JNCIP-SP Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 7 Content Areas

The JN0-664 Blueprint at a Glance

The Juniper Networks Certified Professional, Service Provider Routing and Switching (JNCIP-SP) is delivered through the JN0-664 written exam, aligned to Junos OS 22.3. Its objectives are published in the Exam objectives section of Juniper's certification overview and fall into seven headings. This guide walks through each one, explains what the objective language actually asks of you, and shows how the domains connect. For the broader picture of the credential, see What Is JNCIP-SP? and the JNCIP-SP requirements guide.

Note what is absent: there is no standalone "MPLS" or "traffic engineering" heading in the official hierarchy. Some third-party practice pages add those headings, but the pinned Juniper objectives do not. MPLS-based transport shows up as the machinery underneath the VPN domains rather than as its own objective.

How to Read the Objectives Without Weights

Juniper does not publish percentage weights for JN0-664, and the number of sub-bullets under a heading is not a weighting model. A heading with a long list of subtopics is not necessarily tested more heavily than a short one. Treat every domain as fair game and use the objective verbs to calibrate depth.

Each domain follows the same two-tier pattern:

• "Describe" objectives test concepts, operation and functionality: how a protocol behaves, what a message or attribute does, why a design choice matters.
• "Given a scenario, demonstrate configuration or monitoring knowledge" objectives test whether you can read a Junos configuration or command output and reason about it. Layer 2 VPNs add troubleshooting to that list.

If you want a sense of difficulty before committing, read How Hard Is the JNCIP-SP Exam?. For a structured preparation path, see the JNCIP-SP study guide.

Domain 1: OSPF

The OSPF objective covers both OSPFv2 and OSPFv3, so you must be able to compare them, not just recall v2 behavior.

What the Scenario Tier Adds

Given a scenario, you must show configuration or monitoring knowledge for single-area and multi-area OSPF, including implementing OSPF routing policy. Expect to reason about why a route is or is not present in a given area, how summarization at an area border changes what neighbors see, and how an import or export policy shapes the result. Practice reading show ospf database and neighbor output and tying LSA types to area behavior.

Domain 2: IS-IS

IS-IS is the domain many candidates under-prepare, particularly if their background is OSPF-heavy. Learner discussions frequently list IS-IS among the weaker areas.

The scenario tier mirrors OSPF: configure and monitor single-area and multi-area IS-IS, and implement IS-IS routing policy. Route leaking between levels and the behavior of wide metrics are natural scenario material because they change which prefixes appear where.

Domain 3: BGP

BGP has the longest list of described concepts, and it underpins everything in the VPN domains, so time invested here pays off twice.

Scaling through route reflection is listed as a separate description requirement, and the scenario tier requires BGP configuration or monitoring knowledge including BGP routing policy. Build fluency in how policy terms match on communities and AS-path regular expressions, and in how a route reflector alters advertisement behavior. Multiprotocol BGP deserves extra attention because it carries the VPN address families you meet in Domains 6 and 7.

Domain 4: Class of Service

CoS rewards methodical, pipeline-style thinking. Learners commonly report it as a gap area, in part because it is configuration-dense and unforgiving of vague understanding.

Trace a packet end to end: classify on ingress using header fields, assign a forwarding class and loss priority, police if required, queue and schedule on egress with drop profiles, and optionally rewrite markings. Scenario questions typically hand you a configuration and ask what happens to a particular class of traffic. Practice reading configurations for the stage at which a behavior is determined.

Domain 5: IP Multicast

Multicast is another frequently reported weak spot. Its concepts build on each other, so gaps compound quickly.

The scenario tier covers configuration and monitoring knowledge for IGMP and PIM dense or sparse mode including SSM, and implementing IP multicast routing policy. RPF is the thread that ties it together: many multicast failures trace back to the unicast routing table, which is why a solid IGP and BGP foundation helps here. Learn the RP discovery and election mechanisms in enough depth to distinguish them from each other.

Domain 6: Layer 3 VPNs

This domain draws on routing, BGP and MPLS transport at once, and it has a wide list of subtopics.

Junos OS support for carrier-of-carriers and inter-provider VPN models is listed as a separate description objective. The scenario tier asks for configuration or monitoring knowledge of Layer 3 VPN components. A useful habit is to follow a customer route from CE advertisement, through PE import into a VRF, across the core as a VPN-IPv4 route with its route target, and out to the remote CE, naming the control-plane and data-plane element at each hop.

Domain 7: Layer 2 VPNs

The official objectives separate four technology branches. Candidates often blur them, so keep them distinct in your notes.

This is the one domain whose scenario tier explicitly includes troubleshooting alongside configuration and monitoring, covering BGP Layer 2 VPNs, LDP Layer 2 circuits, EVPNs and VPLS. VPLS is another area learners report as tricky, largely because of the two label-distribution models and the multihoming and site-ID mechanics. Compare how each technology learns and distributes reachability: VPLS and EVPN differ fundamentally in how MAC addresses are learned.

Two Terminology Errors in the Official Overview

The pinned Juniper overview contains two visible terminology errors, and they matter because a learner who memorizes them will be wrong in the real world.

• IS-IS "LSP" flooding. The overview expands LSP as "Label-switched path." In IS-IS, the flooded units are link-state PDUs, as Juniper's IS-IS overview documentation makes clear. This is a link-state flooding objective, not an MPLS one.
• "PIM" as Physical Interface Module. In multicast, PIM means Protocol Independent Multicast, per Juniper's PIM overview. Study dense mode and sparse mode as multicast routing protocol behavior.

Sequencing the Seven Domains

A sensible order follows dependencies rather than the objective list. The IGPs come first because everything rides on them, BGP next because the VPN domains require it, and the hardest-reported topics early enough to revisit.

Adjust the pace to your background. A candidate who already works daily with MPLS VPNs may compress Weeks 5-6, while someone new to multicast should expand them. Use the JNCIP-SP cheat sheet for late-stage review, and try the JNCIP-SP practice tests to find which domains need more time.

Exam Mechanics That Frame the Domains

Knowing the format helps you pace across seven domains. The facts below come from Juniper's certification overview and program policies.

With 65 questions in 90 minutes, you have a little under a minute and a half per question on average, which is enough for most knowledge items but tight if you linger on configuration-reading scenarios. For deeper detail, see the certification cost breakdown, the passing score explainer and the exam scheduling guide.

Retakes and Renewal

There is no wait after a first failed attempt. After a second or subsequent failure, you must wait 14 calendar days, counted from the day after the failed attempt. You must wait at least 18 months before repeating an exam you have already passed. The credential is valid for three years; renewal comes from passing an eligible current exam, completing a specified qualifying course, or earning a higher-level certification in the same track.

Optional recommended training named in the overview covers Advanced Junos Service Provider Routing, Junos Layer 2 VPNs and Junos Layer 3 VPNs. Course attendance does not guarantee a pass, and course hours say nothing about exam duration. For more on structured courses, see JNCIP-SP training. If you are weighing the credential's value, read whether JNCIP-SP is worth it; no reliable salary figure restricted to JNCIP-SP holders was verified, so treat any such claim with caution.

Frequently Asked Questions