Cisco 300-415 ENSDWI SD-WAN Practice Exam
Prepare for the Implementing Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Solutions exam (300-415 ENSDWI) — a CCNP Enterprise concentration and the Enterprise SD-WAN Implementation specialist credential — with scenario-based, source-cited practice questions across all six domains: architecture, controller deployment, router deployment, policies, security and QoS, and management and operations. Includes Learn mode and full timed Exam mode.
Start 24-hour free trial →300-415 ENSDWI exam at a glance
- Vendor
- Cisco
- Exam code
- 300-415 (ENSDWI)
- Exam name
- Implementing Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Solutions
- Certifications
- CCNP Enterprise concentration; Cisco Certified Specialist – Enterprise SD-WAN Implementation
- Level
- Professional
- Version
- v1.2 (current)
- Duration
- 90 minutes
- Format
- Multiple choice and multiple response (scenario-based)
- Passing score
- Cisco does not publish a fixed passing score for CCNP concentration exams; results are scaled and reported with a topic-level breakdown
- Cost (USD)
- $300 (regional pricing varies)
- Languages
- English, Japanese
- Prerequisites
- None formal. Cisco recommends 3–5 years of enterprise networking experience; a CCNA foundation helps
Sources: Cisco — 300-415 ENSDWI exam · Cisco Learning Network — ENSDWI exam topics. Confirm current version, format, and pricing with Cisco before scheduling.
About the 300-415 ENSDWI certification exam
Implementing Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Solutions (300-415 ENSDWI) is a professional-level concentration exam in the CCNP Enterprise track and the exam behind the Cisco Certified Specialist – Enterprise SD-WAN Implementation credential. It validates hands-on ability to deploy, configure, secure, and operate Cisco's Catalyst SD-WAN (formerly Viptela) fabric — the controllers, WAN Edge routers, overlay routing, and the centralized policies that make an SD-WAN work. This is an implementation exam, so expect configuration and troubleshooting scenarios rather than definition recall.
The heart of the exam is the SD-WAN control plane and policy model: the roles of the vManage, vSmart, and vBond controllers, WAN Edge onboarding, and the difference between centralized policies (application-aware routing, traffic engineering, service chaining) and localized device policies. Recurring themes include securing the fabric with IPsec-encrypted tunnels, prioritizing real-time traffic with QoS, and steering traffic across MPLS, broadband, and LTE transports with dynamic path selection. Because Cisco rebranded its SD-WAN to Catalyst SD-WAN, current materials use that name even though the exam identifier remains 300-415 ENSDWI. For the networking foundations beneath this exam, see the networking study guides in the Learning Hub.
300-415 ENSDWI exam domains and weights
Cisco publishes six domains with the official weightings below (they sum to 100%). Architecture, Router Deployment, and Policies are the heaviest at 20% each and together make up 60% of the exam — the deploy-and-configure core. Weight your study accordingly.
SD-WAN design components, separation of the control, data, management, and orchestration planes, overlay routing (OMP) concepts, and the roles of devices within the Catalyst SD-WAN fabric.
Onboarding WAN Edge routers (ZTP/PnP), VPN and interface configuration, TLOCs and colors, feature templates, and device provisioning.
Centralized control and data policies, application-aware routing, traffic engineering and service chaining, VPN segmentation, and localized policies.
vManage, vSmart, and vBond deployment and redundancy, certificate management, and cloud versus on-premises controller models.
IPsec tunnel encryption, enterprise firewall/IPS and URL filtering in the fabric, control-plane security, and QoS for prioritizing latency-sensitive traffic.
Monitoring, analytics and application visibility, alarms and events, software upgrades, and day-two operations and troubleshooting across sites.
Source: Cisco Learning Network — 300-415 ENSDWI exam topics. Weights are Cisco's published percentages and sum to 100%. Domains are shown top-weighted first.
Who 300-415 ENSDWI is for
This is a professional-level exam for networking practitioners specializing in SD-WAN:
- Network engineers and SD-WAN engineers deploying and operating Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN fabrics.
