How Much Does the 350-401 Exam Cost, and in What Languages?
The short answer: $400, in English or Japanese
The Cisco 350-401 ENCOR exam is currently listed at $400 USD, and it is currently offered in English and Japanese — Cisco's standard language pair for its professional-level exams. The original version of this page listed French, Portuguese, and Spanish as options; that was wrong, and it matters, because language is chosen when you book and cannot be switched partway through the exam. Prices and language availability can change, so confirm both figures on Cisco's official certification pages or during Pearson VUE booking before you rely on them — but as things stand, $400 and two languages are the facts to plan around.
What the fee covers — and what it does not
The $400 buys you exactly one thing: one attempt at the exam, delivered by Pearson VUE either at a test centre or through online proctoring. It does not include study materials, training courses, or any form of retake protection. If you fail, the next attempt costs the full fee again — there is no discounted second sitting bundled in. Depending on your country, local taxes may be added on top of the listed US dollar price, and the amount you actually pay in local currency is set at the time of booking. Budget honestly: many candidates spend more than the exam fee across books, video courses, and lab time before they ever sit the exam, and a rushed first attempt that ends in a retake is the most expensive study strategy of all.
Why ENCOR carries more weight than one exam
ENCOR is the core exam for the CCNP Enterprise certification: pass it plus one concentration exam of your choice and you hold the CCNP. But ENCOR also does a second job. Passing it satisfies the qualifying (written) requirement for the CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure lab exam — the same paper qualifies you to book the notoriously demanding eight-hour lab. That double duty is why the syllabus is so broad, covering enterprise infrastructure, virtualisation, network assurance, security, and automation, and why the candidate pool includes both working network engineers formalising their skills and CCIE candidates at the start of a much longer road. Cisco certifications are valid for three years, and recertification can be done through exams or continuing education credits.
The real cost of the path, not just the exam
It helps to place the $400 in context. The concentration exam that completes the CCNP Enterprise alongside ENCOR is currently listed at $300, so the two-exam certification costs around $700 in exam fees alone, before any training spend — and most candidates add at least one resource on top of the official materials, whether that is a book, a video course, or lab access. For CCIE candidates, ENCOR's fee is the small end of the commitment: the lab exam that follows costs substantially more and usually demands months of dedicated practice. None of this makes ENCOR poor value, but it does change the sensible comparison. The question is not "$400 versus free resources"; it is "$400 spent once, when you are ready, versus $400 spent twice because the first attempt came too early."
Retakes, waiting periods, and vouchers
If you fail, Cisco's retake policy currently requires you to wait five calendar days before sitting the same exam again, and each attempt is charged at the full price. Treat that wait as a floor, not a study plan — five days is rarely enough to repair a genuine knowledge gap, and repeated quick retakes get expensive at $400 a time. On vouchers: Cisco does not generally sell discounted exam vouchers direct to individuals. Employers and training providers, however, often buy exam capacity through Cisco partners, and organisations that hold Cisco Learning Credits can spend them on exams as well as training. If your employer has a Cisco training agreement, ask about Learning Credits before paying out of pocket. Be wary of grey-market voucher sellers offering large discounts — an invalid voucher can cost you the sitting and the money. One more legitimate route: authorised training courses sometimes bundle an exam voucher into the course price, and the bundle can work out cheaper than buying the course and the exam separately, so check what is included before paying for either on its own.
The facts Cisco does not publish
Two things candidates constantly search for are simply not officially published. First, the exact question count: Cisco does not state it. Candidates typically report sitting roughly around a hundred questions in the 120-minute appointment, but treat that as orientation for pacing, not a specification. Second, the passing score: Cisco scores its exams on a scaled basis and reports a pass or fail result with a breakdown of your performance by section. There is no official published pass mark to aim at, which is why "I need X percent" planning does not work for this exam. The practical response to both unknowns is the same: prepare to be consistently strong across all sections rather than gaming a threshold, since the section breakdown on a failed attempt is the most useful diagnostic Cisco gives you.
Before you book
Logistically, the exam runs for 120 minutes at a Pearson VUE test centre or via online proctoring from home, and you will need government-issued photo identification that matches your booking name exactly. Online proctoring adds its own requirements — a quiet, private room, a webcam room check, and a system test in advance — so whichever route you choose, sort the administration out before exam week rather than during it.
Three checks before money changes hands. Confirm the current price and the language list on the official 350-401 exam page — both can change between exam revisions. Choose your language deliberately: technical terminology is usually best handled in the language you studied in, which for most candidates is English even when it is not their first language. And schedule far enough ahead that a first attempt is a genuine attempt, not a paid reconnaissance mission — at $400, with a five-day minimum wait and a full fee for every retry, the cheapest ENCOR is the one you sit when you are actually ready. Timed, domain-scored free practice tests on Study4Pass are one way to judge that readiness against the syllabus sections before you commit to a date. Depth matters across the syllabus, from RAM characteristics on Cisco devices to protocols for network traffic analysis — and check the salary a 350-401 certification supports when weighing the cost.