- What the Cisco SMBE (700-750) Actually Is
- Exam Format, Fee, and Delivery Mechanics
- The Eleven Exam Objectives and Their Weights
- What Candidates Must Master by Domain
- Working With an Open-Book, Non-Proctored Exam
- Who Benefits From This Certification
- Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Weights
- What Cisco Does Not Publish
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Cisco 700-750 SMBE costs USD $80 plus tax, runs 90 minutes, and is a self-administered, non-proctored, open-book online exam.
- Eleven objectives: nine carry 10% each, while Exploring Platforms and Understanding BVDs carry 5% each.
- Each purchase gives one attempt, which must be completed within two days; closing the browser pauses the clock.
- A failed attempt requires a 48-hour wait before retesting; Cisco does not publish a passing score.
What the Cisco SMBE (700-750) Actually Is
The acronym SMBE is used by more than one credential in the wider market, so precision matters from the first sentence. On this site, SMBE means exactly one thing: the Cisco Small and Medium Business Engineer (SMBE) exam, exam code 700-750, associated with the Cisco Small and Medium Business Engineer Specialization. It sits in Cisco's 700-series family of exams, which are priced and positioned for channel-partner engineers who need to demonstrate they can position and design Cisco solutions for smaller organizations.
If you are still orienting yourself on terminology, our explainers on what SMBE certification is and what SMBE stands for cover the naming, while this article focuses on the exam itself: what it tests, how it is delivered, and how to prepare for it sensibly.
The defining characteristic of this credential is its scope. Rather than drilling into a single protocol stack, the exam objectives span the full small and medium business (SMB) story: partnership with Cisco, workspaces, hybrid and remote work, security, simplified IT operations, application performance, platforms, business value demonstrations, and engineering programs. That breadth is what makes preparation for the Cisco SMBE (700-750) feel different from a deep technical certification.
Exam Format, Fee, and Delivery Mechanics
The logistics of this exam are unusual compared with many Cisco assessments, and misunderstanding them is the most common avoidable mistake. Here is what the reviewed Cisco and Pearson VUE sources establish.
| Attribute | Cisco SMBE (700-750) |
|---|---|
| Exam code | 700-750 SMBE |
| Delivery provider | Pearson VUE |
| Fee | USD $80 plus tax (Cisco 700-series channel-partner exam rate) |
| Duration | 90 minutes |
| Languages | English and Japanese |
| Format | Self-administered, non-proctored, open-book, online |
| Attempts per purchase | One, completed within two days |
| Pause behavior | Closing the browser pauses the exam clock |
| Retake wait after a fail | 48 hours |
The two-day window and the pause rule
Your purchase opens a two-day delivery window. You get a single attempt inside it. If you close the browser mid-exam, the exam clock pauses rather than running down, but resumption must still fall inside the two-day window and within whatever exam time you have left. Treat the 90 minutes as a budget that pauses but does not reset. Plan to start when you can finish in one sitting, and reserve the pause for genuine interruptions rather than strategy.
Fee mechanics
The $80 figure is the Cisco 700-series channel-partner exam rate, listed before tax. For a fuller breakdown of what else might touch your budget, including preparation materials and retake costs, see our SMBE certification cost guide. Scheduling specifics and the practical meaning of the purchase window are covered in SMBE exam dates and scheduling.
The Eleven Exam Objectives and Their Weights
Cisco publishes a two-page exam-objective outline for the 700-750 with eleven headings and stated weights. The distribution is unusually flat: nine of the eleven headings carry the same 10% weight, and two carry 5%. That flatness is the single most important structural fact for planning, because no one domain lets you coast and no one domain can be safely ignored.
| # | Exam Objective | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Partnership Opportunities with Cisco | 10% |
| 2 | Enabling People, Enhancing Workspaces | 10% |
| 3 | Exploring SMB Experiences | 10% |
| 4 | Navigating Hybrid Workforce Experiences | 10% |
| 5 | Adapting to Remote Workforce Experiences | 10% |
| 6 | Securing the Modern Workplace | 10% |
| 7 | Implementing SMART IT | 10% |
| 8 | Enhancing Application Performance | 10% |
| 9 | Exploring Platforms | 5% |
| 10 | Understanding Business Value Demonstrations (BVDs) | 5% |
| 11 | Introducing Engineering Programs | 10% |
Two cautions from Cisco's own framing are worth internalizing. First, Cisco describes these objectives as guidelines, allows related topics to appear, and reserves the right to change them. Second, the headings are exam-objective weights, not allocations of time within the preparation course. Do not assume that a 10% objective maps to 10% of the course content. For a heading-by-heading walkthrough, see our complete guide to all 11 SMBE content areas.
