Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
QUESTION:
I just saw your video regarding how to study for the CCNA and the message that I took from that video is to really understand the technology. Now the question I have is, what is the best way to do that?
There are tons of resources out there. Including tools like packet tracer and boson to train for the CCNA. Now I feel that while packet tracer helps you to set up labs, I also find it difficult to transform that into the real world. So I bought myself some equipment to build a Homelab but that obviously also comes with limitations and just because I do something in my Homelab does not necessarily mean it is right or good. My day to day job offers me not enough chances to really learn the technology around it and landing a first job as Network Administrator or Network Engineer without the proper understanding is difficult.
So what is your take on that. What is the best way to that, what are you tips and how can I really confirm that I understood things if I don‘t have the resources to prove that.
WHAT I TALK ABOUT:
1. Explain the technology to someone else. You should be able to ELI5 to someone, then get into the details from there. If you can’t explain in a couple of sentences how spanning-tree prevents loops, you don’t really understand it at a high level. The best way to expose the weaknesses in your understanding is to try explaining it to someone else, starting with ELI5. But of course, you’ve got to go deeper for certification exams.
2. Once you get ELI5 behind you, start explaining the details from there. Write about them. Not all at once, but in a series. Let’s continue the spanning-tree example. Talk about the concept of a root bridge. Describe the significance of the information carried in a BPDU--not just what the information is, but why the information is important. Talk about how the cost to the root bridge is calculated. Explain how spanning-tree, per-VLAN spanning-tree and multiple spanning tree are both similar and different. Explain what a topology change notification does. Describe the different spanning tree guards, where you use them, and where you don’t use them. Explain portfast. Etc.
You don’t have to write publicly, but that raises the stakes where you’ll want to make sure you get it right, and I strongly encourage it. If you write for yourself and no one else, you might allow yourself to be lazy and not verify that small detail you aren’t sure about. And those small details will come up when you write.
3. From a lab perspective, you’ve got to go off-script. Labs are often prescriptive. Type this. Then type this. Then type that. Now look, the lab did the thing! Well-done labs will be reinforcing a lecture and illustrating a point, but it can be easy to go for that satisfying “it worked” and then move on to get through the study material without actually mapping back to the book or lecture material what the lab was intended to teach you.
By going off-script, I mean that you need to break the lab. Make it so that it doesn’t work anymore. Then figure out what the heck happened. And then fix it. Start shutting down interfaces and see what happened using “show” commands. Turn interfaces back up and see what happened. Get to the point that when you change a lab’s topology at random, you can predict how the network will behave. What happens when you shut down the switch that’s the root bridge in a spanning-tree topology? You should be able to explain what all the other spanning-tree devices do when that root bridge is no longer there. A new root bridge will be selected, and possibly the forwarding paths will change. What exactly happens--down at the frame or packet level? What spanning-tree traffic is sent, what devices receive it, how do they process the information, and what do they do in reaction to that information?
4. When you go through these processes of detailed explanation to other people as well as to yourself, you will discover what you don’t know. The things you don’t know will trigger questions you need to answer that will improve your mastery of a given topic.
5. Yes, that will help you in real-life on a production network, because with the approach I’m advocating, you’re learning a technology, not a specific lab or the answer to a question. You’re creating a knowledge framework about a topic that you can apply to the technology you’re mastering. You’ll see the big picture as well as all the pieces that bring that picture together.
QUESTION:
I just saw your video regarding how to study for the CCNA and the message that I took from that video is to really understand the technology. Now the question I have is, what is the best way to do that?
There are tons of resources out there. Including tools like packet tracer and boson to train for the CCNA. Now I feel that while packet tracer helps you to set up labs, I also find it difficult to transform that into the real world. So I bought myself some equipment to build a Homelab but that obviously also comes with limitations and just because I do something in my Homelab does not necessarily mean it is right or good. My day to day job offers me not enough chances to really learn the technology around it and landing a first job as Network Administrator or Network Engineer without the proper understanding is difficult.
So what is your take on that. What is the best way to that, what are you tips and how can I really confirm that I understood things if I don‘t have the resources to prove that.
WHAT I TALK ABOUT:
1. Explain the technology to someone else. You should be able to ELI5 to someone, then get into the details from there. If you can’t explain in a couple of sentences how spanning-tree prevents loops, you don’t really understand it at a high level. The best way to expose the weaknesses in your understanding is to try explaining it to someone else, starting with ELI5. But of course, you’ve got to go deeper for certification exams.
2. Once you get ELI5 behind you, start explaining the details from there. Write about them. Not all at once, but in a series. Let’s continue the spanning-tree example. Talk about the concept of a root bridge. Describe the significance of the information carried in a BPDU--not just what the information is, but why the information is important. Talk about how the cost to the root bridge is calculated. Explain how spanning-tree, per-VLAN spanning-tree and multiple spanning tree are both similar and different. Explain what a topology change notification does. Describe the different spanning tree guards, where you use them, and where you don’t use them. Explain portfast. Etc.
You don’t have to write publicly, but that raises the stakes where you’ll want to make sure you get it right, and I strongly encourage it. If you write for yourself and no one else, you might allow yourself to be lazy and not verify that small detail you aren’t sure about. And those small details will come up when you write.
3. From a lab perspective, you’ve got to go off-script. Labs are often prescriptive. Type this. Then type this. Then type that. Now look, the lab did the thing! Well-done labs will be reinforcing a lecture and illustrating a point, but it can be easy to go for that satisfying “it worked” and then move on to get through the study material without actually mapping back to the book or lecture material what the lab was intended to teach you.
By going off-script, I mean that you need to break the lab. Make it so that it doesn’t work anymore. Then figure out what the heck happened. And then fix it. Start shutting down interfaces and see what happened using “show” commands. Turn interfaces back up and see what happened. Get to the point that when you change a lab’s topology at random, you can predict how the network will behave. What happens when you shut down the switch that’s the root bridge in a spanning-tree topology? You should be able to explain what all the other spanning-tree devices do when that root bridge is no longer there. A new root bridge will be selected, and possibly the forwarding paths will change. What exactly happens--down at the frame or packet level? What spanning-tree traffic is sent, what devices receive it, how do they process the information, and what do they do in reaction to that information?
4. When you go through these processes of detailed explanation to other people as well as to yourself, you will discover what you don’t know. The things you don’t know will trigger questions you need to answer that will improve your mastery of a given topic.
5. Yes, that will help you in real-life on a production network, because with the approach I’m advocating, you’re learning a technology, not a specific lab or the answer to a question. You’re creating a knowledge framework about a topic that you can apply to the technology you’re mastering. You’ll see the big picture as well as all the pieces that bring that picture together.
