What Is 4A0-107?

What 4A0-107 Actually Is

4A0-107 is the exam code for Nokia Quality of Service, a written certification exam from Nokia's Service Routing Certification (SRC) program. The program was built under the Alcatel-Lucent name, and Nokia inherited it, which is why you will still see both brands in forum threads and older study notes. The exam tests whether you understand how QoS works on Nokia service routing platforms: how traffic is classified, how it is queued and policed, how bandwidth is shared across a hierarchy, and how packets are marked and remarked as they cross network boundaries.

This is a vendor-specific, networking-specific exam. The acronym "4A0-107" refers to this Nokia exam only, so if you have seen the same code attached to another credential elsewhere, set that material aside. Everything on this page, and everything you should study for this exam, concerns Nokia QoS.

If you want the shorter definitional versions of this topic, our pages on the meaning of 4A0-107 and what 4A0-107 stands for cover the naming question quickly. This article goes further into what the exam contains and how it fits into a career path.

Where It Sits in the Nokia SRC Program

Nokia's SRC program is a ladder of certifications for service provider and enterprise IP/MPLS engineers. Individual written exams feed into larger credentials. 4A0-107 is one of the written exams that earns credit toward the Service Routing Architect (SRA) certification. It is also an accepted renewal option for NRS I, NRS II, and SRA holders who need to recertify.

That distinction matters when you are explaining your result to a manager or recruiter. "I passed Nokia QoS (4A0-107)" is accurate. "I am an SRA" is not, unless you have completed the remaining requirements. For the full picture of how credit accumulates, see our guide to the 4A0-107 certification.

Exam Format, Fee, and Delivery

The logistics are straightforward and worth knowing before you book:

Two details trip people up. First, the 110-minute appointment is not 110 minutes of testing. The 20-minute introductory survey comes first, and the clock on your 90 minutes of actual questions starts afterward. Second, the fee is per sitting, so the retake policy affects your budget. Our certification cost breakdown walks through the arithmetic, and the exam dates and scheduling guide covers booking mechanics.

On the pass mark: no official passing percentage or pass-rate statistic was verified in the public sources Nokia provides. Our pages on the passing score and pass-rate data explain what is and is not known. The practical takeaway is to aim for comfortable mastery of the material rather than a target percentage.

The Five Preparation Modules

Nokia does not publish a weighted blueprint for this exam. Instead, the exam page points candidates to the objectives and modules of the Nokia Quality of Service course (course code 3FL30639AAAAZZZZA). That curriculum has five headings. They are unweighted, and they do not establish exhaustive exam coverage or an official domain count, so treat them as the authoritative map of what to prepare rather than a promise of exact question distribution.

For a deeper walk through each area, read our complete guide to the 4A0-107 content areas.

What the Questions Feel Like

All 40 questions are multiple-choice and written. There is no simulation or hands-on component in the exam itself. But "written" does not mean "recall only." QoS questions tend to reward candidates who can reason through behavior, such as predicting what happens to a packet given a classification rule, a queue configuration, and a congestion condition. Expect scenarios where you must trace a packet through several stages: classified into a class, placed in a queue, policed or scheduled, then marked on the way out.

That tracing skill is what separates people who memorized definitions from people who understand the system. Because the current course cases and labs use MD-CLI, Nokia's model-driven command-line interface, it helps to be comfortable reading MD-CLI-style configuration even though you will not be typing commands on the exam. Being able to look at a configuration snippet and say what it does is a recurring skill in this kind of certification.

Course, Lab, and Written Exam: Three Different Things

Candidates often blur three separate activities, and the confusion costs people time and money.

• The preparation course: a four-day Nokia Quality of Service course. Optional. It teaches the material the exam draws on.
• The written exam: 4A0-107 itself, 90 minutes, 40 multiple-choice questions. This is what the fee buys.
• The SRA practical lab: a separate seven-hour hands-on lab that is part of the SRA path. It is not the written exam and is not part of 4A0-107.

There are no mandatory exam prerequisites. Course prerequisites exist, but they are preparation guidance for taking the training, not gates on sitting the exam. If you want the full eligibility picture, see the requirements guide, and for the training side specifically, our page on 4A0-107 training options.

Validity, Recertification, and the 2026/27 Program Update

SRC certifications are valid for three years, and recertification is available up to six months after expiry, before the certification is terminated. 4A0-107 is an accepted renewal option for NRS I, NRS II, and SRA. Note that these are credential-maintenance rules, not a separately established expiry on the exam credit itself, so avoid describing the exam score as "expiring in three years."

Nokia has also announced changes to the SRC program for 2026/27. Its September 8, 2026 update reduces the SRA written requirements from eight exams to five, and it retains 4A0-107. The practical lab is unchanged. In plain terms, QoS remains part of the SRA route even as the surrounding structure is streamlined. Because program rules change, confirm current requirements on Nokia's official SRC pages before committing to a plan.

Who Should Take It and Who Hires for It

The natural audience is engineers who design, deploy, or operate Nokia service routing networks, particularly in service provider environments where multiple customers and service types share infrastructure. QoS is where those networks make good on commercial promises: voice that stays clear, business VPN traffic that gets its guaranteed rate, and best-effort traffic that does not starve its neighbors.

Employers that value this credential are typically those running Nokia IP/MPLS gear: telecom carriers, large network operators, systems integrators, and managed-service providers that deploy and support Nokia platforms. Relevant roles include network engineer, network architect, and pre-sales or post-sales engineer for Nokia routing solutions. The credential signals that you understand the QoS layer specifically, which is often the hardest part of service design to get right.

We deliberately avoid quoting pay figures here, because credible, exam-specific salary data is thin. For a candid discussion, see our salary analysis, our overview of roles connected to 4A0-107, and the ROI discussion if you are weighing the investment.

Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Modules

With no official weighting, the most defensible approach is to cover all five modules and invest extra where the material is conceptually densest. Queues and policers, and hierarchical bandwidth allocation, are usually where candidates need the most repetition, because they require you to reason about numbers and behavior under congestion. A sensible ordering follows the packet's journey.

The reasoning behind this order is that classification feeds queueing, queueing feeds the hierarchy, and marking is the final step, so each module builds on the last. Adjust the pacing to your experience. Someone who configures Nokia QoS daily may compress this considerably, while someone new to the platform should stretch it. For a fuller plan, see the 4A0-107 study guide, and keep the one-page cheat sheet handy for last-minute review. If you are unsure how much effort to budget, our piece on how hard the exam is sets expectations honestly.

Frequently Asked Questions