The starting point
My goal is to become an HPC networking engineer. That's where it all started. I wanted to dig deeper into networking, so I picked a few certifications that would really earn me respect: CCNA and CCNP for Ethernet networking, and the NVIDIA AI Networking Pro (NCP-AIN) for InfiniBand AI networking.
At first, I tried to learn two completely different networking stacks, InfiniBand and Ethernet, at the same time. Pretty quickly I realized InfiniBand doesn't make sense without learning Ethernet first. So I came back to the CCNA.
I started with videos. Worked hard, covered the entire syllabus in one month. I felt like I was going to crush the exam. I was already thinking, "let me book it."
Then I took the Boson ExSim mock test, known as the closest thing to the real exam. It brutally crushed me. I scored 435 out of 1000.
That's when it hit me: I had been preparing for my funeral in the actual exam the whole month. I lost confidence and started rethinking my strategy. But I didn't give up. The issue wasn't my motivation. It was my approach.
What made it click
That's when I found PingMyNetwork. The platform helped me build the right strategy. I stopped watching videos and started doing labs. The PingMyNetwork sandbox, Packet Tracer labs, everything hands-on.
I wanted to dig even deeper, so I bought a Dell OptiPlex 7060 server, upgraded it to 32GB of RAM, and got the paid Cisco CML version. I started running labs with modern Cisco IOS images.
PingMyNetwork has a leaderboard on the website. When I started, I was last on the list. That ignited my ego. My short-term goal became simple: get to the top. I worked seven days straight, and by the time I made it to the top, I had learned everything on the platform.
The topic that destroyed me at first was Spanning Tree Protocol. I couldn't find root ports, backup ports, alternate ports. I couldn't read BPDUs or understand BPDU filter. I just couldn't visualize it. PingMyNetwork and the labs, especially CML packet captures, made me finally see how BPDUs flow through the network. On the actual exam, the STP questions were pure visualization. I could see in my mind exactly who was sending superior BPDUs. And that was it.
I retook the Boson ExSim. This time I scored 905 out of 1000.
How long it took
I started at the end of December 2025, around Christmas, and passed the CCNA four months later.
But I didn't stop after the 905 on Boson. I kept practicing, reset my PingMyNetwork CCNA progress, and did all the lessons again. Took the practice tests and quizzes multiple times. Along the way, I also passed two NVIDIA certifications: NCA-AIIO and NCP-AIN, the AI networking exam, which I cracked on March 1st.
For the final month before the CCNA exam, I revisited the same videos that had failed me the first time. This time, every concept made deeper sense. "Oh, I know this at packet level, I've done this, it's all familiar to me." My practice scores started hitting 1000/1000.
CCNA networking had become part of me.
The moment I passed
The exam felt familiar. Each question didn't break me. It was just cold execution of what I had done several times before.
That's when one thing became clear: fire, ego, emotions, they drive us toward the goal. But the CCNA, or any exam, doesn't care about our emotions. To master a skill, you need a cold mind, cold calculation, and cold execution.
My advice
For the CCNA, I lacked strategy and didn't have proper guidance at the start. But I'm starting CCNP with everything in place: a clear strategy, the right resources, the right mindset.
If you're preparing today, don't underestimate the gap between watching videos and actually mastering the material. Strategy matters more than motivation. Hands-on labs beat passive learning every single time. And when exam day comes, leave your emotions at the door. Cold mind, cold calculation, cold execution.
I'm currently preparing for CompTIA Network+ and Linux+. After that, I'll be back on PingMyNetwork to climb that leaderboard one more time, and then I'm going for CCNP ENCOR and ENARSI.