- Network administrators and consultants designing and migrating enterprises from traditional WAN/MPLS to SD-WAN.
- CCNP Enterprise candidates using ENSDWI as their concentration alongside the ENCOR core exam.
- Solutions and systems engineers validating SD-WAN specialization for customer-facing roles.
There are no formal prerequisites, but Cisco recommends three to five years of enterprise networking experience, and a solid CCNA-level foundation helps. In the CCNP Enterprise track, you pair this concentration with the ENCOR core exam to earn CCNP Enterprise; ENSDWI alone earns the Enterprise SD-WAN Implementation specialist certification. If you are earlier in the track, the CCNA (200-301) is the foundation, and the CCST Cybersecurity (100-160) pairs well for security basics. For the roles SD-WAN skills support, see the network engineer career paths in the Career Hub.
What this 300-415 ENSDWI practice exam delivers
Learn mode
Get the correct answer, the reasoning, why each wrong option is wrong, and a link to authoritative Cisco material right after each question — built for the deploy-and-troubleshoot scenarios ENSDWI favors.
Exam mode
Rehearse on a 90-minute timer against question sets that mirror the real 300-415 scenario format, so you build the pacing to work through configuration and policy scenarios under time.
Source-linked explanations
Every answer points to authoritative Cisco material — the ENSDWI exam topics and Catalyst SD-WAN references — so you learn the concept and can verify it, not just memorize a letter.
Score by domain
Results break down across the six ENSDWI domains, so practice tells you exactly which area — architecture, controllers, routers, policies, security/QoS, or operations — to sharpen next.
Sample 300-415 ENSDWI practice questions
Ten free questions across the six ENSDWI domains, with full explanations and links to authoritative Cisco references. The complete bank is available with the 24-hour trial.
A company needs secure communication between branch offices across the SD-WAN fabric. What should be enabled?
- IPsec encryption between SD-WAN edges
- Public internet transport with no security
- Disabling routing protocols
- Static routes exclusively
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — IPsec encryption between SD-WAN edges. Catalyst SD-WAN builds IPsec-encrypted tunnels between WAN Edge routers so branch-to-branch traffic is protected across any transport.
Why not the others: unsecured public internet (B) exposes traffic; disabling routing protocols (C) breaks the overlay; and static-routes-only (D) removes the dynamic, policy-driven routing SD-WAN depends on.
Source: Cisco — ENSDWI security & QoS topics →An organization wants to prioritize VoIP traffic across the SD-WAN. Which feature is used?
- Increase link bandwidth only
- Disable all other traffic
- Quality of Service (QoS) policies for traffic prioritization
- Leave default settings in place
Show answer & explanation
Correct: C — QoS policies for traffic prioritization. QoS classifies and prioritizes latency-sensitive traffic such as VoIP so it is serviced ahead of best-effort traffic, even under congestion.
Why not the others: adding bandwidth (A) does not guarantee priority during congestion; disabling other traffic (B) is impractical; and defaults (D) do not enforce prioritization.
Source: Cisco — ENSDWI security & QoS topics →A site loses connectivity to the SD-WAN controller. What is the first troubleshooting step?
- Check physical and network connectivity to the controller
- Reboot all SD-WAN devices at the site
- Replace the controller
- Reimage the branch router
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — Check physical and network connectivity. Start with the least-disruptive check: verify transport reachability (interfaces, IP, DNS, control connections) to the controller before touching the fabric.
Why not the others: rebooting all devices (B) is disruptive and premature; replacing the controller (C) or reimaging the router (D) are drastic last resorts, not first steps.
Source: Cisco — ENSDWI management & operations topics → Further reading: PowerKram — SD-WAN control-plane troubleshooting →A new policy must be deployed consistently to all branches. What is the best approach?
- Log into each device manually
- Centralized SD-WAN policy management via vManage
- Email the policy to local IT staff
- Disable automation and apply changes ad hoc
Show answer & explanation
Correct: B — Centralized policy management via vManage. vManage pushes centralized policies consistently across the fabric, which is the whole point of SD-WAN orchestration.
