Boson ExSim CCNP ENCOR Alternative: Take a Free Full Practice Exam (then $18, not $99)
FigigExams is a free, full-length alternative to Boson ExSim-Max for CCNP ENCOR 350-401. You can take a complete ENCOR practice exam free, with no credit card, with every question type, full explanations, and a personalized Exam Coach that diagnoses your weak concepts. If you keep going, exams are $18 each instead of around $99 for Boson ExSim. Here is the honest side-by-side so you can decide.
Skip the comparison - test it yourself
Try the CCNP ENCOR practice exam, every question type, with full Explanations and Exam Tips and the personalized Exam Coach when you finish. Create an account on the next screen, the code auto-applies. No credit card.
CCNP-EXAM-BS1
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In This Guide
Why I wrote this page
If you've searched for a Boson CCNP ENCOR alternative, you already know the landscape. Boson ExSim-Max has been the industry-standard Cisco practice exam for over a decade, and for the professional-level exams it's especially well regarded. It's well-written, thorough, and trusted by tens of thousands of candidates. If you can afford it and it fits your study style, it's a safe choice, and nothing on this page is going to change that.
This article is for a specific group of candidates:
- Candidates who want a cheaper option ($18 instead of around $99 per exam).
- Candidates who want to try before paying a premium. Boson does not publish a free trial exam version.
- Candidates who want a different kind of feedback. Not just a score and explanations per question, but a concept-level diagnosis that tells them: "you miss EIGRP feasible-successor questions and BGP path-selection ties," not "you scored 48% on Infrastructure."
I'm a senior network and security engineer, and unlike the entry-level certs, ENCOR sits in the middle of what I actually do for a living - enterprise OSPF and BGP design, campus switching, wireless, and increasingly automation. I built FigigExams while mentoring engineers stepping up from CCNA, and the same pattern kept showing up at the professional level: they'd take a practice exam, get a score, read the explanations, and still not know which concepts were holding them back. So I built a practice exam that talks back to you at the concept level. This page is my honest take on where it fits next to Boson, and where it doesn't.
The free Boson ExSim alternative for CCNP ENCOR
If you searched for a free Boson alternative, Boson ExSim free, or a free Boson CCNP ENCOR practice test, this is the part that matters: Boson ExSim-Max does not publish a free version of the full exam, but FigigExams does. You can take a complete CCNP ENCOR 350-401 practice exam free, no account upgrade and no credit card, with every question type, an explanation and exam tip on every item, and the personalized Exam Coach when you finish.
It's the closest thing to trying Boson ExSim for free: a full-length, exam-realistic ENCOR practice test you can sit start to finish at no cost. If it helps and you want more reps, additional exams are $18 each rather than around $99 - so even the paid path stays a fraction of Boson's price.
Start the free CCNP ENCOR practice examCode CCNP-EXAM-BS1 auto-applies on the next screen. No credit card. A free try of the full practice exam, not just a handful of sample questions.
What Boson does well
Credit where credit is due. Boson ExSim-Max for CCNP ENCOR 350-401 is a polished product. The question bank is deep, the explanations are detailed and reference IOS-XE behavior accurately, and their items are well-calibrated to the difficulty of the real Cisco exam. ENCOR is a wide blueprint, and Boson's coverage across routing, switching, wireless, and automation is genuinely strong. If you're already using their study materials, the integration between reading and testing is a single, coherent study path.
Boson ExSim-Max for CCNP ENCOR is listed at around $99 per exam. That's a fair price for a product that took serious editorial investment to build, and many candidates happily pay it. If you can, and if the format works for you, you will not regret the purchase.
None of what follows is an attack on Boson. FigigExams solves a different problem for a different candidate.
Side-by-side comparison: Boson CCNP ENCOR ExSim vs FigigExams
The numbers below for Boson reflect their public product listing for ExSim-Max for CCNP ENCOR 350-401. Check Boson's site for current pricing and access terms, I do not control their catalog.
| Feature | Boson CCNP ENCOR ExSim | FigigExams CCNP ENCOR |
|---|---|---|
| Price per exam | ~$99 | $18 |
| Free tier | No | Yes a free try of the full practice exam |
| Blueprint coverage | All six ENCOR domains | All six ENCOR domains: Architecture, Virtualization, Infrastructure, Network Assurance, Security, Automation |
| Results analysis | Score, domain breakdown, per-question explanations | Score, concept-level breakdown, weak-domain analysis, personalized study plan, readiness score, follow-up chat with a Personal Exam Coach |
| Question types | Multiple choice, multiple-select, drag-and-drop, simulation-style items | Single-answer, multi-answer, drag-and-drop, scenario, configuration, and troubleshooting items |
| Personal Exam Coach | No | Yes Concept diagnosis with follow-up chat |
| Access model | Activation required; see Boson's site for current access window | Lifetime access per exam, no expiration |
Accuracy matters, so the Boson column intentionally avoids details I cannot verify from outside their product. If any of the Boson figures above are out of date on their site, please email me at [email protected] and I will correct this page.
