What 350-701 actually tests

The 350-701 SCOR exam is Cisco’s core professional-level security exam. It validates that you can operate, integrate, and troubleshoot Cisco security technologies across network, cloud, endpoint, and identity. It is also the core exam for CCNP Security and counts toward Cisco Certified Specialist - Security Core.

This is not a product-admin exam for one platform. Cisco expects you to move across AAA, firewalls, VPNs, email/web security, endpoint security, cloud-delivered security, automation, and visibility tools without losing the thread.

Expect questions that mix:

Architecture and design choices
Feature behavior and use cases
Policy evaluation logic
Basic configuration interpretation
Troubleshooting symptoms
API/automation fundamentals

The official domain weighting matters, and your study plan should reflect it:

Security Concepts – 12%
Network Security – 20%
Securing the Cloud – 15%
Content Security – 10%
Endpoint Protection and Detection – 15%
Secure Network Access, Visibility, and Enforcement – 20%
Automation and Programmability – 8%

That weighting tells you where candidates usually waste time. They over-focus on broad theory and under-prepare on network security, ISE/TrustSec/AAA, and product integration. Those are the sections that separate people who have read from people who can operate the stack.

A practical note: you do not need to be a deep CLI engineer for every product, but you do need to understand how Cisco security products fit together and what each one is responsible for.

Build your foundation first: security concepts Cisco expects you to know cold

The Security Concepts domain is only 12%, but it supports everything else. If your fundamentals are shaky, the product questions become guesswork.

Focus on these areas:

Common security concepts: CIA triad, risk, threat, vulnerability, exploit, attack surface, defense in depth
Cryptography basics: symmetric vs asymmetric encryption, hashing, digital signatures, PKI, certificates, certificate chains, revocation concepts
Security attacks and vulnerabilities: phishing, malware families, credential attacks, MITM, replay, DNS abuse, lateral movement, command and control
Security controls: preventive, detective, corrective, compensating
Zero Trust principles and segmentation logic
Threat intelligence and indicators: IOC vs IOA, reputation, telemetry, context

For SCOR, theory must map to Cisco implementation. That means you should be able to connect concepts like these:

PKI -> used in AnyConnect/Secure Client, IKEv2, 802.1X EAP-TLS, device admin, and API auth
Segmentation -> implemented with TrustSec SGTs, VLANs, VRFs, ACLs, and policy-based enforcement
Visibility -> delivered through NetFlow, Secure Network Analytics concepts, logs, endpoint telemetry, and pxGrid-sharing
Identity -> enforced through RADIUS, TACACS+, ISE policy sets, posture, profiling, and guest/BYOD workflows

What is usually hard here:

Keeping hashing, signing, encryption, and certificate validation separate in your head
Understanding where RADIUS and TACACS+ differ in real deployments
Translating generic Zero Trust language into ISE + TrustSec + endpoint posture + segmented access

What is straightforward:

Basic attack categories
Security control types
Core cryptographic vocabulary

Do not spend two weeks here. Learn enough to support the product domains, then move on.

The heavy-lift domain: firewalls, VPNs, and core network security operations

This is one of the biggest scoring areas at 20%, and it deserves serious time. If you already work with Cisco firewalls, this section is manageable. If you do not, this is where you need labs.

The exam objectives here center on technologies such as:

Cisco Secure Firewall (historically Firepower NGFW/FTD, managed by FMC or locally with FDM)
Cisco IOS/IOS XE security features
Intrusion policy and traffic inspection concepts
Site-to-site VPN and remote-access VPN
NAT, access control, zones, and policy evaluation
High availability and deployment modes

Key topics to master:

Secure Firewall architecture and policy flow

You should know the roles of:

FTD data plane
FMC centralized management
FDM local manager
Access Control Policies (ACP)
Security Intelligence
Intrusion policies
File and malware policies
Prefilter policies
Network discovery and eventing

You do not need to memorize every screen. You do need to understand policy order of operations and where inspection happens.

Study these carefully:

How Security Intelligence can block before deeper inspection
Difference between ACP rules and prefilter use cases
Where IPS/IDS actions apply
How URL filtering, application control, and malware/file policy interact
Basic deployment modes: routed, transparent, inline set, passive

NAT and access control logic

Candidates often miss questions because they know firewall features but not evaluation order.

