short car or bus ride away.

 

Travel to Practical Exam

Currently, the practical exam is offered in Hong Kong, London, and Chicago.  Historically it’s been offered every six months, but that pace is expected to pick up to meet increased demand for the exam.  As of this writing, the exam was most recently offered in August, and the next scheduled offering is in December.  I expect the practical to be offered quarterly beginning in 2010.

Travel to/from these selected testing locations is not trivial.  My three day / two night trip to Chicago (from Delaware) cost approximately $1100.  That probably comes in at the low end of most candidates travel costs, as my airfare was only $350.  International travel can be considerably more expensive.  Of course, if you’re fortunate enough to be local to one of these cities, you’ll save a bundle!  Also keep in mind that it is probably wise to budget for two trips, to prepare for the possibility of failure on the first attempt.  This is an area where I wouldn’t cut corners.  For a big exam (or business meeting, etc), be sure to arrive in plenty of time (early afternoon on the prior day for me) and don’t be rushed to leave.  The exam is enough to think about, without adding travel concerns to the mix.

Books

I’ve given my book recommendations before, but I’ll repeat them here:

Optimal Routing Design – One of the authors (Russ White) is also author of most of the CCDE Practical content to date.  It helps to get into the mind of the test writer!  Besides that, this book is the best resource for Enterprise routing design, and specifically, IGP design.

Definitive MPLS Designs – This book covers MPLS Service Provider designs, as well as a bit of Internet Service Provider design.  More than any other resource, this book gives a great feel for the style of the CCDE practical exam.

BGP Design & Implementation – This book focuses almost exclusively on Internet Service Provider design.  It gives the “Why” behind route-reflectors and confederations.

End-to-End QoS Network Design – This book does for QoS what the above three books do for IP Routing & MPLS.  It uses great examples to describe class-based traffic-shaping and other QoS concepts.  For the purposes of this exam, you can disregard the configurations.

These four books cover the basics of network design.  In addition to these resources, candidates may also want to pick up Network Management Fundamentals.  This book gives an overview of Network Management design, and a few specifics on Network Management technologies.

Note that these books don’t necessarily cover the basic technology particularly well.  Each of these books has a primer section, but none of them go into the depth necessary to teach someone new to the respective technologies.  If you need more basic information on the technologies, I would suggest following the reading suggestions available from the appropriate CCIE track.  For example, if you need information on VPLS or AToM, read Layer 2 VPN Architectures.

Formal Training

 

I’ve noticed that there are now at least two formal training classes available for the CCDE.  One is being offered in Europe, and is taught by an actual CCDE certified instructor.  The second is offered in the US.  I suspect this is not being taught by a CCDE.  I’m not sure what to think of formal training for this exam.  It likely depends heavily on how the course is structured.  I do not believe that one or two weeks of classroom training can prepare a candidate for the broad range of technical topics covered in the blueprint.

On the other hand, a week of classroom training could be great for learning design methodology.  Assuming the student already has a fundamental grasp of most of the technology, an instructor-led class that teaches by example could be a positive addition to a candidates preparation plan.  It may not even take a full week to prepare a qualified candidate for the style of the exam.

I will be interested to hear feedback and test results from the first wave of candidates who partake in these classroom training offerings.  Before I hear firsthand whether the candidates felt prepared, I won’t be able to recommend this strategy.

 

Conclusion

 

To sum this up (literally!), I spent about $3000 in actual dollars to achieve the CCDE certification (note, I took the written during the beta period, so my numbers don’t quite add up).  I am fortunate to have a supportive employer who covered most of these costs.  A candidate can spend far more than this in their quest for the CCDE certification.  If I were coming at this today, I would budget for two attempts for the written exam ($700), two attempts for the practical ($2800) + travel for the practical ($2200 for me, but varies wildly depending on your location).  I would also budget $400 for books, and depending on student feedback, I might budget for a formal class.  Without the class, my total budget would be $6100.