350-701 exam at a glance
Cisco Certified Specialist – Security Core · Professional level
Status: Active. SCOR v2.0 became the current exam version on August 27, 2026, replacing v1.1.
| Exam code | 350-701 SCOR |
|---|---|
| Certification | Cisco Certified Specialist – Security Core; also meets the core exam requirement for CCNP Security and the qualifying exam requirement for CCIE Security |
| Level | Professional |
| Duration | 120 minutes |
| Delivery | Pearson VUE |
| Exam cost | US$400, or use Cisco Learning Credits |
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Certification validity | 3 years |
| Retake policy | After a failed attempt, candidates must wait five calendar days, beginning the day after the failed attempt, before retaking the same exam. After passing, candidates must wait at least 180 days before taking the same exam number again. |
| Prerequisites | None |
The exam tests a candidate’s knowledge of implementing and operating core security technologies, including network security, cloud security, secure service edge, endpoint protection and detection, network access, visibility, and enforcements.
Skills measured and their weighting
| Skill area | Weight |
|---|---|
| Security Concepts | 20% |
| Network Security | 25% |
| Cloud Security | 15% |
| Secure Service Edge | 10% |
| Endpoint Protection and Detection | 15% |
| Network Access, Visibility, and Enforcement | 15% |
Source: cisco.com — official 350-701 SCOR exam page. The current official exam topics document is Implementing and Operating Cisco Security Core Technologies v2.0. Figures were checked against Cisco’s official documentation. Confirm current details there before booking.
The full bank covers every domain, with timed mode and per-domain scoring.
350-701-SCOR Practice Questions By Domains
7 domains covered1. Security Concepts
14 free questions available
2. Network Security
4 free questions available
3. Endpoint Protection and Detection
3 free questions available
4. Secure Network Access, Visibility, and Enforcement
3 free questions available
5. Content Security
4 free questions available
6. Securing the Cloud
1 free question available
7. Security Operations
1 free question available
Practice the full exam, not a sample
Unlock the full bank and practise every domain end to end.
Unlock all 726 questionsCisco 350-701 SCOR Practice Test
A Cisco 350-701 SCOR practice test helps you check how well you understand core security technologies and identify where your preparation needs more attention. Use practice sessions to connect security concepts with decisions about networks, cloud services, users, and devices. Explore study tools for certification candidates as you build a study routine that combines clear explanations, focused revision, and practical learning.
Security preparation can feel overwhelming when every topic introduces another product or abbreviation. A useful approach is to begin with the problem being solved: protecting information, controlling access, recognising suspicious activity, or responding to a threat. Once the purpose is clear, the technology becomes easier to understand.
The explanations below follow Cisco’s SCOR v2.0 topic outline and help you turn that coverage into manageable learning tasks.
What Does SCOR Preparation Help You Learn?
Cisco 350-701 SCOR covers Implementing and Operating Cisco Security Core Technologies. The subject brings together several areas of security, including networks, cloud environments, endpoint protection, access controls, and visibility. It asks you to understand how these capabilities work together within an organisation. Cisco’s official SCOR overview.
For students, the value of practice comes from explaining the reasoning behind a decision. Recognising a firewall feature is useful, but you also need to understand the traffic it affects. Recognising an alert is useful, but you need to know what information would help investigate it.
During revision, organise your notes around three ideas: the security problem, the relevant control, and the evidence that shows whether the control is working. This gives new terminology a practical context.
Who Should Use a Cisco SCOR Practice Test?
SCOR study is relevant to security engineers, network engineers, administrators, and students working towards those responsibilities. Cisco’s training page recommends familiarity with Ethernet, TCP/IP, Windows, Cisco IOS networking, and basic security concepts. These are recommendations for the training and useful foundations for your preparation. Cisco SCOR training overview.
If you are still learning networking, begin with addressing, routing, switching, and common communication protocols. You can then add security controls to a network you already understand.
If you already work in IT, use an initial practice session to identify unfamiliar areas beyond your daily responsibilities. Experience with firewalls, for example, may leave cloud responsibility or endpoint investigation topics needing separate study.
Cisco 350-701 SCOR Domains and Their Percentages
The current SCOR v2.0 outline has six domains.
Use Cisco’s official SCOR v2.0 topic outline as your reference when checking study coverage. Network Security has the largest share, while the other five areas make up the remaining 75%.
Treat the weights as a planning aid. Give extra attention to topics where your explanations remain uncertain, even when their domain has a smaller percentage.
Security Concepts — 20%
This domain gives you the language needed to understand security problems. Build your foundation around confidentiality, integrity, and availability:
- Confidentiality: Keeping information accessible to authorised people and systems.
- Integrity: Protecting information against unwanted changes.
- Availability: Keeping services and information accessible when needed.
Different controls support these goals. Encryption helps protect confidentiality, while integrity checks help identify changes. Redundancy and protection against service disruption support availability. Cisco explains these relationships in its network security introduction.