Be comfortable with:

Manual NAT vs Auto NAT concepts
Dynamic PAT, static NAT, identity NAT
NAT exemption behavior for VPN traffic
Security zones and interface roles
How ACL/policy decisions differ on ASA-style logic versus FTD policy models

VPNs: know both the building blocks and the Cisco implementation

You need more than the buzzwords.

Study:

IPsec fundamentals: AH vs ESP, tunnel vs transport mode
IKEv1 and IKEv2 phases/exchanges and why IKEv2 is preferred
Remote-access VPN using Cisco Secure Client (formerly AnyConnect)
Site-to-site IPsec VPN
SSL VPN concepts where relevant
Authentication methods: PSK, certificates, AAA-backed auth
Split tunneling, full tunneling, posture-aware access

Know common failure points:

Mismatched proposals or transforms
Certificate trust issues
NAT-T problems
Routing asymmetry
ACL/interesting traffic mismatches
Group policy / tunnel group confusion in legacy ASA concepts

IOS/IOS XE device hardening and control-plane protection

Cisco still expects you to know how infrastructure devices are secured.

Cover:

Secure management: SSH, HTTPS, SNMPv3, syslog, NTP authentication
AAA integration with RADIUS/TACACS+
Control Plane Policing (CoPP) basics
Infrastructure ACLs and management plane restriction
uRPF, DHCP snooping, DAI, IP Source Guard at a conceptual level

If you are short on time, prioritize in this order:

FTD/FMC policy behavior
VPN fundamentals and Cisco remote access/site-to-site use cases
NAT and rule evaluation
IOS/IOS XE hardening features

Identity-driven access: ISE, AAA, TrustSec, profiling, posture

This is another 20% domain and one of the most exam-defining parts of SCOR. If you pass this exam, people assume you understand Cisco identity and access control architecture. That means Cisco ISE is not optional.

You should be able to explain and distinguish:

AAA components: authentication, authorization, accounting
RADIUS vs TACACS+
802.1X, MAB, and WebAuth
ISE personas and deployment roles
Policy sets, authentication policy, authorization policy
Profiling, posture, and guest/BYOD workflows
TrustSec, SGT, and SGACL
pxGrid integrations
Passive identity and contextual sharing

ISE architecture you must know

At minimum, know what these personas do:

PAN – Policy Administration Node
PSN – Policy Service Node
MnT – Monitoring and Troubleshooting Node

Understand why distributed deployments use different personas and how PSNs serve live authentications while PAN handles administration.

Authentication methods and access flows

This is where many questions live.

You should be able to compare:

802.1X for strong identity-based access
MAB for non-802.1X devices such as printers or legacy endpoints
WebAuth for guest-style onboarding or portal-based flows
EAP methods such as PEAP and EAP-TLS

Know the tradeoffs:

EAP-TLS is stronger because of certificate-based mutual auth
MAB is weak by itself and usually paired with profiling or restrictive policy
Guest/BYOD flows add user convenience but increase policy and certificate complexity

Profiling, posture, and visibility

Cisco likes to test whether you understand the difference between identifying a device and validating its health.

Profiling answers: what is this device?
Posture answers: is this device compliant?

Know profiling inputs such as:

DHCP attributes
HTTP user-agent
CDP/LLDP
MAC OUI
RADIUS attributes
SNMP data

Know posture components at a functional level:

Posture agent / Secure Client posture module
Compliance checks
Remediation actions
Quarantine or restricted authorization results

TrustSec and segmentation

This is core Cisco security thinking.

Master these concepts:

Security Group Tags (SGTs) classify users/devices/roles
Security Group ACLs (SGACLs) enforce policy based on source/destination groups
SXP can propagate SGT mappings when inline tagging is not available
Segmentation follows identity/context instead of only IP subnets

You should be able to reason through examples like:

Contractors get internet-only access
Finance users can reach ERP but not engineering systems
IoT devices are profiled, tagged, and restricted east-west

pxGrid and ecosystem integration

Know what pxGrid is for: sharing contextual information between ISE and other security tools. Typical integrations involve security telemetry, endpoint context, or policy-relevant identity data.

This domain is hard because it combines protocols, policy logic, and product workflows. It is also one of the highest-return areas for focused study.

Cloud, web, email, and endpoint: the Cisco security stack beyond the firewall

These domains together make up a large part of the exam:

Securing the Cloud – 15%
Content Security – 10%
Endpoint Protection and Detection – 15%

Treat them as one integrated study block because Cisco increasingly presents them as a connected platform story.

