My experience with the 300-735 SAUTO Exam

On By dustin

I chose to take Cisco’s SAUTO exam to fulfill my specialty requirement while pursuing CCNP Security. The exam does not have an official certification guide and finding resources online was a challenge. The goal of this post is to share my experiences and the resources I used to help better prepare others who are interested in taking the exam. Below is a list of what I primarily used to study:

  • SAUTO Exam Blueprint: All tests I take I make sure I feel confident with all objectives spelled out.
  • Nick Russo’s Post: This post was the first nugget I found online and helped me formulate a plan. Nick includes a study plan that you can find here that helps map out a study plan. I was not able to follow the study plan exactly due to a lack of access to some resources. However, it was a good guide and kept me on schedule.
  • Nick Russo’s Pluralsight courses: These were included in Nick’s study guide. I ended up subscribing for a month or two to make my way through all the content. Some of the courses might be hard to follow but he covers a lot of content and I would say it was necessary for my studies.
  • Full Stack Practice Exams: I watched some videos from this team while studying for my CCNA DevNet exam. When I used this resource, there was not many questions and some were poorly written. I really just used this to gain some confidence last minute before the exam and know what to focus on.
  • Cisco’s Devnet Sandbox: Cisco has several sandboxes that are an absolute must use resource for studying. I reserved sandboxes several times a day in order to get some practice time in. Using these sandboxes I experimented and created my own simple requests so that I had experience with each.
  • Devnet Associate Official Cert Guide: I re-read the couple introduction chapters along with the security chapter.

While the blueprint and the resources above covered the exam well. There are a few things I think that are worth mentioning that test takers should know:

  • Authentication Schemes: Make sure you know exactly how each API’s auth scheme works down to the URL, token names, etc.
  • Be familiar with CURL, python requests, and urllib. I went in with little knowledge on urllib and wish I had given it more attention.
  • You will be asked questions on specific resource paths. Is it /v1/computer or /v1/computers type stuff.
  • Get as much hands on as possible prior to the test. Use the Sandbox!

Using the resources and methods mentioned above, I was able to pass this exam on my first attempt. I used up nearly all my time and my heart was thumping as I was waited for my score screen. The exam was definitely nerve-wracking and like all Cisco tests there is no going back to previously answered questions. I’m glad to have it done and my next likely Cisco exam will be the DevNet Professional.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!