The Free Certificates to Earn Before Your CCNA

The CCNA exam costs $300. Before you spend that money, you can earn three or four real certificates for free that already start to look like a CV. US hiring managers screening junior network engineer resumes don’t expect a brand-new candidate to have CCNA only — they want to see learning velocity. A row of free certs proves you didn’t show up at the interview empty-handed.

Here’s the sequence we recommend in the CCNA program — most students complete the free certs over the first 4–6 weeks while building the foundations for the paid exam.

1. NetAcad: Networking Essentials

Provider: Cisco Networking Academy Cost: Free Time: ~30 hours self-paced

This is Cisco’s own gentle on-ramp to the CCNA. You’ll get the basics — IP addressing, switches and routers, simple Wi-Fi — plus a digital badge that says “Cisco Networking Essentials” with a verifiable URL.

For someone with no networking background, this is the right first step. For someone with a community-college IT certificate, you can probably skim it in a weekend.

Sign up directly at netacad.com. Search “Networking Essentials.” Pick the “self-paced” version.

2. NetAcad: Introduction to Cybersecurity

Provider: Cisco Networking Academy Cost: Free Time: ~15 hours

Same source, same shareable badge. Covers the basics every modern network engineer is expected to recognize — threats, defense in depth, identity, encryption fundamentals. This isn’t a security cert (you wouldn’t claim CISSP on the back of it), but it shows you understand the threat side of the work.

This pairs naturally with the Cybersecurity Threats library topic.

3. AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials (AWS Skill Builder)

Provider: AWS Cost: Free training (the exam is $100, but the training and digital completion badge are free)

You’re not becoming a cloud engineer. But every modern enterprise network touches AWS / Azure / GCP somewhere, and a junior NetEng who can’t describe a VPC will lose ground to one who can.

AWS Skill Builder has a free “Cloud Practitioner Essentials” learning path. Complete it for the badge. The paid exam is optional but recommended once you have the CCNA — it’s another $100 line item on your resume that significantly broadens your appeal beyond pure networking shops.

4. Google IT Support Professional Certificate (Coursera — financial aid available)

Provider: Google / Coursera Cost: Free with Coursera financial aid (apply, get approved in ~15 days), or part of $49/mo Coursera Plus

This is the strongest “general IT” credential for entry-level US tech roles. Six courses, ~40 hours total. Covers help-desk skills, troubleshooting, basic networking, system administration, and security.

If you’re transitioning from help-desk, this credential maps directly to the work you’re already doing. It’s recognized by US employers including Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and a long list of tech companies that hire entry-level IT.

Apply for financial aid before paying — it gets approved more often than people think.

5. Cisco DevNet Associate Prep (sample labs only — free)

Provider: Cisco DevNet Sandbox Cost: Free for the sandbox environment; the actual DevNet Associate exam is $300

You don’t need to sit the DevNet Associate exam before CCNA. But spending ~10 hours in the DevNet Sandbox playing with Cisco’s REST APIs, Postman collections, and Python automation shows up well on a resume.

Two specific sandboxes worth time:

• Catalyst Center (DNA Center) Always-On Sandbox — log in, browse the inventory, run an API call. Note that on your resume.
• IOS-XE Programmability Sandbox — run a Python script against a virtual router via NETCONF. Note that too.

We cover this in REST APIs, Python for Network Engineers, and NETCONF & YANG.

6. A Linux+ adjacent skill — LinkedIn Learning, Codecademy, or freeCodeCamp

Provider: Various Cost: Free trials available everywhere

Junior network engineers absolutely need Linux basics. SSH, grep, awk, basic scripting, ip commands, log reading. You don’t need the CompTIA Linux+ paid cert; a 20-hour freeCodeCamp or Codecademy bash course is enough to claim “Linux familiarity” credibly.

Suggested order

Week	What you’re doing
1–2	NetAcad Networking Essentials + start CCNA core study
3–4	NetAcad Cybersecurity + Subnetting drills
5–6	Google IT Support (or skip if you already have IT experience)
7–8	AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials
9–10	DevNet Sandbox exploration + Linux basics
11–14	CCNA mock exams + interview prep
15–16	Sit the CCNA

That’s roughly the cadence of the CCNA Career Track program. By the time you sit the paid exam, your LinkedIn already shows: NetAcad Networking Essentials, NetAcad Cybersecurity, Google IT Support, AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials, plus a CCNA. Recruiters notice the stack.

What to skip

Some “free certs” are not worth the time:

• Vendor-specific firewall vendor “Associate” certs — useful only if you’ll work with that specific vendor.
• “AI / ChatGPT” certificates from random course platforms — recognized by approximately no employer.
• Bootcamp “completion certificates” — these don’t carry weight unless paired with a real outcome.

The certs above all carry weight because they come from established providers (Cisco, AWS, Google) with verifiable issuer URLs that a recruiter can actually validate.

The real point

A row of free certs isn’t a substitute for the CCNA — it’s the prefix. It signals that you’re already learning, that you’re disciplined, and that the CCNA is the next step in an obvious trajectory, not a Hail-Mary. That’s the message a US hiring manager is reading off your resume in 6 seconds.

If you want this curated and sequenced for you specifically, that’s exactly what week one of the CCNA Career Track builds.