Fortinet NSE in 2026: what NSE 4 means now

Checked on 15 Oct 2026 against Fortinet and Pearson VUE pages. By Radhe, Ping My Lab.

Since 15 July 2026, NSE 4 is level 4 of Fortinet’s eight-level NSE programme, earned by passing one proctored exam: FortiOS Administrator. It has no prerequisite and stays active for two years. Fortinet has also listed a FortiOS 8.0 version of the exam.

01What changed on 15 July 2026

Fortinet moved the NSE programme from five certification levels to eight, NSE 1 to NSE 8. Every certification is now valid for two years.

Level	How you earn it	Prerequisite
NSE 1	Online course	None
NSE 2	Online course	None
NSE 3	Online course and online exam	None
NSE 4	One proctored exam: FortiOS Administrator	None
NSE 5	One proctored exam	NSE 4
NSE 6	One proctored exam	NSE 4
NSE 7	One proctored exam	NSE 4, and NSE 5 or 6 in the same track
NSE 8	A core practical exam and one elective practical exam	NSE 4, NSE 5 or 6, and NSE 7 in the same track

NSE 4 is the first level with a proctored exam, and every level above it needs NSE 4.

02What happened to FCF, FCA, FCP, FCSS and FCX

Fortinet stopped issuing FCF to FCX certificates after 15 July 2026. Existing ones stay valid until their expiry date. Anyone with an active certification on 15 July 2026 was awarded NSE levels.

Active on 15 Jul 2026	Awarded
FCF	NSE 1 and NSE 2
FCA	NSE 3
FCP	NSE 4, 5 or 6, by Fortinet’s 15 July mapping of your exams
FCSS	NSE 6 or 7, by the same mapping
FCX	NSE 8

Studying from older material? “FCP - FortiGate 7.6 Administrator” (FCP_FGT_AD-7.6) is the June 2025 edition of this exam. It listed SSL VPN and a separate Security Fabric task. The current objectives list neither, and add logging, FortiSASE and the public cloud. FortiOS 7.6.3 also removed SSL VPN tunnel mode.

03What NSE 4 requires now

One exam, Fortinet NSE 4 – FortiOS 7.6 Administrator, with no prerequisite. Fortinet recommends its FortiOS 7.6 Administrator course to prepare.

Item	FortiOS 7.6 Administrator exam
Written on	FortiOS 7.6.0
Questions	50 to 55
Time	100 minutes
Languages	English and Japanese
Result	Pass or fail. Fortinet does not publish the pass mark.
Where	A Pearson VUE test centre, or online with OnVUE
Suggested experience	1 to 2 years of networking, 0 to 1 year of network security, and 6 months hands-on with FortiGate
Exam code	Not shown by Fortinet or Pearson VUE. Check your booking screen.

Content inspection weighs most, at 25–30%. Routing and VPNs are 10–15% each. The lab map lists every domain and task.

04Validity and renewal

NSE 4 stays active for two years from the date of the exam.
To renew it, pass the next version of the NSE 4 exam. Or take Fortinet’s online recertification assessment, if one is available and your proctored exam is less than two years old.
Achieving or renewing NSE 7, or passing any NSE 8 practical exam, also renews NSE 4.
Earning or renewing NSE 4 recertifies your NSE 1, NSE 2 and NSE 3, if they are still active.
Fortinet renews only active certifications, so act before the two years end.
After a failed attempt, wait 15 days to retake. Once you pass a proctored Fortinet exam, you cannot take it again.

05FortiOS 7.6 now, FortiOS 8.0 next

The current NSE 4 exam is written on FortiOS 7.6.0. Answer for 7.6.0, because later 7.6 patches changed some behaviour.

Fortinet’s release notices (17 Sep 2026) list “NSE 4 - FortiOS 8.0 Administrator” for early October 2026. They say an older exam usually stays available for about four months after its replacement launches.

On 15 Oct 2026, Fortinet’s exam page still showed the 7.6 exam as available and the 8.0 exam as coming soon. If you studied on 7.6, book the 7.6 exam. Check its last delivery date in the release notices first.

