Certification path
The F5 certification path, as it stands in 2026.
F5 restructured its programme in 2025. The old 101 and 201 exams are retired. The path now runs Administrator, then Specialist, then Solution Expert, and every course on this site maps to one step on it. This page shows where each step sits and where to start from your experience.
Step 1
F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5CAB)
The entry credential, and the prerequisite for every Specialist exam. Since 2025 it is earned by passing five short exams, F5CAB1 through F5CAB5, which together replace the retired 101 and 201. They cover the core of installing, configuring and operating BIG-IP: setup, traffic handling, high availability and day-to-day troubleshooting.
Start here if you are new to F5, or if you have run BIG-IP for years without the paper. The skills carry forward into every Specialist track.
F5CAB courseStep 2
F5 Certified Technology Specialist (3xx)
One exam per BIG-IP module, each requiring F5CAB first. 301a and 301b together earn the LTM Specialist; 302 is DNS, 303 is ASM, 304 is APM. Each goes deep on one technology: how it is configured, how it fails, and how you troubleshoot it under pressure.
Specialise in the modules you run in production. LTM is usually first, because it underpins how traffic moves through BIG-IP, and it is the prerequisite for the Expert level.
Specialist coursesStep 3
F5 Certified Solution Expert (4xx)
The architecture level. The 401 Security Solution Expert requires the LTM Specialist and tests whether you can design complete, end-to-end F5 solutions across security, access, traffic management and cloud, rather than configure one module well.
There is no 401 course on this site. I hold the 401 and prepare candidates for it through 1:1 coaching.
1:1 coachingWhere to start.
New to F5: F5CAB, then 301a. Running BIG-IP already but uncertified: F5CAB is quicker than you think, then the Specialist for the module you own. Already a Specialist: the next module, or coaching toward the 401.
See the courses