Review common threats, weaknesses, cryptography, VPN concepts, zero trust, and security automation. For each topic, describe the problem it addresses before trying to remember technical terms.
The current scope also includes vulnerabilities in AI and large language model applications. Prompt injection, for example, occurs when input steers a model’s behaviour in an unintended direction. Instructions embedded in an external document can create this risk as well as instructions entered directly by a user. OWASP’s prompt injection explanation.
Another topic is post-quantum cryptography: cryptographic methods intended to protect information against attacks from future quantum computers. Begin by understanding why some existing methods need replacement and what quantum-resistant cryptography aims to achieve. NIST’s post-quantum cryptography overview.
A productive practice review connects a threat with a suitable defensive measure and explains the limitation of that measure. Avoid treating any single control as a complete solution to every security problem.
Network Security — 25%
Network Security focuses on protecting communication and the infrastructure that carries it. Firewalls, intrusion prevention, segmentation, and VPNs contribute different capabilities. Together, they help control traffic and reduce the effect of an attack. Cisco’s network security explanation.
Use a traffic journey to organise this domain. Start with a user’s device, follow its connection through the network, and identify where checks take place.
Study these areas in connected groups:
- Firewall policies, application controls, and intrusion inspection.
- Switching protections and separation between network segments.
- Device administration, authentication, and secure management.
- VPN configuration and investigation of connection failures.
Cisco’s SCOR training includes practical work with firewall policies, VPNs, and infrastructure protection. Use those activities as examples of the kind of hands-on understanding to develop. Cisco’s SCOR course objectives.
A useful policy distinction is that allowing a connection can still involve security inspection. In Cisco Secure Firewall, an Allow rule can apply intrusion or file policies when configured. A Trust rule bypasses those additional inspections. Understanding this difference helps you evaluate what a policy actually does. Cisco’s access control rule documentation.
When reviewing network scenarios, identify the expected traffic, the relevant settings, and the evidence needed to investigate a problem. Explain why you would check a particular part of the connection before moving to the next one.
Cloud Security — 15%
Cloud Security begins with understanding who is responsible for protecting each part of a service. The provider manages some layers, while customers retain responsibilities that depend on the service they choose.
For example, AWS manages the infrastructure behind its services. A customer using a virtual machine must still manage areas such as its guest operating system, installed applications, and security configuration. With more managed services, the division changes, but customers still have responsibilities for their data and permissions. AWS’s shared responsibility explanation.
For revision, compare a virtual machine with a managed application. Write down which tasks remain with the customer in each case. This is more useful than assuming that moving a workload to the cloud transfers every security task to the provider.
The SCOR outline also covers cloud security controls, workload protection, logging, and DevSecOps. DevSecOps brings security practices into software development and delivery. NIST’s Secure Software Development Framework supports incorporating security throughout the development life cycle to reduce vulnerabilities and their impact. NIST’s secure development guidance.
Keep your practice review practical: identify the asset, its environment, the team responsible, and the control needed. For logging scenarios, consider what information must be collected before anyone can investigate the activity.
Secure Service Edge — 10%
This domain covers security for access to internet services and private applications. A central concept is Security Service Edge, usually shortened to SSE, which brings several security functions together through cloud services.
Cisco Secure Access combines capabilities such as secure web access, controls for cloud applications, and zero trust access to private resources. Its private access capabilities can apply policies to particular applications based on identity and context. Data loss prevention, or DLP, helps identify and control sensitive information leaving an organisation. Cisco Secure Access data sheet.
The current objectives include secure internet access, private access, DLP, AI guardrails, and interpreting investigation scores and indicators.
During practice, identify the destination before choosing a control. A public website and an internal business application can require different access arrangements. Also separate permission to use an application from permission to upload sensitive information to it.
Write a short description of the user, the resource, and the action being controlled. That will help you understand the purpose of a policy without becoming lost in product terminology.
Endpoint Protection and Detection — 15%
Endpoints include devices such as employee computers that run applications and handle information. This domain covers preventing threats, detecting suspicious activity, and interpreting what has happened on a device.
It helps to separate three goals:
| Goal | What to understand |
| Prevention | How controls try to stop malicious files or activity. |
| Detection | How monitoring identifies activity that needs investigation. |
| Response | How teams contain a problem and support recovery. |
Cisco Secure Endpoint combines prevention, detection, investigation, and response capabilities. Its documentation describes behaviour monitoring, file and device activity history, and endpoint isolation. These features support different stages of handling a threat. Cisco Secure Endpoint data sheet.
Also distinguish device management from threat investigation. Knowing that a laptop is enrolled in a management system does not explain whether a particular file or process is malicious. Likewise, a detection event needs interpretation before you understand its significance.
For a study exercise, outline the information you would want about a suspicious event: the affected device, the activity, the time, and the action already taken. Then explain what remains uncertain.
