Cisco DCCOR 350-601 Exam Guide 2026
Blueprint v1.2 quietly renamed domain 4 to “Automation and Artificial Intelligence” — the same change Cisco made to ENCOR. AI is now formally on the CCNP core exams.
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DCCOR 350-601 — Implementing Cisco Data Center Core Technologies — is the core exam for CCNP Data Center and the qualifying exam for CCIE Data Center. This brief uses the official blueprint, v1.2.
What DCCOR certifies
Data centre infrastructure end to end: the network fabric, compute (UCS and server virtualisation), storage networking, automation, and security. It is a broad exam because the data centre role is broad — you are expected to be competent across all four infrastructure pillars rather than specialised in one.
Exam format
The five domains and their weights
Network and Compute are 50% between them, and adding Storage Network takes the three infrastructure pillars to 70%. Automation and Security share the remaining 30% evenly.
That distribution is a useful corrective. Candidates who come from a routing-and-switching background often over-index on Network and neglect Compute — which is worth exactly as much. UCS, server virtualisation and application high availability are half the infrastructure story here.
Compute is half the infrastructure story
Worth isolating, because it is the single most common preparation error on this exam.
Candidates arriving from a routing and switching background read “data centre” as “data centre networking”. They prepare thoroughly for VXLAN, EVPN and fabric design, then meet a paper where Compute is worth exactly as much as Network — 25% each — and lose a quarter of the exam to material they treated as secondary.
| Compute sub-area | What it covers |
|---|---|
| UCS platforms | Blade and rack server families, fabric interconnects, chassis and connectivity |
| UCS management | Service profiles, policies, templates, pools, and firmware management |
| Server virtualisation | Hypervisor integration, virtual networking, and resource allocation |
| Application high availability | Clustering, failover, and availability design for workloads |
| Compute security | Hardening, access control and secure management of compute infrastructure |
Service profiles deserve particular attention. The idea that server identity and configuration are abstracted from physical hardware is the conceptual centre of UCS, and it underpins a disproportionate share of the compute questions. If you can explain what a service profile is, what a template does, and why pools exist, you have the spine of the domain.
The same discipline applies to Storage Network at 20%. Fibre Channel, FCoE and zoning are unfamiliar to most enterprise network engineers, and a fifth of the exam is a lot to concede to unfamiliarity.
The AI rename, and why it matters
In blueprint v1.2, domain 4 is titled Automation and Artificial Intelligence. Cisco made the identical change to the ENCOR 350-401 blueprint at its own v1.2, where domain 6 carries the same name at the same 15% weighting.
Two independent CCNP core exams renaming their automation domain to include artificial intelligence in the same blueprint revision is a deliberate programme-level move. If you are studying any current Cisco core exam, assume AI-adjacent content is now in scope for the automation domain and check the blueprint version on your study material.
Practically, this is the domain most likely to be stale in older courseware. A 15% domain is roughly one question in seven — enough to matter, and enough that material written against an earlier blueprint will leave a visible gap.
A seven-week study plan
The study-time calculator will fit this around your available hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the DCCOR 350-601 domains?
In blueprint v1.2: Network (25%), Compute (25%), Storage Network (20%), Automation and Artificial Intelligence (15%) and Security (15%).
How long is the DCCOR exam?
120 minutes. It is the core exam for both CCNP Data Center and CCIE Data Center.
What changed in blueprint v1.2?
The automation domain was renamed to Automation and Artificial Intelligence, mirroring the same change Cisco made to the ENCOR 350-401 blueprint at v1.2.
Does DCCOR count toward CCIE?
Yes. Like the other Cisco core exams, DCCOR serves as the qualifying exam for the corresponding CCIE track as well as the CCNP core requirement.
Practise DCCOR Before You Book
500–1,000+ practice questions with worked explanations, written against the current exam objectives.
DCCOR Practice Test
Practice Before You Book
500–1,000+ practice questions per exam with detailed explanations, across Azure, AWS, GCP, security, and AI certifications.