Securing the cloud

Focus on Cisco technologies and cloud security concepts, not every cloud service on the market.

Key areas:

Cisco Umbrella architecture and use cases
DNS-layer security
Secure Web Gateway (SWG)
Cloud-delivered firewall / CASB concepts where they appear in Cisco terminology
Roaming client behavior and branch integration models
Protection for users on and off network

You should understand what Umbrella can do at different control points:

DNS enforcement for malicious domains
Web proxy/SWG for URL and content control
Application visibility and cloud app discovery concepts
Enforcement for roaming endpoints, branch offices, and hybrid users

Know common deployment choices:

Umbrella roaming client
Virtual appliances for internal networks
SIG-style cloud enforcement concepts
Integration with identity sources such as AD or other context providers

Content security: email and web

This domain is smaller, but Cisco asks practical questions here.

Study:

Cisco Secure Email concepts: anti-spam, anti-malware, outbreak filters, email authentication concepts
Email security protocols: SPF, DKIM, DMARC at a conceptual level
Cisco Secure Web Appliance concepts and web policy controls
URL filtering, malware scanning, reputation-based controls, sandboxing concepts

Be able to map threats to controls:

Phishing -> email authentication, URL rewriting, reputation, user awareness controls
Malicious attachment -> file analysis, sandboxing, outbreak controls
Command-and-control callback -> DNS security, web filtering, firewall egress control

Endpoint protection and detection

This is where Cisco expects familiarity with Cisco Secure Endpoint and endpoint telemetry-driven response.

Master these ideas:

Prevention vs detection vs response
Endpoint connectors and telemetry
Malware trajectory / device trajectory concepts
Behavioral analysis, retrospective security, outbreak containment
Simple policy constructs and event interpretation
Integrations with broader Cisco security tools

You should know what Secure Endpoint is trying to answer:

What executed?
On which host?
What did it touch?
Did it spread?
What should be isolated or blocked next?

Also learn the difference between:

Signature-based detection
Behavioral detection
Retrospective alerting after new intelligence arrives
Endpoint isolation and response actions

The exam may connect endpoint and cloud controls. Example: a malicious domain is blocked by Umbrella, the file hash is seen in Secure Endpoint, and identity context comes from ISE. You do not need to be a product specialist in every console, but you must understand the workflow.

Automation that matters for SCOR: APIs, JSON, and security workflow basics

Automation is only 8%, but it is easy points if you prepare correctly. Cisco is not asking you to become a software developer. It is asking whether you can work with modern security platforms programmatically.

Concentrate on:

REST APIs and HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE
JSON structure and parsing basics
API authentication concepts such as tokens and headers
Cisco security platform APIs at a high level, especially for management and policy retrieval
Basic use of Python for API calls
Data formats and automation workflows

You should be comfortable reading something like this and explaining what it does:

import requests
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer TOKEN", "Content-Type": "application/json"}
r = requests.get("https://fmc.example/api/fmc_config/v1/domain/default/policy/accesspolicies", headers=headers, verify=False)
print(r.status_code)
print(r.json())

You do not need to write a full application from memory. You should understand:

Why the Authorization header is there
Why the response is likely JSON
What a 200, 201, 401, or 404 implies
Which HTTP verbs are used for retrieval versus creation versus update

Also know where automation fits operationally:

Pulling policy objects from FMC
Automating identity or context lookups
Integrating alerts into ticketing/SOAR workflows
Exporting event data for analysis

This section is usually straightforward for anyone with basic scripting exposure. Do not ignore it, but do not let it consume your schedule.

How to sequence your prep for this exam

The right order for SCOR is not the published order. Study in dependency order.

If you already work in Cisco security

Give yourself 5 to 7 weeks.

Week 1: Security concepts refresh, crypto/PKI, AAA fundamentals
Week 2-3: Secure Firewall, NAT, ACP, intrusion, VPNs
Week 4: ISE, 802.1X, MAB, profiling, posture, TrustSec
Week 5: Umbrella, Secure Endpoint, email/web security
Week 6: Automation, review weak spots, practice questions, targeted labs
Week 7: Final consolidation if your scores are inconsistent

If you are a network engineer moving into security

Plan for 8 to 10 weeks.

