Cisco Split Wireless Out of CCNP Enterprise — What ENCOR v1.2 and the New WLCOR Exam Mean for You
Cisco quietly made one of the biggest structural changes to its professional certification track in years. On March 19, 2026, the 350-401 ENCOR exam moved from version 1.1 to version 1.2, and the headline is not what Cisco added. It is what Cisco removed: all of the wireless content is gone.
What actually changed in ENCOR v1.2
ENCOR remains the core exam for both CCNP Enterprise and CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure. It is still 120 minutes, still roughly 90 to 100 questions, and still scored out of 1000. But the blueprint looks different in four important ways.
Wireless is out. Every wireless infrastructure topic that lived in the v1.1 blueprint has been removed. Cisco did not delete the content from its certification program. It moved it into a brand new dedicated track, CCNP Wireless, with its own core exam: 350-101 WLCOR, which launched the same day.
Automation got heavier. The automation domain now carries more weight, with expanded coverage of REST APIs, RESTCONF, Catalyst Center workflows, and EEM applets. Vendor-specific orchestration tools like Chef, Puppet, and Ansible were removed from the blueprint wording in favor of agent versus agentless concepts.
Security got deeper. Zero trust architecture, SASE, and expanded MACsec coverage are now explicitly on the exam. Cisco expects CCNP Enterprise candidates to understand how zero trust changes segmentation, authentication flows, and access policy design, not just recognize the buzzword.
Names and platforms were refreshed. Cisco DNA Center is now Catalyst Center throughout the blueprint, AI-assisted operations and monitoring concepts were added, and legacy topics like older QoS configurations and deep MPLS L3VPN coverage were reduced.
The elective exams changed too
The concentration exams were updated alongside the core. 300-435 ENAUTO was upgraded to v2.0 on February 3, 2026, with a stronger programmability focus. The two wireless electives, 300-425 ENWLSD and 300-430 ENWLSI, stopped being offered on March 18, 2026, and their content was absorbed into the new CCNP Wireless track.
Who this affects
If you started studying before March 19: check the publication date on every study resource you own. Anything written for v1.1 includes wireless content that is no longer tested and underweights the automation and security topics that now matter more. Cross-reference your materials against the official v1.2 exam topics PDF on Cisco's learning site.
If you are a wireless engineer: the separation is actually good news. You no longer need to grind through routing, switching, and SD-WAN depth just to validate WLAN expertise. WLCOR 350-101 covers Catalyst 9800 platforms, RF design, Meraki management, and wireless troubleshooting as a standalone professional track.
If you are starting fresh: you are in the cleanest position. Study for v1.2 from the beginning, give automation and SD-WAN the weight they deserve, and skip wireless entirely unless you plan to pursue the wireless track separately.
How this fits Cisco's bigger 2026 overhaul
This is not an isolated change. Cisco also overhauled CCNA and added an AI module to the CCIE lab exam this year — we covered the full timeline in Cisco Just Overhauled CCNA and Added AI to the CCIE Lab Exam. The pattern across every change is the same: less legacy configuration memorization, more automation, more security architecture, more AI-assisted operations.
Preparing for ENCOR v1.2
The exam rewards hands-on practice over memorization, especially now that lab items appear at the start of the exam. Build time management into your prep: practice the performance-based tasks first, then the multiple choice, mirroring the real exam structure.
And drill with questions that match the current blueprint. Our Cisco real exam questions are updated for the current exam versions, including ENCOR, and include the scenario-based formats you will actually face. If you are deciding what to take after ENCOR, our certification stacking guide maps out the concentration options by career track.
The bottom line: ENCOR v1.2 is a better exam for what enterprise networking actually looks like in 2026. Just make sure everything you study was written after March 19.