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30-day lab plan · 🕸️ Network Engineer

Become job-ready as anetwork engineer in 30 days.

One focused task a day, four weeks, ending with a portfolio and a mock interview. Built for students and engineers in India who learn by doing — about 2 hours a day on weekdays, a little more on weekends.

What you needInterview questions →Role path →
Your kit

Set up before day 1

A Cisco Packet Tracer or GNS3/EVE-NG lab, one old switch/router if you can get one, and our subnet calculator. Everything here is free or has a free tier; a laptop with 16 GB RAM is enough for most labs (32 GB for nested clusters).

  • Daily ruleFinish the task, write 5 lines of notes, commit to Git. Notes become your interview stories.
  • Weekend ruleDay 7 of each week is a review: redo the hardest task from memory.
  • Stuck rule30 minutes max, then ask in a community or our engineer network.
Week 1

Foundations & subnetting

  1. Day 1Install Packet Tracer/GNS3; build a 2-switch, 1-router topology
  2. Day 2Subnetting drills: 20 problems/day with our subnet calculator to verify
  3. Day 3Configure VLANs and a trunk; test inter-VLAN routing (router-on-a-stick)
  4. Day 4DHCP and DNS on the router; capture a DHCP exchange in Wireshark
  5. Day 5Static routes between two routers; traceroute each hop
  6. Day 6ACLs: block one subnet from another; document the rule order
  7. Day 7Review day: redraw the topology from memory; write a one-page summary
Week 2

Routing & switching

  1. Day 8OSPF between three routers; watch neighbour states
  2. Day 9OSPF areas and a stub area; compare routing tables
  3. Day 10Basic eBGP between two ASNs; advertise and filter a prefix
  4. Day 11STP: create a loop, observe blocking, enable RSTP and PortFast
  5. Day 12LACP port-channel between switches; fail a link and measure
  6. Day 13HSRP/VRRP gateway redundancy; failover test
  7. Day 14Review: troubleshoot three faults you inject into the lab
Week 3

Security & services

  1. Day 15Zone-based or pfSense/OPNsense firewall: NAT + rules for a web server
  2. Day 16Site-to-site IPsec between two pfSense VMs
  3. Day 17NTP, syslog, SNMP to a Zabbix/LibreNMS VM; see interfaces graphed
  4. Day 18802.1X basics with FreeRADIUS (or theory + MAB)
  5. Day 19Wireless: controller/AP concepts; design a 3-floor office WLAN on paper
  6. Day 20QoS: mark and prioritise a VoIP class; verify with ping under load
  7. Day 21Review: write the security checklist for a branch router
Week 4

Automation & portfolio

  1. Day 22Install Ansible; back up configs from lab devices
  2. Day 23Jinja2 template a VLAN config; push to two switches
  3. Day 24NetBox: model your lab (sites, racks, devices, IPs)
  4. Day 25Python + Netmiko script that audits NTP on all devices
  5. Day 26Write a MOP for a core switch replacement with rollback
  6. Day 27Mock interview: 20 questions from our bank, out loud
  7. Day 28Publish the lab repo + diagrams on GitHub; update your resume (use our builder)
After day 30

What you will have

  • A portfolio repoDiagrams, configs, scripts and runbooks a hiring manager can read in five minutes.
  • Interview storiesReal faults you fixed — the answers to “tell me about a time…”.
  • A certification targetSee the role path for which exam to book next.
  • A place in our networkFinish the plan, share the repo, and apply — we mentor and place engineers who complete it.

Finished the plan? Show us.

Share your repo and notes; completed plans get a technical conversation with our architects and first paid tasks through the engineer network.

Apply to the networkPractice interview questions