Spend the first two weeks on security concepts, PKI, VPN, and AAA
Spend the next three weeks on Secure Firewall and policy logic
Spend two weeks on ISE/TrustSec, because this is usually the least familiar area
Spend one week on cloud/content/endpoint
Spend the final one to two weeks on review and timed practice

If you are security-focused but not Cisco-focused

Plan for 9 to 12 weeks.

Your challenge is not security theory. It is Cisco product behavior and terminology.

Start with Cisco architecture mapping: Firewall, ISE, Umbrella, Secure Endpoint, Secure Email/Web
Then hit network security and ISE hard
Leave automation for later; it will be easier once the platforms make sense

Best order of study

Use this sequence:

AAA, PKI, and security fundamentals
Secure Firewall and VPNs
ISE, 802.1X, profiling, posture, TrustSec
Umbrella, Secure Endpoint, Secure Email/Web
Automation and API basics
Mixed review with scenario questions

With 653 practice questions available on Truekia, use them as a diagnostic tool, not your primary textbook. Do a first pass by domain. Flag misses by product. Then go back to official documentation and labs before doing a second pass.

Resources worth your time for 350-701

Use a small set of good resources and go deep.

Official Cisco sources

Cisco Exam Topics for 350-701 SCOR – your blueprint; keep it open during planning
Implementing and Operating Cisco Security Core Technologies (SCOR) v1.0 Official Cert Guide by Omar Santos and Joseph Muniz
Cisco U. / Cisco Digital Learning SCOR course if you have access
Cisco Secure Firewall documentation on Cisco.com
Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide
Cisco Umbrella documentation
Cisco Secure Endpoint documentation
Cisco Secure Email / Secure Web Appliance docs
Cisco DevNet Learning Labs for REST APIs, Python, and JSON basics

Books and references that help

CCNP and CCIE Security Core SCOR 350-701 Official Cert Guide by Omar Santos and Joseph Muniz is the main one
For Python/API fundamentals, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python by Al Sweigart is enough if scripting is weak

Video and lab platforms

Cisco U. official video content
INE CCNP Security material can help, especially for firewall and VPN depth
CBT Nuggets SCOR-related training can be useful for reinforcement, though pair it with docs
Cisco Modeling Labs (CML) for IOS XE security features if you have access
Product evals or lab access for FMC/FTD, ISE, and Umbrella if your employer or lab environment allows it

What to lab, specifically

Do not just watch videos. For this exam, lab these motions:

Build or review an FTD access policy with URL/app controls and intrusion settings
Walk through site-to-site IPsec and remote-access VPN parameters
Configure or simulate AAA with RADIUS and TACACS+
Trace an 802.1X flow in ISE from authentication to authorization result
Review profiling and posture outputs in ISE
Map a TrustSec design: SGT assignment and SGACL enforcement
Explore Umbrella policy types and roaming client behavior
Inspect Secure Endpoint event views and response actions
Make a simple REST API call to a Cisco platform or a DevNet sandbox

If you cannot lab every product, prioritize Secure Firewall and ISE. Those two give the highest return.

Final week and exam-day tactics for Cisco testing

In the last week, stop trying to learn every edge case. Tighten the areas that Cisco most often turns into scenario questions:

RADIUS vs TACACS+
802.1X vs MAB vs WebAuth
ISE policy flow and personas
TrustSec terms: SGT, SGACL, SXP
FTD policy components and order of operation
IKEv2/IPsec fundamentals
Umbrella enforcement points
Secure Endpoint detection/response concepts
REST verbs, JSON, token-based API access

Practical exam advice:

Read every Cisco product name carefully. Cisco has renamed several security products over time, and exam wording may reflect both old and current branding.
When two answers look plausible, prefer the one that matches Cisco’s integrated architecture, not the generic security answer.
Watch for questions that are really testing policy sequence rather than feature definitions.
If a question includes identity, posture, and segmentation language together, think ISE/TrustSec first.
If a question includes roaming users, DNS control, or cloud-delivered policy, think Umbrella.
If a question asks about host telemetry, file behavior, or retrospective detection, think Secure Endpoint.

For time management:

Do one clean pass and answer what you know
Mark long scenario questions that require too much reconstruction
Do not burn five minutes on a single VPN or ISE item early in the exam

The candidates I have seen pass consistently are not the ones who memorize the most. They are the ones who can say, with confidence, which Cisco product owns the problem, what policy layer applies, and what the likely failure point is. That is the mindset to take into SCOR.