What Candidates Must Master by Domain
The headings are titles of themes rather than itemized topic lists, so the descriptions below explain what each theme asks a candidate to be able to discuss and apply. Use them as orientation, then verify details against Cisco's objective PDF and the official course.
Partnership Opportunities with Cisco (10%)
This objective is about the relationship between a reseller or partner and Cisco, and how that relationship creates opportunity in the SMB segment.
- Be able to explain why a partner would engage with Cisco's SMB offerings and what the engagement unlocks.
- Understand how partner-oriented programs relate to the 700-series engineer credentials.
- Remember that partner-organization renewal is separate from individual exam status.
Enabling People, Enhancing Workspaces (10%)
Focuses on how technology supports employees in the physical and collaborative workplace.
- Connect workspace technology choices to employee productivity and experience outcomes.
- Be ready to frame solutions in terms an SMB owner values, not only in feature language.
Exploring SMB Experiences (10%)
Looks at what small and medium businesses actually need, the constraints they operate under, and how their priorities differ from large enterprises.
- Understand typical SMB limits on staff, budget, and IT depth.
- Practice matching customer scenarios to appropriate solution categories.
Navigating Hybrid and Adapting to Remote Workforce Experiences (10% each)
Two separate 10% objectives cover mixed office-and-home work and fully remote work. Treat them as distinct: hybrid emphasizes consistency between locations, while remote emphasizes secure, dependable access for dispersed staff.
- Distinguish hybrid scenarios from fully remote ones when reading a customer situation.
- Know which kinds of solutions address each, and why the requirements differ.
Securing the Modern Workplace (10%)
Security for an environment where users, devices, and applications are no longer confined to one building.
- Understand security as a layered answer to distributed work.
- Be able to relate security capabilities to common SMB risk concerns in plain business terms.
Implementing SMART IT (10%)
Addresses simplified, manageable IT operations suited to organizations without large IT teams.
- Focus on simplicity, manageability, and operational efficiency as selling and design themes.
- Expect scenario framing where the lean-IT constraint drives the right answer.
Enhancing Application Performance (10%)
Concerns how the network and supporting infrastructure influence the experience of business applications.
- Link application experience to connectivity and infrastructure choices.
- Be comfortable explaining performance in business-impact terms.
Exploring Platforms (5%) and Understanding Business Value Demonstrations (BVDs) (5%)
These are the two lighter objectives, but they should not be skipped. Platforms covers the Cisco offerings a partner builds solutions on; BVDs covers demonstrating value to a customer in business terms.
- Know the platform landscape well enough to place a solution on the right one.
- Understand why a value demonstration is a structured activity with a business purpose, not an informal demo.
Introducing Engineering Programs (10%)
Covers the programs and pathways available to engineers working in this space, including how the SMB specialization fits in.
- Understand where the credential sits in Cisco's engineer-oriented program structure.
- Be able to explain how the exam relates to the specialization it is associated with.
The official preparation resource is Cisco's Small and Medium Business - Technical course. Our SMBE training overview explains how to approach it alongside other materials, and the SMBE study guide lays out a full preparation plan.
Working With an Open-Book, Non-Proctored Exam
Because the exam is open-book and self-administered, the skill being tested is not recall under pressure. It is the ability to read a scenario correctly, locate the relevant reference quickly, and apply it. That changes how you should prepare.
Practical approach for a reference-assisted exam
- Build a personal index of the eleven objective headings so you can jump straight to the relevant notes for any scenario.
- Prepare short comparison notes for similar-sounding concepts, such as hybrid versus remote workforce scenarios, since these are easy to blur under time pressure.
- Work through practice questions on our SMBE practice test site without leaning on your notes first, then check which items you needed to look up. Those are your true weak points.
- Set a mental per-question pace early, and flag slow questions to revisit rather than burning time on them.
