Preparing for the Designing Cisco Security Infrastructure (300-745 SDSI) exam requires a strong balance of conceptual understanding and real-world design thinking. Many candidates choose to start with the most valid Designing Cisco Security Infrastructure (300-745 SDSI) Exam Questions from PassQuestion, which are carefully updated to align with the latest exam blueprint. These practice questions help you evaluate your readiness, reinforce weak areas, and build confidence before sitting the exam—making them a practical resource for achieving exam success.

Passing the 300-745 SDSI exam earns you the Cisco Certified Specialist – Designing Cisco Security Infrastructure certification and satisfies the concentration exam requirement for the Cisco Certified Networking Professional (CCNP) Security track. In addition, this exam can be applied toward Cisco recertification, making it valuable for both new and experienced security professionals.

Designing Cisco Security Infrastructure (300-745 SDSI) Exam Overview

Designing Cisco Security Infrastructure (300-745 SDSI) v1.0 is a 90-minute exam that validates your ability to design modern, resilient security architectures. Rather than focusing on device-level configuration, SDSI emphasizes architectural decisions across infrastructure, applications, risk management, and automation.

Key Exam Facts

• Exam Code: 300-745 SDSI
• Language: English
• Duration: 90 minutes
• Exam Fee: USD $300 (or Cisco Learning Credits)
• Certifications Earned:
  • Cisco Certified Specialist – Designing Cisco Security Infrastructure
  • CCNP Security (concentration requirement)

This exam is ideal for security architects, senior network engineers, and consultants responsible for designing end-to-end security solutions.

Designing Cisco Security Infrastructure (300-745 SDSI) Exam Objectives

1. Secure Infrastructure (30%)

This domain evaluates your ability to design secure foundations for enterprise and service-provider networks.

You are expected to:

• Choose appropriate security approaches to defend against modern threats
• Adapt security architectures to meet technical and business requirements
• Select suitable VPN and tunneling technologies, including SD-WAN, IPsec, MPLS, GRE, DMVPN, and public-cloud tunnel options
• Secure management and control planes to prevent lateral movement and privilege abuse
• Decide on the correct firewall architecture, such as traditional firewalls, next-generation firewalls, WAFs, IPS/IDS, distributed firewalls, eBPF, or host-based firewalls

Success in this section depends on understanding why a design choice fits a scenario—not just knowing what a technology does.

2. Applications (25%)

Application-centric security is a major focus of the SDSI exam, reflecting today's shift toward cloud-native and distributed environments.

Key skills include:

• Selecting security solutions like firewalls, SSL offloading, SSL decryption, DLP, and endpoint protection based on application flow data
• Designing security for cloud-native applications, microservices, containers, and serverless workloads with proper segmentation and microsegmentation
• Defining design policies that address emerging technologies such as generative AI, machine learning, and quantum computing

This section tests your ability to protect applications without sacrificing performance or scalability.

3. Risk, Events, and Requirements (30%)

This domain measures how well you integrate security design with operational risk and compliance.

You will need to:

• Explain how a Security Operations Center (SOC) uses incident handling and response tools
• Modify designs to mitigate identified risks
• Update security architectures following a security incident
• Apply frameworks such as MITRE CAPEC, NIST SP 800-37, and SAFE throughout the security design lifecycle
• Match regulatory and industry compliance requirements to real business or technical scenarios

Strong analytical thinking and familiarity with governance frameworks are essential here.

4. Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and DevSecOps (15%)

This final section reflects Cisco's forward-looking approach to security architecture.

Exam topics include:

• The role of AI in securing network infrastructure
• Selecting features that support automated security architectures, such as APIs, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), monitoring, container scanning, telemetry, alerting, and SOAR
• Identifying the next steps in DevSecOps pipelines to reduce risk in automated deployments

Understanding how automation and security integrate into CI/CD workflows is key to scoring well in this domain.

Strategic Preparation Tips for Passing the 300-745 SDSI Exam

To prepare for the 300-745 SDSI exam:

1. Study the official exam objectives and map each topic to real-world design scenarios
2. Use updated SDSI practice questions to test your understanding and decision-making skills
3. Focus on architecture-level thinking rather than configuration details
4. Review case studies involving hybrid cloud, Zero Trust, and automated security pipelines

Combining structured study with high-quality practice material will significantly improve your chances of passing on the first attempt.

Final Takeaway: Why the 300-745 SDSI Exam Matters

The Designing Cisco Security Infrastructure (300-745 SDSI) exam is a challenging but rewarding step for professionals aiming to validate their security architecture expertise. With a strong grasp of the exam domains and the support of reliable practice questions, you can approach the exam with confidence and move one step closer to achieving your CCNP Security goals.