06How to book

Sign in or create an account through Pearson VUE’s Fortinet page. Choose a test centre or OnVUE online proctoring.
Pick Fortinet NSE 4 – FortiOS 7.6 Administrator, and check that the title says FortiOS 7.6.
For OnVUE, run Pearson’s system test on the PC and network you will use. Sit alone in a quiet room with a clear desk.
Bring a photo ID with your name exactly as booked.
Reschedule or cancel a test-centre appointment up to 24 hours ahead, in your Pearson VUE account.
At the start, accept Fortinet’s non-disclosure agreement within five minutes. Otherwise the exam ends and you lose the fee.

NSE 4 stays available at test centres and on OnVUE. Only the NSE 7 exams moved to test centres only, from 21 Sep 2026.

The NSE 4 fee is USD 210 plus tax from 2 November 2026. Registrations made before that date pay USD 200 plus tax.

07Exam areas mapped to the labs

Every official task of the FortiOS 7.6 exam, and the labs in Ping My Lab’s FortiGate NSE 4 course that practise it. Lab 0 is the setup guide.

Official task	Labs
1 Deployment and system configuration20–25%
Perform initial configuration	0FortiGate-VM lab setup, licensing and the exam blueprint 1Initial configuration and administrative access 2Interfaces, zones, DHCP, static routes and the first policy B2Day-2 operations: upgrades, revisions, automation and monitoring
Configure log settings and diagnose problems using the logs	5Security Fabric and FortiAnalyzer logging
Configure an FGCP HA cluster	13FGCP high availability
Diagnose resource and connectivity problems	16Troubleshooting: sniffer, debug flow and the session table B2Day-2 operations
Describe FortiGate CNF and FortiGate VMs in the public cloud Explain FortiSASE administration and user onboarding methods	17FortiSASE and FortiGate in the public cloud (walkthrough)
2 Firewall policies and authentication20–25%
Configure firewall policies	2Interfaces, zones, DHCP, static routes and the first policy 3Firewall policy logic: policy lookup, ISDB, schedules and policy order
Configure SNAT and DNAT options in firewall policies	4NAT: IP pools, central SNAT, VIPs and hairpin NAT
Configure different methods of firewall authentication	6Firewall authentication: local, LDAP and RADIUS
Explain how to deploy and configure FSSO	7FSSO for Active Directory
3 Content inspection25–30%
Explain and inspect encrypted traffic using certificates	8Certificates and SSL/SSH inspection
Identify FortiGate inspection modes and configure web filtering Configure application control	9Web filtering and application control
Configure antivirus scanning modes Configure IPS	10Antivirus and IPS
4 Routing10–15%
Configure and route packets using static routes	11Static routing, policy-based routing and ECMP
Configure SD-WAN to load balance traffic between multiple WAN links	12SD-WAN: members, zones, performance SLAs and rules
5 VPNs10–15%
Implement a meshed or partially redundant IPsec VPN	14Site-to-site IPsec VPN: route-based and redundant 15Meshed and hub-and-spoke IPsec, and remote-access IPsec with FortiClient

The 7.6 exam does not test OSPF, BGP or VDOMs. The course still covers them in Lab 11B and Bonus Lab B1, because interviews and production networks do.

Sources

Every page below was opened and checked on 15 Oct 2026. Fees and rules change, so recheck them when you book.

NSE Certification Program update (Fortinet): levels, requirements, validity, recertification, FCF to FCX.
FortiOS Administrator exam page (Fortinet Training Institute): exam facts, the 8.0 exam’s status.
NSE 4 FortiOS certification page (Fortinet Training Institute): validity and renewal.
NSE Exam Release Notices (Fortinet helpdesk): the 8.0 exam, four months of overlap.
Changes to Exam Fees (Fortinet helpdesk, updated 5 Oct 2026): fees.
OnVUE Delivery notice (Fortinet helpdesk, 27 Aug 2026): delivery by level.
Exam Policy: Retake (Fortinet helpdesk): retake rules.
Pearson VUE: Fortinet NSE exams: rescheduling.
Pearson VUE: Fortinet: delivery options, the five-minute agreement.

The lab map, the older-edition note and the booking checklist come from Ping My Lab’s FortiOS 7.6 course kit. Its exam facts were checked on Fortinet and Pearson VUE pages on 29 Sep and 8 Oct 2026.