The domain also includes device posture, malware analysis, antimalware configuration, and email threat protection. Keep these topics in your revision checklist alongside endpoint protection platform and endpoint detection and response concepts.
Network Access, Visibility, and Enforcement — 15%
This domain connects access decisions with information about users, devices, and their activity. Begin by separating identity from device health.
Profiling helps classify a device using its attributes. Posture assessment checks whether it meets security requirements, such as having suitable protection or required software settings. A device can be recognised correctly while still failing a health requirement.
Cisco Identity Services Engine, or ISE, uses information about users and devices to support access policies. Its capabilities include guest access, device onboarding, profiling, posture checks, and sharing context with other security tools. Cisco ISE data sheet.
The scope includes 802.1X, MAC Authentication Bypass, and Change of Authorization. Also review how Cisco Duo, Cisco XDR, and Splunk contribute to access decisions, visibility, investigation, and response. Cisco’s SCOR access and visibility objectives.
Make your notes follow a practical sequence: identify the user or device, assess the relevant conditions, determine access, and monitor subsequent activity.
For visibility topics, explain what the available information proves and what it leaves unanswered. An unusual connection may need further investigation; a useful response should follow the evidence and the organisation’s policy.
Build a More Useful Revision Routine With Edurely
Our practice tools support several stages of learning. Practice mode lets you work through questions with feedback, while domain practice helps you concentrate on a particular subject. Exam mode gives you a timed session when you want to assess your pacing.
Explanations cover correct and incorrect choices and provide references to vendor documentation. Use these references to investigate a concept that remains unclear after reviewing an answer.
Results by domain help you decide where to spend your next study session. You can also mark uncertain items, revisit mistakes, and use session history and resume options to continue your work.
For SCOR preparation, give each session one clear purpose: improve a specific concept, practise comparisons, or review performance across several topics. Explore preparation options for industry credentials and use your results to make that routine more focused.
How to Make SCOR Practice Sessions More Effective
Begin With an Honest Knowledge Check
Complete an initial mixed session without looking up answers as you go. Mark anything you guessed, including answers that later turn out to be correct.
Your first result gives you a starting point. Note the subjects that were unfamiliar and the situations you understood only partly. These are useful targets for revision.
Replace Broad Weaknesses With Specific Tasks
“Study cloud security” is difficult to act on. “Compare customer responsibilities for two cloud services” is a task you can complete and explain.
Use the same approach throughout your preparation. Turn an uncertain topic into a short reading task, a comparison, a diagram, or a small lab activity. Decide what you should be able to explain when that task is finished.
Review the Reasoning Behind Every Uncertain Answer
Read the explanation and identify the detail that makes the answer appropriate. Then consider why another choice would not meet the stated requirement.
Close the explanation and describe the reasoning in your own words. If you cannot do that yet, keep the topic on your review list. This prevents a familiar answer from hiding an unclear concept.
Connect Reading With Practical Work
Use an isolated lab or guided exercise when you have suitable access. Keep the activity small enough that you can predict what should happen and examine the result.
For example, practise reviewing a firewall rule, interpreting a security event, or comparing access conditions. Record your expectation before the exercise, then explain any difference between that expectation and the observation.
Recheck Understanding Across Topics
After focused revision, return to mixed practice. Check whether you can recognise a concept when it appears outside the topic group where you learned it.
Track more than the total score. Notice whether you are making fewer guesses, explaining choices more clearly, and identifying relevant evidence more quickly. These observations help you judge the quality of your learning.
As you explore future study paths, Browse questions for popular Cisco certifications to find preparation related to the skills you want to develop next.
Frequently Asked Questions About SCOR Practice Tests
Which Version Should My SCOR Preparation Follow?
Use the official SCOR v2.0 outline linked on Cisco’s exam page. Compare your materials with its six domains and their objectives, particularly when using resources created for an earlier version.
Is SCOR Mainly About Firewalls?
Firewalls are one part of SCOR. The scope also covers security concepts, cloud security, secure service edge, endpoints, access, and visibility. Include all six domains in your study plan.
Do I Need Programming Knowledge for SCOR?
The outline includes interpreting scripts that call security appliance APIs, using a language such as Python. Practise identifying what a short script requests and how it handles the response. Let the stated objective guide the depth of your study.
How Can I Tell Whether Practice Is Helping?
Look for clearer explanations and more consistent decisions across different scenarios. A higher score is useful, but review whether it reflects understanding or simply familiarity with questions you have already seen.
Does Passing SCOR Complete CCNP Security?
Passing SCOR earns the Cisco Certified Specialist – Security Core credential and fulfils the core exam requirement for CCNP Security. You must also pass a concentration exam to earn CCNP Security. Cisco’s CCNP Security requirements.
SCOR also serves as the qualifying exam for CCIE Security, which has an additional lab requirement. Cisco’s CCIE Security requirements.