Free Until December 10: Cisco's SPCNI Learning Path for CCNP Service Provider

Cisco just opened its full SPCNI learning path on Cisco U. for free. That's Designing and Implementing Cisco Service Provider Cloud Network Infrastructure, the official prep for the 300-540 exam, and it's open to everyone from October 26 through December 10, 2026. If you work anywhere near a service provider network, or you have Cisco CE credits to earn, this is one of the best free offers Cisco has put out this year.

• Oct 26, 2026Free access opens
  The full SPCNI learning path is free on Cisco U.
• Dec 10, 2026Free access ends
  That gives you about six and a half weeks to work through it.

The official path to the 300-540 exam

SPCNI is Cisco's own training for the 300-540 SPCNI exam. Pass that exam and you earn the Cisco Certified Specialist, Service Provider Cloud Network Infrastructure certification. It also counts as the concentration exam for CCNP Service Provider. On Cisco U., the path is 13 courses, 14 labs and 8 assessments, with pre- and post-assessments that show you what you can skip and what you need to study.

Here's my take. Service provider skills are some of the hardest to find in networking, and the technology in this path, Segment Routing, SRv6, EVPN and model-driven telemetry, is where carrier and large enterprise networks are heading. Free official training on exactly that, with labs, doesn't come around often.

Seven areas, all hands-on

Three reasons to start this week

How to make the most of it

1. Sign in to Cisco U. and enroll now. Start with the pre-assessment so you know which courses you can move through quickly.
2. Block time every week. Aim for two courses and their labs each week until December 10.
3. Check the prerequisites. Cisco recommends routing experience with BGP, IS-IS and OSPF, plus MPLS. If that's shaky, build it first. Cisco lists CCNA, SPFNDU and SPCOR as recommended courses.
4. Book the exam when you're ready. The 300-540 exam is 90 minutes and costs $300.

Going for the full CCNP Service Provider?

We're adding SPCNI to our course catalog. If you're after the full CCNP Service Provider, the core exam is SPCOR, and we run live, instructor-led SPCOR classes taught by working engineers. Upcoming dates are November 30-December 4 in Atlanta and December 7-11 in Burbank, in person or live online. Every class comes with 90 days of Class Hub access, six months of CCIE mentoring and 24 months of free retakes.

— Scott