SC-200 Practice Test 2 — 25 Questions

Question 1

Which THREE data sources can be used in Microsoft Sentinel for threat hunting to detect unusual authentication patterns? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

SecurityEvent (Windows Event Logs). Option A, SecurityEvent (Windows Event Logs), is correct because it ingests Windows security events such as 4624, 4625, and 4648, which reveal logon successes, failures, and explicit credential use that are essential for spotting unusual authentication patterns on hosts. Option B, AADNonInteractiveUserSignInLogs, is correct because it captures non-interactive Microsoft Entra ID sign-ins (token, service principal, and client-credential flows) that often indicate anomalous or automated authentication activity missed by interactive-only logs. Option E, SigninLogs (Microsoft Entra ID), is correct because it records interactive Entra ID sign-in events with details like IP address, location, device, conditional access result, and risk level, directly supporting detection of unusual authentication behavior. Option C, CommonSecurityLog, is not among the marked answers because it primarily carries CEF-formatted data from third-party security appliances (firewalls, proxies, IDS/IPS) rather than identity authentication telemetry. Option D, OfficeActivity (Office 365), is not among the marked answers because it focuses on Office 365 workload operations such as file, mailbox, and admin activities, not core authentication sign-in patterns.

Answer

CommonSecurityLog

Answer

OfficeActivity (Office 365)

Question 2

Your organization uses Microsoft Defender XDR. The incident queue shows multiple alerts related to a single endpoint: malware detected, suspicious PowerShell execution, and data exfiltration attempts. The analyst needs to investigate the incident. Which tool should the analyst use to correlate these events?

Accepted Answer

Advanced hunting in Microsoft Defender XDR.. Advanced hunting in Microsoft Defender XDR allows the analyst to query across multiple data sources—including endpoint detection and response (EDR), identity, email, and cloud app data—using Kusto Query Language (KQL). This enables correlation of the malware detection, suspicious PowerShell execution, and data exfiltration alerts on the same device by joining tables such as DeviceEvents, DeviceProcessEvents, and DeviceNetworkEvents, providing a unified timeline of the attack chain.

Answer

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Explorer.

Answer

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps activity log.

Answer

Microsoft Sentinel incident workspace.

Question 3

A security analyst is investigating a phishing campaign using Microsoft 365 Defender advanced hunting. The analyst needs to find all emails sent from a specific sender address in the last 7 days. Which table should be queried?

Accepted Answer

EmailEvents. The EmailEvents table in Microsoft 365 Defender advanced hunting stores metadata about email messages, including sender addresses, recipients, timestamps, and delivery actions. To find all emails from a specific sender in the last 7 days, you query EmailEvents because it contains the 'SenderFromAddress' or 'SenderMailFromAddress' fields needed to filter by sender. The other tables focus on attachments, URLs, or device-level events, which are not relevant for identifying emails by sender address.

Answer

EmailAttachmentInfo

Answer

EmailUrlInfo

Answer

DeviceEvents

Question 4

Which THREE techniques are commonly used in Microsoft Sentinel threat hunting to identify command and control (C2) communication? (Select THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Detecting DNS tunneling. Detecting DNS tunneling (B) is correct because attackers frequently encode C2 data inside DNS queries and responses, and Sentinel hunting queries can flag anomalies such as high-entropy subdomains, excessive TXT/NULL record requests, or unusually long query names in DNS events. Analyzing network beaconing patterns (C) is correct because C2 implants typically check in at regular intervals, so hunting for periodic, low-volume outbound connections (for example, consistent time deltas or repeated small byte counts to the same destination) helps reveal compromised hosts. Examining SSL/TLS certificate anomalies (D) is correct because malicious C2 infrastructure often uses self-signed, expired, mismatched, or otherwise suspicious certificates, and Sentinel can correlate certificate metadata from network logs to identify such traffic. Analyzing email headers for phishing (A) is not a C2 communication technique; it targets initial access via email, and identifying brute force attempts (E) addresses credential attacks rather than command-and-control traffic.

Answer

Analyzing email headers for phishing

Answer

Identifying brute force attempts

Question 5

A threat hunter is analyzing a potential advanced persistent threat (APT) that uses living-off-the-land binaries (LOLBins) like certutil.exe to download payloads. The hunter wants to find instances where certutil.exe was used to download files from the internet in the last week. Which KQL query in Microsoft Sentinel would be most effective?

Accepted Answer

DeviceProcessEvents
| where TimeGenerated > ago(7d)
| where FileName == "certutil.exe"
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "-urlcache" or ProcessCommandLine contains "-split"
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine. The query in option C correctly targets certutil.exe and filters for the specific command-line arguments '-urlcache' and '-split', which are commonly used by attackers to download files from the internet. This directly addresses the threat hunter's goal of finding certutil.exe download activity. The other options focus on different LOLBins (powershell.exe, mshta.exe, wscript.exe) that are not mentioned in the scenario.

Answer

DeviceProcessEvents
| where TimeGenerated > ago(7d)
| where FileName == "powershell.exe"
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "-enc"
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine

Answer

DeviceProcessEvents
| where TimeGenerated > ago(7d)
| where FileName == "mshta.exe"
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "http"
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine

Answer

DeviceProcessEvents
| where TimeGenerated > ago(7d)
| where FileName == "wscript.exe"
| where ProcessCommandLine contains "http"
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, ProcessCommandLine

Question 6

Your organization uses Microsoft Defender XDR. You need to configure automatic attack disruption for identity-related threats. The solution should automatically contain a compromised user by disabling their account. Which setting should you enable?