Question count is not established by the reviewed exact-exam sources, so avoid planning around a specific number of items. Plan around the 90-minute budget instead.
Who Benefits From This Certification
The 700-series positioning, the channel-partner exam rate, and the "Partnership Opportunities with Cisco" and "Introducing Engineering Programs" objectives all point the same direction: this credential is built for people who work in or alongside Cisco's partner ecosystem and sell, design, or support solutions for smaller organizations.
- Partner pre-sales and systems engineers who need to demonstrate competency in the SMB segment for their organization's standing with Cisco.
- Solution architects and technical consultants at resellers and managed service providers serving small and mid-sized customers.
- Engineers moving into SMB-focused roles who want a structured, affordable way to show they understand the segment's priorities.
For a look at roles that value this background, see our overview of SMBE-related jobs. Compensation depends heavily on region, employer, and role, and we avoid quoting unsupported figures; our salary guide and ROI analysis discuss the trade-offs qualitatively. Before you commit, check the SMBE requirements guide for eligibility and prerequisite details.
One point on renewal that trips people up: partner-organization renewal is a separate matter from your individual exam status, and no exact individual renewal interval is asserted in the sources reviewed here. Confirm current rules directly with Cisco rather than assuming.
Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Weights
With nine objectives at 10% each, the useful question is not "which domain is biggest" but "which order builds understanding fastest." The following sequence groups related objectives so each week reinforces the next. It is a template, so adjust it to your experience and the time you have.
Foundation: context and customer
- Partnership Opportunities with Cisco and Introducing Engineering Programs, to understand the ecosystem the exam assumes.
- Exploring SMB Experiences, to internalize the customer lens that frames every later objective.
The workforce objectives
- Enabling People, Enhancing Workspaces.
- Navigating Hybrid and Adapting to Remote Workforce Experiences, studied back to back so you can compare them directly.
Technical depth
- Securing the Modern Workplace.
- Implementing SMART IT and Enhancing Application Performance.
Platforms, value, and rehearsal
- Exploring Platforms and Understanding BVDs: lighter weight, but quick wins.
- Timed practice within a 90-minute budget, then targeted review of anything you had to look up.
For a compact reference to revisit during review, our SMBE cheat sheet condenses the must-know facts, and the difficulty guide helps you calibrate how much preparation time you realistically need.
Key Takeaway
Because the weights are nearly uniform, a weak spot in any single 10% objective costs you as much as a weak spot in any other. Spread your effort evenly first, then deepen the areas where practice questions expose gaps.
What Cisco Does Not Publish
Being honest about unknowns is part of preparing well. From the exact-exam sources reviewed for this article:
- Passing score: Cisco does not publish passing scores. See our note on the SMBE passing score for how to think about this.
- Question count: not established by the reviewed sources.
- Pass rate: not established either; our pass rate article explains what can and cannot be said.
- Objective stability: Cisco may change the exam objectives, and the current outline carries 2019 and 2023 copyright footers, so verify you are reading the latest version before you study.
Any site that quotes a precise pass rate or cut score for this exam is going beyond what the public Cisco documentation supports. Treat such claims with caution, including on third-party forums.
Frequently Asked Questions
The exam is USD $80 plus tax under Cisco's 700-series channel-partner exam rate. Delivery is through Pearson VUE. Costs for preparation materials or retakes are separate; see the cost breakdown for details.
The exam runs 90 minutes and is self-administered, non-proctored, and open-book, taken online. Each purchase allows one attempt, which must be completed within two days. If you close the browser, the clock pauses, but you must resume within the two-day window and your remaining time.
You must wait 48 hours before retesting. Cisco does not publish passing scores, so use the 48 hours to review the objectives where you felt least confident rather than trying to infer a cut score.
Nearly. Nine objectives carry 10% each, while Exploring Platforms and Understanding Business Value Demonstrations (BVDs) carry 5% each, totaling 100%. Cisco notes these are guidelines, may include related topics, and may change, and they are not preparation-course allocations.
Cisco lists "Small and Medium Business - Technical" as the official preparation. Pair it with Cisco's exam-objective PDF and timed practice, such as the questions on our practice test platform, to confirm you can apply the material within the 90-minute limit.