The CCNA 1 Practice Skills Assessment, Start to Submit

13 min read

What the CCNA 1 practice skills assessment is (and where it sits in ITN)

Introduction to Networks, ITN, is the first course on the Cisco Networking Academy CCNA path, and the practice PT skills assessment is its rehearsal exam. It is a Cisco Networking Academy Packet Tracer activity that Packet Tracer itself scores. You open a prepared network file, read a short brief and an addressing table, and configure the devices until the network works. Nothing on it asks you to recall a definition. It asks you to produce a running configuration.

That is the mental shift a first timer needs before anything else. The practice skills assessment PT is a build, not a quiz. A student who studied the theory and never touched the command line will stall the first time a switch port stays down. So the practice skills assessment pt exists to put your hands on the exact task the graded exam will grade, with the safety of unlimited retries.

What does the CCNA 1 practice skills assessment test?

It tests whether you can turn an addressing table and a requirements list into a configured network. In practice that means six things: name and secure each device, address every router interface in both IPv4 and IPv6, bring those interfaces up, set default gateways on switches and hosts, address the end devices, and back the configuration up to a server. Each of those is scored on exact values and on whether traffic actually flows.

Practice PT skills assessment vs the graded skills exam

The practice version is ungraded and repeatable, so you can wipe it and try again as many times as you like. The graded ITN Skills Assessment counts toward your course grade, is usually opened once, and hands you a different addressing scheme. The two exams share the skills and swap the numbers. This is exactly why a downloaded answer key is a trap: it is correct for its own values and wrong for yours.

Where is the Packet Tracer Skills Based Assessment (PTSBA)?

You launch it from inside your Networking Academy course, not from a separate website. Sign in at netacad.com, open the ITN module that contains the assessment, and click the Packet Tracer activity to download and open its file. The brief, the addressing table and the point breakdown all live on the activity's Instructions tab inside Packet Tracer. If you cannot see it, the course has not released it yet, and your instructor controls that.

How to complete the CCNA 1 practice skills assessment in Packet Tracer (step by step)

Work in a fixed order every time and the assessment stops feeling random: read the table, configure the router, configure the switches, address the hosts, then save and back up. Searching for itn practice skills assessment packet tracer answers gets you someone else's finished file for someone else's addresses. The order below is the repeatable method that produces the right file for whatever values you are handed.

Read the addressing table and requirements by device first

The addressing table is your answer key, and reading it slowly is the highest value minute of the whole exercise. For each device, note the interface, the IPv4 address, the subnet mask, and any IPv6 address. The mask is where points quietly leak: a table that says 255.255.255.192 is a /26, and typing the default /24 will fail every connectivity check downstream. The requirements list adds the exact device names, the passwords, and the banner text, and those are graded character for character.

Step-by-step router and switch configuration commands

On the router, name and secure the device, turn on IPv6 routing, then address each interface in both protocols and enable it. A typical block, adapted to your own table, looks like this:

enable
configure terminal
hostname R1
ipv6 unicast-routing
enable secret class
banner motd #Authorized Access Only#
line console 0
 password cisco
 login
line vty 0 4
 password cisco
 login
service password-encryption
interface gigabitEthernet 0/0
 ip address 192.168.10.1 255.255.255.192
 ipv6 address 2001:db8:acad:10::1/64
 no shutdown
end
copy running-config startup-config

On each switch the job is smaller: name it, give the management interface an address so you can reach it, and point it at the router with a default gateway.

enable
configure terminal
hostname S1
interface vlan 1
 ip address 192.168.10.2 255.255.255.192
 no shutdown
exit
ip default-gateway 192.168.10.1
end
copy running-config startup-config

Sit with a lab full of first timers and one line goes missing more than any other, no shutdown, which leaves a perfectly addressed interface administratively down. The ccna 1 v7.0 itn practice pt skills assessment answers you find online almost always include it, which is the one thing worth confirming against your own build.

Configuring IPv4 and IPv6 host addressing

End devices are configured through the interface, not the command line. Click a PC, open the Desktop tab, then IP Configuration, and enter the IPv4 address, subnet mask, and default gateway exactly as the table lists them. Drop to the IPv6 section on the same panel and add the IPv6 address and gateway. A host with the right IPv4 address but a blank or wrong default gateway will ping its own network and nothing beyond it, which is a classic half configured state that scores poorly.