Where FigigExams stands out: the Personal Exam Coach
This is the single feature I am most proud of, and the reason I built FigigExams in the first place. Every exam attempt produces a personalized report. Below is a static preview of what that report looks like for a candidate who scored about 48% on a CCNP ENCOR 350-401 practice exam. Everything is concept-level, not just domain-level.
Campus design and FHRP behavior are solid. The miss cluster is SD-Access - specifically the fabric roles (edge, border, control-plane node) and how LISP maps endpoints. Review the fabric data plane (VXLAN) vs control plane (LISP) split.
VRF-lite is clear, but tunneling is shaky. Lock down when GRE alone is enough vs when you need IPsec (confidentiality), and the VXLAN terms (VTEP encapsulates, VNI segments). These show up in both Virtualization and SD-Access questions.
This is your highest-impact domain by far - 30% of the exam and your weakest result. You're guessing on the BGP best-path order (weight, local pref, AS-path...) and on the EIGRP feasibility condition (RD < FD). Rework the BGP path selection and EIGRP named mode guides before your next attempt.
Monitoring basics are fine. Tighten Flexible NetFlow (key vs non-key fields in a flow record) and the three SNMPv3 levels (noAuthNoPriv, authNoPriv, authPriv). ERSPAN vs RSPAN is a common distractor - ERSPAN transports over IP (GRE).
Security is 20% of the exam and a clear gap. Memorize the TACACS+ vs RADIUS matrix (TCP/49, full-packet encryption, AAA separated vs UDP, auth+authz combined), and know that MAB is the fallback for endpoints that can't do 802.1X. CoPP protects the control plane - know why it matters.
Automation is 15% and most candidates from a pure routing background under-prepare it - you left most of these points on the table. Start with NETCONF (SSH, XML, RPC) vs RESTCONF (HTTPS, JSON/XML, REST verbs) and reading a JSON object. See the automation guide.
This is an example output. Every exam produces a personalized report tailored to your specific answers, your weakest concepts, and a study plan ordered by impact on your score. Try a free CCNP ENCOR practice exam to see your own breakdown →
The two things that hold a candidate's attention from the first question to the last
The Exam Coach is what you see at the end of the exam. The two sections below are what you see during and after each question, and they are what most candidates remember about FigigExams. Test it yourself rather than take my word for it: the full exam is free with the code at the bottom.
6 question types · the same shape as the real ENCOR exam
Single-answer and multi-answer items get most of the headlines, but scenario, configuration, and troubleshooting questions are where ENCOR separates the candidates who memorized from the ones who built a mental model. Every FigigExams ENCOR exam version covers all six.
Pick one correct option. The classic multiple-choice item.
- ○ Its FD is lowest
- ● Its RD < the successor's FD
- ○ Its AD is highest
- ○ It is in the topology table only
Pick all that apply. Punishes guessing, rewards understanding.
- ☑ Local Preference
- ☐ Administrative Distance
- ☑ AS-Path
- ☐ Hop Count
Match labels to slots. Tests classification under exam-like UI.
Multi-router exhibit + a question that requires reasoning across the topology, not just one fact.
Hands-on CLI items. You read or complete a running-config snippet, not a multiple-choice gloss of it.
router eigrp ENT
address-family ipv4 unicast autonomous-system 10
af-interface Gi0/1
?show-output debugging. Read the symptoms, identify the misconfiguration, pick the fix.
R1# show ip bgp neighbors
BGP neighbor 10.1.1.2, state = ActiveBoson covers single-answer, multi-answer, drag-and-drop, and simulation-style items at a high standard. The advantage on the FigigExams side is that scenario, configuration, and troubleshooting items are baked into every exam version, not gated to a separate sim product.
Exam Tips on every single question
Boson, ExamTopics, every other CCNP practice test ships one block per item: a paragraph of explanation. We bundle a second block on every question - the memorize-this-table version of the concept being tested, written by a certified engineer, not crowdsourced. This is the part candidates pull up as their final-week cheat sheet, and it's in the free version too.
Q: R1 receives the same prefix from two BGP peers. Path A has Local Preference 200 and AS-Path length 4; Path B has Local Preference 150 and AS-Path length 2. Both are eBGP-learned. Which path does BGP install, and why?
