How to Pass the VCP-VCF Administrator Exam (2V0-17.25): A 4-Week Plan

About 40 hours over four weeks, planned against the published sections of the exam guide. As of October 2026, Broadcom lists the VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Administrator exam, code 2V0-17.25, at 250 USD, 60 questions in 135 minutes, with a passing score of 300 on a scaled range. It is delivered through Pearson VUE in English and Japanese.

First, make sure you are studying for the right exam. The current VCP-VCF Administrator requirement is 2V0-17.25. The 2V0-13.x codes are the Architect track (currently 2V0-13.25), and 2V0-11.25 was the VCF 5.2 Administrator exam, which Broadcom retired on December 15, 2025. The exam guide was last updated April 23, 2026.

Second, a caveat on weighting. Broadcom does not publish percentage weights for the VCF exam sections. Two of the four sections in the guide have no testable objectives at all. So this plan is built by section and by the number of objectives in each, which is the best proxy available. Where AWS and NVIDIA plans can track percentages, this one cannot, and I would rather say so than make one up.

Before week one: read the guide, then get a lab

Download the exam guide PDF from Broadcom’s docs site. The minimally qualified candidate it describes has at least a year in IT, a foundational knowledge of Kubernetes, and at least six months hands-on with VCF or its components, and the objectives are written at that level. The guide also says the content is based on VCF 9.0 and tells you to review the 9.0 release notes.

Exam guide section	Testable objectives	Plan hours
1: IT Architectures, Technologies, Standards	None	0
2: VMware Cloud Foundation Fundamentals	Yes (weight not published)	8
3: Plan and Design the VMware by Broadcom Solution	None	0
4: Deploy, Configure, and Operate VCF	Yes (weight not published)	24

That is 32 hours on the two testable sections plus about 8 hours of lab drills and practice in week 4.

You need a lab. VCF is not an exam you pass from documentation, and the objectives in Section 4 are things you do, not things you know. Broadcom’s recommended courses, VCF: Build, Manage, and Secure and VCF: Automate and Operate, are one structured route, so check that your delivery option includes lab access. If you cannot take them, get hands-on access to a VCF 9.0 environment some other way before week two.

Week 1: VCF fundamentals (about 8 hours)

Section 2 is the architecture vocabulary that every Section 4 question assumes.

Private cloud basics (the principles, use cases and value the guide lists), then the management domain versus workload domains, and what lives in each.
Compute: deploying and configuring vCenter and ESX, configuring a vSphere cluster, and deploying and managing virtual machines.
Storage fundamentals: vSAN ESA versus OSA, storage policies, resilience and space efficiency.
Networking: the VCF networking components, and how to configure virtual networking fabrics, connectivity and routing, and networking services.

Write the reference architecture from memory by Friday, with every component and which domain it belongs to.

Weeks 2 and 3: deploy, configure and operate (about 24 hours)

Section 4 holds most of the objectives. Spend two full weeks here, in the lab, working through the objectives in the guide in order.

Week 2: deploy and configure. The components and deployment models of VCF, deploying a VCF-based private cloud and its additional components, VCF Networking and the VCF Network Gateway, creating a workload domain and configuring its storage, and configuring Supervisor in a workload domain.
Week 3: manage, operate and automate. Fleet management in VCF Operations, identity and role-based access, license, certificate and password management, importing an existing vCenter, and lifecycle management. Then VCF Operations: views, reports, dashboards, alerts, logs, health and diagnostics, policies, compliance and configuration drift. Then VCF Automation: regions, organizations and tenancy, networking, content, extensibility and governance policies.

For every objective, do the task once in the lab and write down the three things that can go wrong. Multiple-selection questions reward knowing exactly those failure modes.

Week 4: drills and a timed run (about 8 hours)

Go back through the Section 4 objectives and redo the ones you could not do without a doc open. Then take a timed 60-question practice set in 135 minutes. That is 2 minutes 15 seconds per question, which is generous, so use the time to reread the multiple-selection stems and confirm how many answers they want.

Exam day

Pearson VUE, proctored, at a test center or online through OnVUE. For online delivery, run Pearson’s system test well before exam day and expect identity and room checks at check-in: a government photo ID matching your registration name, a cleared desk and a single monitor. Pearson’s Broadcom exam page has the current OnVUE rules.

Formats are multiple choice and multiple-choice multiple-selection. The pass mark is 300 on a scaled score; Broadcom does not publish a percentage equivalent.

If you fail, the Broadcom certification FAQ sets a 7-day wait between attempts. Retake pricing is not published separately; the standard exam fee is 250 USD. There are no prerequisite courses for VCP exams. The certification is valid for 3 years from the issue date. Our VCP-VCF Administrator exam cost breakdown has the full numbers.

What the unpublished weights mean for you

Without percentages, you cannot triage. Treat every Section 4 objective as equally likely, because as far as anyone outside Broadcom knows, it is. Two weeks in a lab across all of Section 4, not one week on the parts you already do at work, is the plan.

Drill it week by week

Free VCP-VCF Administrator practice questions, mapped to the official exam guide objectives, with a plain-English explanation on every one.

Free practice questions →

Keep reading: VCP-VCF Administrator study guide · All AI & cloud exam prep

HOW TO // AI is not affiliated with or endorsed by Broadcom. VMware, VMware Cloud Foundation, VCP-VCF and Broadcom are trademarks of Broadcom Inc. or its subsidiaries; we reference them descriptively. All content is original. Exam details come from Broadcom’s official pages as of October 2026 and can change, so check the official VCP-VCF Administrator page before you book.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the passing score for 2V0-17.25?

300 on Broadcom's scaled score. Broadcom does not publish a percentage equivalent, so aim to be solid on every objective in the exam guide rather than on a target percentage.

Do I need to take a course before the VCP-VCF Administrator exam?

No. Broadcom's certification FAQ says no prerequisites are required for VCP exams. It recommends two courses, VMware Cloud Foundation: Build, Manage, and Secure and VMware Cloud Foundation: Automate and Operate, but they are optional.

Is 2V0-17.25 based on VCF 9?

Yes. The exam is VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Administrator, and the exam guide says its content is based on VCF 9.0. Study 9.0 documentation and release notes, not VCF 5.2 material.

How long do I wait to retake 2V0-17.25 if I fail?

Seven days, per Broadcom's retake policy. Each attempt is paid at the standard exam fee, which is 250 USD as of October 2026.