Backing up the configuration to a TFTP server

The last scored task on most versions is a backup. First save locally with copy running-config startup-config, then copy the running configuration to the TFTP server the topology provides:

copy running-config tftp
Address or name of remote host []? 192.168.10.254
Destination filename [R1-confg]? R1-confg

Use the server address and filename the brief specifies, letter for letter. A backup that lands under the wrong filename reads as no backup at all.

A complete worked example: the Branch LAN, from table to 100 percent

Here is one full build end to end, so you can see how every piece fits before you open your own file. The topology is a small Branch LAN: one router, R1, two switches, S1 and S2, and two PCs, PC1 and PC2, split across two subnets of 192.168.20.0/24. The addressing table you are handed reads like this.

Configure the router first, both protocols, each interface brought up:

enable
configure terminal
hostname R1
ipv6 unicast-routing
enable secret class
interface gigabitEthernet 0/0
 ip address 192.168.20.1 255.255.255.192
 ipv6 address 2001:db8:acad:20::1/64
 no shutdown
interface gigabitEthernet 0/1
 ip address 192.168.20.65 255.255.255.192
 ipv6 address 2001:db8:acad:21::1/64
 no shutdown
end
copy running-config startup-config

Then each switch: name it, give VLAN 1 a management address, and point it at its gateway. S1 is shown in full; S2 is identical with its own row values, 192.168.20.66 and gateway 192.168.20.65.

enable
configure terminal
hostname S1
interface vlan 1
 ip address 192.168.20.2 255.255.255.192
 no shutdown
exit
ip default-gateway 192.168.20.1
end
copy running-config startup-config

Finally the hosts. On PC1, open Desktop, then IP Configuration, and enter 192.168.20.10, mask 255.255.255.192, gateway 192.168.20.1, then drop to the IPv6 line and add 2001:db8:acad:20::10/64. PC2 mirrors it with the LAN B values from its row.

Now verify. On R1 the two interfaces read up and up, and a PC to PC ping crosses both subnets:

R1# show ip interface brief
Interface             IP-Address      OK? Method Status Protocol
GigabitEthernet0/0    192.168.20.1    YES manual up     up
GigabitEthernet0/1    192.168.20.65   YES manual up     up

PC1> ping 192.168.20.70
Reply from 192.168.20.70: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=127
Reply from 192.168.20.70: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=127

Open Check Results, then Assessment Items, and the total climbs as each item turns green: about 40 percent once the router is addressed, around 70 percent after the switches and hosts are in, and 100 percent the moment the end to end ping succeeds and the backup lands. That number is the whole target.

How to solve 'subnetting a subnet' in the CCNA 1 practice skills assessment

The v7 assessment usually does not hand you every address. It hands you one network and a list of host counts, and asks you to carve the addresses yourself. This is the sub skill that decides a lot of pass or fail outcomes, and it is the one the answer dumps bury inside a finished table without ever showing the working.

Designing the IP addressing scheme from host counts

The method is variable length subnet masking, and it has one rule of order: satisfy the largest requirement first. For a group that needs H usable hosts, pick the smallest mask where two to the power of the host bits, minus two, is at least H. A /26 leaves 6 host bits and 62 usable addresses, a /27 leaves 30, a /28 leaves 14, and a /30 leaves the 2 you need for a router to router link. Allocating largest block first is what stops variable length subnets from overlapping. The starting network is almost always a private range, so a quick read of RFC 1918 and of how VLSM works is worth the five minutes.

Worked example: breaking a subnet down for fewer hosts

Say you are given 192.168.10.0/24 and told the largest LAN needs 50 hosts. Run one: 50 hosts needs 6 host bits, so the first subnet is 192.168.10.0/26, usable .1 to .62. Now suppose a second LAN needs only 12 hosts. Run two takes the very next block, 192.168.10.64/26, and splits that subnet again into a /28, which gives 14 usable addresses for the 12 hosts and leaves room to spare. That second cut, taking a subnet you already made and subnetting it a second time, is the move the phrase 'subnetting a subnet' is naming.

How to verify and troubleshoot the CCNA 1 practice skills assessment

The step every answer dump skips is this: proving the build scores before you submit it. Packet Tracer grades connectivity, so a network that looks configured but does not carry traffic loses the points you thought you had earned. Two minutes of checking separates a build that only looks configured from one that carries traffic when it is graded.

