SRA Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify

What "Qualifying" for Nokia SRA Actually Means

Nokia Service Routing Architect (SRA) is a multi-exam certification governed by Nokia. It is distinct from the NRS I and NRS II credentials, and it sits above them in terms of scope. Unlike a single-sitting exam, SRA has no one "entry test." Instead, you qualify by completing a defined set of written exams and then clearing a hands-on practical lab. There is no single overall exam fee, no single question count and no single duration that describes the whole certification, so any article that quotes one set of numbers for "the SRA exam" is oversimplifying.

This guide focuses on requirements: which exams must be passed, in what role each plays, what has been removed from the path, and how the transition rules work. If you are earlier in the process and still deciding whether the credential suits you, start with What Is SRA Certification? and then return here. For a topic-by-topic breakdown of the content itself, see the SRA Exam Domains guide.

The Current Route: Five Written Exams Plus One Practical Lab

Effective September 8, 2026, the current route to SRA consists of five written exams followed by one practical assessment. The written exams map directly to five service-routing subject areas, and the practical lab then tests your ability to design, build and troubleshoot live networks using that knowledge.

Because each written exam is a separate assessment, there is no uniform question count or time limit to cite across the set. A current scored/unscored item split and a published pass rate are also not established for these exams in the reviewed sources. If you want to understand how the practical component affects difficulty, read How Hard Is the SRA Exam?, and for the data question see SRA Pass Rate: What the Data Shows.

Prerequisites That No Longer Apply

The single most common source of confusion is outdated prerequisite information. Under the September 8, 2026 update, several items that older material treated as required are no longer part of the current requirement set:

• Separate IS-IS/OSPF exam: no longer required as its own exam.
• Separate MPLS exam: no longer required as its own exam.
• Separate Services Architecture exam: no longer required as its own exam.
• Multicast 4A0-108: retired; it is not a current SRA requirement.

Removing those standalone exams does not make the underlying knowledge irrelevant. IGP behavior, MPLS label signaling and service architecture concepts still underpin BGP, VPLS, VPRN and EVPN work. They simply are not separate gates anymore. Many candidates will still benefit from revisiting that material as background, particularly before the lab, which expects you to configure and verify services end to end.

The 4A0-C02 Composite Option

Nokia offers an optional composite exam, 4A0-C02. Its role is narrowly defined: it substitutes for only four of the written exams, 4A0-102, 4A0-105, 4A0-106 and 4A0-107. Understanding its limits matters, because it is easy to assume a composite covers the whole written portion.

In practice, a composite-route candidate still sits the EVPN written exam and the 7-hour lab. Whether the composite is the better choice depends on how you prefer to be assessed and how you plan your preparation, not on any reduction in what you must ultimately know. The composite does not appear to lighten the practical requirement in any way. For cost-related planning around either route, see the SRA certification cost breakdown, and note that no single overall exam fee is established for the certification as a whole.

What Each Written Exam Expects You to Know

Meeting the requirements means passing exams whose content is substantial and highly specific to Nokia 7750 SR service routing. The six groups below organize preparation topics from the issuer-linked written exams and the separately published lab scope. They are unweighted preparation groups, not a single weighted blueprint, so do not assume any topic carries a particular percentage of marks.

For a prioritization approach across these groups, the SRA study guide walks through how to pace them, and the SRA cheat sheet compresses the most testable facts into a quick review.

Lab Eligibility and the 7-Hour Practical

The practical lab, ASRA4A0, is the final requirement and the one that distinguishes SRA from a purely written credential. You must design and implement live 7750 SR service networks, interoperate, diagnose performance issues and resolve faults, using either classic CLI or MD-CLI.

Format of the practical

• It runs for 7 hours in total, split into two independent 3.5-hour sections, excluding a 1-hour lunch.
• Topics must be both configured and verified; building something that you cannot demonstrate working is not enough.
• Not every topic in the published scope necessarily appears on a given sitting.
• It is a practical assessment, so there is no multiple-choice item count to quote.
• Nokia states the lab content is unchanged, even though the surrounding prerequisite path was restructured.

Published practical scope

The lab scope spans BGP, QoS, VPLS and VPRN, mirroring the written subject areas but demanding hands-on execution:

• BGP: AS peering, messages and attributes, reflectors and confederations, advertisement and redistribution, selection, policy and regular expressions, advertise-external, add-paths and FRR.
• QoS: classification, queues and buffers, policing and shaping, scheduling and rate limits, hierarchical and egress scheduling, CFHP, marking, and application to Layer-2 and Layer-3 services.
• VPLS: SAP encapsulation and forwarding, MTU, FDB size and alarms, MAC aging/learning/discard, protection and OAM, BGP autodiscovery, BGP VPLS and LDP VPLS, STP/M-VPLS-RSTP, MC-LAG, pseudowire resilience, and H-VPLS and PBB scale.
• VPRN: MPLS/MP-BGP label signaling, RD/RT, VRF import/export, route selection, full-mesh, hub-spoke and extranet topologies, Internet access, static/OSPF/BGP PE-CE routing, and inter-AS A/B/C.

Transition Rules for Previously Eligible Candidates

If you had already become eligible for the lab under the earlier prerequisite structure, the September 8, 2026 change does not strip that status. Nokia announced that previously lab-eligible candidates retain that eligibility under the transition. This protects people mid-journey from having a completed prerequisite chain invalidated by the restructure.

If you are in this position, keep any records of your completed exams and verify your standing directly with Nokia before scheduling. Because the lab page still displays the superseded prerequisites, it can be unclear whether your history satisfies the current table; confirming the details with the issuer avoids a scheduling surprise.

Experience, Training and Recommended Background

Nokia's course prerequisites are preparation recommendations, not additional SRA examination requirements. Training is not mandatory to attempt the examinations. You can, in principle, self-study and sit the exams without attending any Nokia course. That said, the content is dense, and many candidates use official courses and lab time to build the configuration fluency the practical demands. For options and trade-offs, see the SRA training overview.

No formal years-of-experience threshold is established in the reviewed sources, so avoid claiming one. What the content does imply is a practical background:

• Comfort with IP routing fundamentals and an IGP, even though IS-IS/OSPF is no longer a separate exam.
• Working knowledge of MPLS label signaling, since VPLS, VPRN and EVPN all depend on it.
• Familiarity with Nokia SR OS configuration, in classic CLI, MD-CLI or both.
• Hands-on access to a lab environment (physical or virtual) for repetition.

Who benefits from the credential? Roles in service-provider and large-enterprise network engineering, design and operations are the natural fit. For a view of the employer landscape, see SRA jobs, and to weigh the commitment against the payoff, read Is the SRA Certification Worth It? and the SRA salary guide.

Sequencing Your Exams Around the Requirements

Nothing in the reviewed sources mandates an order for the written exams, so you can sequence them to suit your background. A sensible approach is to let dependencies guide you: BGP underpins VPRN and EVPN control-plane behavior, and VPLS concepts feed into EVPN's Layer-2 services. QoS is largely independent, which makes it a flexible slot. The lab comes last because it assumes mastery across the board.

To test where you stand before booking, work through original scenario questions on the SRA practice test site. These are supplemental study materials with no issuer endorsement, no real exam questions and no guaranteed results, but they help expose weak domains early. When you are ready to plan dates, the SRA exam dates guide covers scheduling, and SRA passing score addresses what is and is not published about scoring. You can return to the main practice hub at any point to drill individual domains.

Frequently Asked Questions