Palo Alto Certified Network Security Analyst

How I Got the New Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Analyst Cert (Without Taking the Exam!)

In this video, I share my journey to achieving the new Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Analyst certification but with a twist: I didn’t earn it by passing the test. Instead, I was selected to help write the exam!

This was my first specialist cert in Palo Alto’s new certification framework, and it dives deep into how to secure traffic with the firewall from object creation, security profiles and policies, decryption, and NAT, to working with Strata Cloud Manager (unlike the NGFW Engineer, which focuses on Panorama and device setup). I’ll explain the key differences between the NetSec Analyst and NGFW Engineer certs, and why the Analyst is much more technical than the generalist cert.

I also take you behind the scenes of my adventure helping develop the test:
✅ Traveling to our office in Plano, Texas to collaborate with 7 other brilliant SMEs
✅ Learning how we write realistic distractors (the tempting wrong answers!)
✅ How every question is backed by official docs no Reddit answers here!
✅ Why Bloom’s Taxonomy matters for writing meaningful, scenario-based questions

You’ll see clips from my time in Texas and a quick montage of some fun moments there, too.

If you’re curious about how Palo Alto’s exams get created and want me to bring someone from our education team onto the channel for a deeper dive, drop a comment below. I’d love to make that happen!

📌 Whether you’re planning to take the NetSec Analyst or NGFW Engineer exam, or you just want to know what really goes into writing a world-class cert, this video’s for you.