BGP best-path selection runs in a fixed order. Weight (Cisco-local) is first, then Local Preference, then locally-originated, then AS-Path length. Local Preference (200 vs 150) is evaluated before AS-Path, so Path A wins even though its AS-Path is longer. AS-Path only breaks the tie if Local Preference is equal.
BGP best-path order to memorize (mnemonic "We Love Oranges AS Oranges Mean Pure Refreshment"): Weight (highest) → Local Preference (highest) → Originated locally → AS-Path (shortest) → Origin (IGP<EGP<?) → MED (lowest) → eBGP over iBGP → lowest IGP metric to next hop → oldest eBGP → lowest router ID. Trap on this exam: AS-Path is the attribute everyone reaches for first, but Weight and Local Preference outrank it. Read the whole stem before answering.
The Explanation teaches the question. The Exam Tips teach the concept the question is testing - the part you'll see again in a different shape on the real exam. This is why the Exam Coach above can give a concept-level breakdown rather than just a domain-level one.
Skip the comparison - test it yourself
Try the CCNP ENCOR practice exam free, every question type, with full Explanations and Exam Tips on every item and the personalized Exam Coach when you finish. Create an account on the next screen, the code auto-applies. No credit card.
CCNP-EXAM-BS1
Try the exam free
Already have an account? Log in to start · Returning candidates land on the same screen.
Why there's a CCNP version at all
FigigExams started as a CCNA practice exam. The CCNP ENCOR version exists for one reason: the people who used the free CCNA test asked for it. After the CCNA exam picked up traction on r/ccna, the most common follow-up in my inbox and the threads was some version of "I passed CCNA on this, are you doing CCNP next?"
That's a better reason to build something than a market-size spreadsheet. ENCOR is also the cert closest to my own day job, so it's the one where I'm most confident the questions hold up to scrutiny. I'd rather be honest that this is a newer exam than the CCNA one than pad this page with reviews it hasn't earned yet. Take the free attempt, judge the questions yourself, and email me at [email protected] if anything is off - I fix reported issues fast.
When Boson is still probably the better choice
I'm not going to pretend FigigExams is better for everyone. Here are the scenarios where Boson is the honest recommendation:
- You want the full textbook + practice exam package. Boson's study materials are tightly integrated with ExSim-Max and designed to be used together. If your study style is "read the book, take the exam, cross-reference," that integrated path is hard to beat, and I don't offer a competing textbook.
- You have a larger prep budget and want the industry standard. Boson is the safe, well-understood, widely-recommended default for professional-level Cisco exams. If budget isn't a constraint and you want the name-brand choice instructors recognize, buy Boson. This is not sarcasm, it's just true.
- You used Boson for your CCNA or other Cisco exams. If you already passed earlier exams with Boson and you're used to their question framing, switching tools mid-journey for a small dollar saving usually isn't worth the cognitive load.
If any of those describe you, go buy Boson, that's the right call. If none of them do, keep reading.
Try a free CCNP ENCOR practice exam with personalized Exam Coach analysis
No credit card required. Takes 5 minutes to start. See your own concept-level breakdown when you finish.
Start Free CCNP ENCOR Practice ExamA free try of the practice exam, no credit card. Attribution in the link helps me track which articles are useful, thank you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is FigigExams a replacement for Boson ExSim for CCNP ENCOR?
FigigExams is a lower-cost alternative that focuses on concept-level feedback through a personalized Exam Coach. Boson remains a strong choice for candidates who want the full textbook plus exam package or are already familiar with the Boson format. Many candidates combine both: FigigExams early in preparation to diagnose weak domains, then a final readiness pass with Boson.
How much does Boson ExSim-Max for CCNP ENCOR cost compared to FigigExams?
Boson ExSim-Max for CCNP ENCOR 350-401 is listed around $99 on their site (check boson.com for current pricing). A FigigExams CCNP ENCOR practice exam is $18 per exam, and there is also a free try of the full practice exam, no credit card.
Can I try a CCNP ENCOR practice exam before paying?
Yes. FigigExams offers a free try of the full CCNP ENCOR practice exam, no account upgrade or credit card required. Boson does not currently offer a free trial of ExSim-Max.
Does the exam cover automation and wireless, or just routing?
All six ENCOR 350-401 domains are covered: Architecture, Virtualization, Infrastructure (routing, switching, wireless, IP services), Network Assurance, Security, and Automation - including NETCONF/RESTCONF, YANG, JSON, and controller APIs. Automation is 15% of the blueprint and a common blind spot for routing-focused candidates, so it gets real coverage.
Can I use FigigExams and Boson together?
That's exactly what I'd recommend if your budget allows. Use FigigExams early in preparation to identify your weakest concepts and get a targeted study plan, then validate your final readiness with a Boson ExSim-Max run. The two products are complementary, not mutually exclusive.