CCNA Exam Preparation / Network fundamentals
CCNA technique 026: Spine-leaf paths — practice and verify
An original CCNA exercise on spine-leaf paths with predictions, evidence, and a changed-condition check.
Environment and inputs: CCNA 200-301 v1.1 study; isolated Cisco IOS / IOS XE lab or paper exercise where applicable.
Practice task
Draw three leaves and two spines and trace traffic after one leaf-to-spine link fails.
Expected reasoning
A leaf typically connects to each spine, giving predictable inter-leaf paths.
Produce evidence
Use an isolated simulator, approved lab or paper trace. Record the topology, prediction and observed result. Before device changes, capture the relevant interface, route, neighbor or service state. Ping alone may not prove the behavior under study.
Introduce a counterexample
Change one condition in the spine-leaf paths exercise and predict the result before checking it. Explain which observation would disprove your hypothesis. Restore the baseline, repeat from blank notes and keep both results.
Exam scope
Independent CCNA 200-301 v1.1 exercise, checked against Cisco resources on 2 November 2026. It is not a recalled exam question. The collection’s 200 techniques do not represent exam question counts or weights. Check Cisco’s current exam rules and your simulator’s supported syntax.