Fail the CCNA and you wait five days before you can retake it. Pass it and you cannot retake the same exam for 180 days. Those two rules from Cisco’s exam policies cover almost every situation, and the rest is detail. Here is the full retake policy for the 200-301, checked against Cisco’s exam policies in June 2026.
After a failed attempt: wait five days
If you fail the CCNA, Cisco requires you to wait five calendar days, counting from the day after the failed attempt, before you retake it. The count is in calendar days, not business days, so weekends are included. Fail on a Wednesday and you are eligible again the following Tuesday.
This applies to the written associate exam, which is what the CCNA 200-301 is. There is nothing you can do to shorten it. The waiting period exists so candidates study between attempts rather than guessing their way through repeated sittings.
After you pass: wait 180 days
Once you pass, you cannot retake the same exam number for a minimum of 180 days. The 200-301 is a single exam, so a pass locks that exam number for at least half a year. Most people never hit this rule, because once you pass you have the certification and no reason to sit it again. It matters mainly if you were planning to re-sit the exam to reset your recertification clock, which the 180-day rule blocks in the short term.
How many times can you retake it?
Cisco publishes no maximum number of attempts for the CCNA. There is no per-year cap and no lifetime limit. The only constraint on failed attempts is the five-day wait between them, so in practice you can keep retaking the exam as many times as you need, paying the fee each time. The policy restricts the timing, not the count.
Beta exams work differently
One exception is worth knowing even though it rarely applies here. A beta exam can be attempted only once during its beta period, with no retake. This is an edge case for the CCNA: the 200-301 is the live, generally available exam, not a beta, so the standard five-day rule is the one that applies to you. The beta rule only comes up if you sit a brand-new exam during its beta window.
What a retake costs
Every attempt costs the full fee. There is no free retake and no discounted second attempt built into the price. The CCNA exam fee is 300 USD plus tax, and you pay it again in full for each sitting, so a failed attempt is a real cost as well as a delay. Check the current price when you rebook, since the amount varies by region.
Do not try to game the timing
The retake rules are part of Cisco’s certification policies, and working around them is a policy violation. Attempting to bypass the waiting period, or breaching the Cisco Certification and Confidentiality Agreement in any other way (using brain dumps, sharing exam content, testing under another name), can cost you far more than a delay. Cisco can cancel your scores, revoke certifications you already hold, and ban you from future exams. Take the wait, study, and sit it again cleanly.
The retake rules in short
The whole policy comes down to a few lines:
- Failed the exam? Wait five calendar days from the day after, then retake.
- Passed the exam? You cannot retake the same exam number for 180 days.
- Attempt limit? None published. Only the five-day spacing applies between failures.
- Cost? Full fee every time. No free retakes.
- Beta exams? One attempt only (not relevant to the live 200-301).
If you did fail, use the five days well. The fastest way to turn a fail into a pass is to find which topics cost you the points and drill them. The exam question types and strategy guide covers the format mistakes that sink people, and the CCNA 200-301 study roadmap walks the whole syllabus topic by topic.
