So I passed last Tuesday and I'm still kind of in shock. Failed my first attempt back in February with a 68% — missed passing by seven points — and it was genuinely demoralizing. I'd been a Palo Alto engineer for about three years at that point and figured I knew the platform well enough. Wrong.
What changed the second time around was being way more systematic. I went through the official blueprint topic by topic and was honest with myself about the gaps. Panorama and log forwarding were my weak spots, along with the finer details of App-ID and how it interacts with Security policy ordering. I also used a PCNSE practice test bank regularly in the last four weeks — doing timed sets of 30 questions and reviewing every wrong answer instead of just grinding volume. That review step is what I'd been skipping before.
Happy to share my full breakdown if it helps anyone. What areas are people finding hardest right now? I know the exam content got updated not too long ago so curious if the topology/troubleshooting weight has shifted for others.