Verification commands to confirm your configuration works

Start on the router with show ip interface brief and read the two status columns: every configured interface should show up and up. Run show ipv6 interface brief to confirm the IPv6 side came up too, and skim show running-config for a missed line. Then test reachability the way the grader will, with a ping from one end of the network to the other. From a PC, ping its own default gateway first, and only then a host on a far subnet. A build that does not ping end to end does not score, however tidy the configuration looks. If the near ping works and the far one fails, the fault is routing or a gateway, not the local interface.

Common mistakes that cost points on the skills assessment

• Wrong subnet mask. Typing /24 where the table says /26 breaks every cross subnet ping.
• A forgotten no shutdown. The interface is addressed correctly and still administratively down.
• Missing IPv6 routing or an IPv6 line. Without ipv6 unicast-routing the router will not forward IPv6 at all.
• A wrong or blank default gateway. Hosts reach their own subnet and nothing past it.
• A hostname or banner typo. These are graded character for character, so a stray space fails the item.
• No save, or the wrong TFTP filename. The backup task scores on the exact name in the brief.

How the CCNA 1 practice skills assessment is scored and how to pass it

Packet Tracer grades automatically by comparing your file against a hidden answer network and awarding points per scored item: a correct interface address, a working password, a successful ping. To watch this as you work, click the Check Results button in the top bar of the Packet Tracer window. The panel opens on its first tab, Assessment Items, which lists every scored task with its own component score and a single percentage total at the very top. Each item flips from red to green the moment you get it right, and that top percentage is your live running score, so a first timer can see exactly where they stand before ever clicking Submit. Everything the CCNA 1 practice skills assessment scores is visible to you there in advance.

What is the passing score for the CCNA skills assessment?

The practice assessment itself is ungraded, so there is no bar to clear: you rerun it until the score reads 100 percent. On the graded module, the Networking Academy passing grade is commonly set around 70 percent, though the exact threshold is set by your curriculum and instructor, so confirm it with them. That is a separate thing from the CCNA 200-301 certification exam, which Cisco scores on a 300 to 1000 scale, with roughly 825 the usual reported pass mark. How another skills test decides pass or fail is worth a look too, since the logic recurs: see how a thinking skills assessment is scored.

How long does the practice skills assessment take?

The practice run is untimed, so treat it as study rather than a race. A clean build, done carefully with verification, usually takes 30 to 60 minutes the first few times and less once the command order is second nature. The graded version is time boxed by your instructor, which is the real reason to rehearse until the command order needs no thought.

How many questions are on the Cisco CCNA exam?

The skills assessment has no multiple choice questions at all. It is one hands on build, scored by the tasks you complete. The question count people usually mean belongs to the separate CCNA 200-301 certification exam, which runs about 120 minutes and typically carries somewhere between 90 and 120 questions, a range Cisco does not publish an exact figure for. The table below keeps the three straight.

The graded exam uses different addressing values, so a copied answer key cannot score. Passing for real means you can rebuild the network from a fresh brief, which is all that survives when the numbers change.

From CCNA 1 skills assessment to a career that fits your capability

Clear the assessment and you have proved something specific and worth having: given a brief, you can stand up a working network. That is a capability, and it is the thing the whole exercise certifies. It says nothing, though, about a different question: whether a network engineer's day to day is work you would still want five years in, not work that slowly wears you flat.

Capability is what a skills assessment really measures

Any skills assessment, whether a Packet Tracer build, a LinkedIn skills badge, or a foundation skills sample set, measures what you can do on the day you sit it. Useful, and not the same thing as fit. You might be strong at configuring routers and still find the on call rotations and the change windows draining, and you can love the puzzle of a network and resent everything around it. Capability and sustainability are two different measurements, a line the psychology of testing and measurement takes seriously, and skill at a task is what hides the gap between the two.

That narrower question is the gap the Pigment career test is meant to read. It never has you score yourself; each item makes you pick between two priorities you care about, which is hard to game by reaching for the flattering answer. About 120 of those trade-offs, over roughly 18 minutes, place you along nine workplace domains. One of the nine, Energetic Rhythm, is the read on what feeds your effort and what drains it. The output is a set of directions weighted toward work you could still stand a year in, not only work you can push through for a quarter. In one Pigment study of 1,528 people, roughly two in five had the right field and the wrong setting around it.

So treat the practice run as what it is: the safe place to build the skill until it holds under a fresh set of numbers. Read the table, configure in order, verify before you submit, and let the score reach 100 before you count on it. The exam certifies the capability. Where you aim it is the larger question.

Common questions