Why not the others: manual per-device login (A) and emailing staff (C) are error-prone and inconsistent; and disabling automation (D) defeats the SD-WAN operating model.
Source: Cisco — ENSDWI policies topics →A company wants to monitor application usage across sites. What is the best tool?
- Basic ping tests
- Bandwidth counters only
- User-submitted reports
- SD-WAN application visibility and analytics
Show answer & explanation
Correct: D — SD-WAN application visibility and analytics. Catalyst SD-WAN provides deep application-aware visibility and analytics (through vManage/vAnalytics), giving per-application, per-site usage and performance data.
Why not the others: ping (A) only tests reachability; bandwidth counters (B) miss the application dimension; and user reports (C) are anecdotal and incomplete.
Source: Cisco — ENSDWI management & operations topics → Further reading: PowerKram — SD-WAN visibility & analytics →An SD-WAN site has both MPLS and broadband links available. What should be configured to use them effectively?
- Dynamic path selection and load balancing across both transports
- Use only one link type at a time
- Disable redundancy to simplify routing
- Increase router CPU
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — Dynamic path selection and load balancing. Application-aware routing steers traffic across MPLS and broadband based on real-time link SLA (loss, latency, jitter), using both transports efficiently.
Why not the others: single-link use (B) wastes capacity and resilience; disabling redundancy (C) removes failover; and more CPU (D) is unrelated to path selection.
Source: Cisco — ENSDWI policies topics → Further reading: PowerKram — application-aware routing →A company needs to block social media during work hours. Which SD-WAN feature is suitable?
- Increase bandwidth
- Change the SD-WAN edge hardware
- Application-aware firewall or policy
- Static routes exclusively
Show answer & explanation
Correct: C — Application-aware firewall or policy. The embedded enterprise firewall and application-aware policies identify and block specific applications such as social media, optionally on a schedule.
Why not the others: more bandwidth (A) and different hardware (B) do not enforce policy; and static routes (D) cannot filter by application.
Source: Cisco — ENSDWI security & QoS topics →A branch is experiencing high latency on video calls. What is the likely cause?
- Suboptimal path selection or a lack of QoS for real-time traffic
- Device hardware failure
- Wrong VLAN assignment
- Hostname resolution issues
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A — Suboptimal path selection or lack of QoS. Latency and jitter on real-time media usually trace to the fabric steering the traffic over a poor-SLA path, or to missing QoS/app-aware-routing that would keep video on the best transport. Tune the SLA class and application-aware routing policy.
Why not the others: a hardware failure (B) typically drops traffic rather than adding latency; a wrong VLAN (C) breaks connectivity outright; and name-resolution problems (D) affect lookups, not call latency.
Source: Cisco — ENSDWI policies topics → Further reading: PowerKram — SLA classes & app-aware routing →The IT team needs to roll back a recent SD-WAN policy change quickly. What practice enables this?
- Manually re-enter the old settings
- Configuration versioning and backups in vManage
- Power cycle all devices
- Ignore the issue and monitor
Show answer & explanation
Correct: B — Configuration versioning and backups. vManage retains configuration/template versions, so a bad change can be rolled back to a known-good version quickly and consistently across the fabric.
Why not the others: manual re-entry (A) is slow and error-prone; power-cycling (C) does not revert configuration; and ignoring it (D) leaves the faulty policy live.
Source: Cisco — ENSDWI management & operations topics →A security audit finds that some SD-WAN tunnels lack encryption. What is the corrective action?
- Ignore the audit findings
- Remove all tunnels
- Encrypt only some traffic
- Enable IPsec encryption on all SD-WAN tunnels
Show answer & explanation
Correct: D — Enable IPsec encryption on all tunnels. Every data-plane tunnel in the fabric should be IPsec-encrypted to meet security policy; the fix is to bring the unencrypted tunnels into compliance.
Why not the others: ignoring findings (A) leaves data exposed; removing all tunnels (B) breaks connectivity; and encrypting only some traffic (C) leaves gaps an auditor will flag again.
Source: Cisco — ENSDWI security & QoS topics → Further reading: PowerKram — network engineer career paths →Keep going: Learning & Career resources
ENSDWI is a CCNP Enterprise concentration and an SD-WAN specialization in its own right. Both PowerKram hubs back your next step.
Deep dive: the Catalyst SD-WAN rebrand, exam format, study path, and where ENSDWI fits
Viptela to Catalyst SD-WAN
Cisco rebranded its SD-WAN offering (acquired from Viptela) to "Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN," and current exam materials use that name — the exam identifier remains 300-415 ENSDWI. The underlying components are unchanged in concept: the vManage management plane, the vSmart control plane running OMP, the vBond orchestrator for onboarding, and WAN Edge routers forming the encrypted data-plane overlay. If you are studying from older "Cisco SD-WAN (Viptela)" material, the concepts still apply, but expect the Catalyst naming on current references. Cisco — 300-415 ENSDWI exam →
Exam format and scoring
ENSDWI is a 90-minute exam of multiple-choice and multiple-response scenario questions. As with other CCNP concentration exams, Cisco does not publish a fixed question count or a fixed passing score; your result is scaled and reported with a topic-level breakdown. The exam is implementation-focused, so many items ask what to configure or how to troubleshoot a described SD-WAN condition rather than testing definitions. Read the ENSDWI format guide →
Realistic study path
Plan for hands-on lab time, not just reading. Use the Cisco DevNet SD-WAN sandbox, CML, or a lab environment to onboard a WAN Edge (ZTP/PnP), stand up the vManage/vSmart/vBond controllers, and build centralized control and data policies. Master the control plane first (OMP, TLOCs, colors), then policies (application-aware routing, service chaining, VPN segmentation), then security and QoS. The three 20% domains — Architecture, Router Deployment, and Policies — deserve the most time. Rehearse in Learn mode, then run full 90-minute simulations in Exam mode. Read the ENSDWI study plan →
Where ENSDWI fits in CCNP Enterprise
CCNP Enterprise requires two exams: the ENCOR core exam (350-401) plus one concentration. ENSDWI (300-415) is one of the most popular concentrations, and passing it also earns the standalone Cisco Certified Specialist – Enterprise SD-WAN Implementation certification. If you are earlier in the Cisco track, the CCNA (200-301) is the associate-level foundation. See more Cisco exams →
Cost, scheduling, and recertification
The exam costs $300 USD (regional pricing varies) and is offered in English and Japanese at a Pearson VUE test center or online with a proctor. Passing ENSDWI also earns Continuing Education credit toward recertifying higher-level Cisco certifications. Confirm current pricing and policies on Cisco's site before booking. Career Hub — network engineer roles →
Frequently asked questions
What certification does the 300-415 ENSDWI exam count toward?
ENSDWI is a CCNP Enterprise concentration exam: combined with the ENCOR core exam (350-401) it earns CCNP Enterprise. Passing ENSDWI on its own also earns the Cisco Certified Specialist – Enterprise SD-WAN Implementation certification.
What format is the 300-415 ENSDWI exam?
A 90-minute exam of multiple-choice and multiple-response scenario questions (current version v1.2). Cisco does not publish a fixed question count or a fixed passing score for CCNP concentration exams; results are scaled and reported with a topic-level breakdown.
What are the 300-415 ENSDWI domains and weights?
Six domains: Architecture (20%), Controller Deployment (15%), Router Deployment (20%), Policies (20%), Security and Quality of Service (15%), and Management and Operations (10%). Architecture, Router Deployment, and Policies are the heaviest at 20% each.
Is 300-415 about Cisco SD-WAN or Catalyst SD-WAN?
Both names refer to the same product. Cisco rebranded its SD-WAN (originally from Viptela) to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, so current exam materials use "Catalyst SD-WAN." The exam identifier remains 300-415 ENSDWI, and the components (vManage, vSmart, vBond, WAN Edge) are unchanged in concept.
How much does the exam cost, and are there prerequisites?
$300 USD (regional pricing varies), offered in English and Japanese. There are no formal prerequisites, though Cisco recommends three to five years of enterprise networking experience and a CCNA-level foundation.
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