Accepted Answer

Enable automatic attack disruption in the Microsoft Defender XDR settings.. Microsoft Defender XDR's automatic attack disruption feature is specifically designed to contain identity-related threats by automatically disabling compromised user accounts. This setting, found in the Microsoft Defender XDR settings under 'Automated investigation and response', triggers when high-confidence identity attacks (e.g., password spray, lateral movement) are detected, without requiring manual intervention or additional infrastructure.

Answer

Configure Conditional Access policies to block the user.

Answer

Use Microsoft Sentinel automation rules to disable the user.

Answer

Create a custom detection rule to alert on suspicious sign-ins.

Question 7

During a ransomware incident, you need to prevent the encryption of files in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. You have already identified the compromised user account. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Lock the compromised user account in Microsoft Entra ID. Locking the compromised user account in Microsoft Entra ID immediately revokes the attacker's access to SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business, preventing further file encryption. Option A is incorrect because disabling external sharing does not stop an already authenticated user from encrypting files. Option C is incorrect because deleting the user's OneDrive files does not prevent the attacker from encrypting other files. Option D is incorrect because a retention policy only protects against deletion or modification, not encryption.

Answer

Disable external sharing for SharePoint Online

Answer

Delete the compromised user's OneDrive files

Answer

Apply a retention policy to all SharePoint sites

Question 8

Which THREE of the following are key components of a successful threat hunting program in a Microsoft Defender XDR environment?

Accepted Answer

Deep understanding of normal network behavior. A successful threat hunting program in Microsoft Defender XDR requires a deep understanding of normal network behavior (A), because establishing a baseline of legitimate activity lets hunters spot anomalies across endpoint, identity, email, and cloud telemetry that automated detections may miss. A clear hypothesis based on threat intelligence (B) is essential, since threat hunting is hypothesis-driven rather than alert-driven; hunters use intel to form testable assumptions about adversary behavior and then query Defender XDR advanced hunting (KQL) to validate or refute them. The use of the MITRE ATT&CK framework (C) is also a key component, as it maps observed techniques and tactics to a common taxonomy, helping hunters prioritize coverage gaps and structure hunts around known adversary TTPs. Automated incident response playbooks (D) belong to SOAR/automated investigation and response, not threat hunting, and reactive response to alerts (E) is the opposite of proactive hunting, so neither is a core component of a threat hunting program.

Answer

Automated incident response playbooks

Answer

Reactive response to alerts

Question 9

A threat hunter is using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint advanced hunting to find devices that have a specific file hash associated with a known malware variant. The analyst wants to include devices that have the file in any location, including quarantined items. Which table and column should be used?

Accepted Answer

DeviceFileEvents, SHA256. DeviceFileEvents tracks file creation, modification, and deletion events, including those that are quarantined, and it includes the SHA256 column for file hashes. Option A (DeviceImageLoadEvents) is for image (DLL) loads, not general file info. Option C (DeviceNetworkEvents) covers network connections, not files. Option D (DeviceProcessEvents) involves process execution, not file discovery, and its ProcessCommandLine column does not contain file hashes.

Answer

DeviceImageLoadEvents, SHA256

Answer

DeviceNetworkEvents, RemoteIP

Answer

DeviceProcessEvents, ProcessCommandLine

Question 10

Your organization uses Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies. You need to investigate an incident where sensitive data was shared externally. You want to view the details in Microsoft Sentinel. What should you ensure is configured?

Accepted Answer

The Microsoft 365 data connector in Microsoft Sentinel is enabled and configured to collect DLP alerts.. Microsoft Sentinel's Microsoft 365 data connector ingests unified audit logs from Microsoft Purview, including DLP alerts. When this connector is enabled and configured to collect DLP alerts, Sentinel can receive and surface the incident details, allowing investigation of externally shared sensitive data. Without this connector, DLP events remain in the Purview compliance portal and are not forwarded to Sentinel.

Answer

The SharePoint site is configured for external sharing.

Answer

The DLP policy must be set to 'Audit only' mode.

Answer

The unified audit log is enabled and the DLP events are being generated.

Question 11

Your organization uses Microsoft Sentinel. An incident is created for a possible data exfiltration via an unapproved external IP address. Which type of Microsoft Sentinel automation should you use to automatically block the IP address in the firewall?

Accepted Answer

Playbook.. Playbooks in Microsoft Sentinel are automated workflows based on Azure Logic Apps that can perform response actions, such as blocking an IP address in a firewall. When an incident indicates data exfiltration via an unapproved external IP, a playbook can be triggered automatically or manually to execute the block action via integration with firewall APIs or management tools.

Answer

Data connector.

Answer

Analytics rule.

Answer

Watchlist.

Question 12

Your organization uses Microsoft Sentinel and has several analytics rules that generate incidents from various data sources. The SOC team is overwhelmed by the number of incidents. You need to implement a triage system that automatically assigns incidents to different analysts based on the incident's tactics and severity. You also want to send a notification to the assigned analyst via Teams. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Create multiple automation rules that trigger on incident creation, each with conditions for specific tactics and severity, and then run a playbook that assigns the incident to an analyst and sends a Teams notification.. Automation rules in Microsoft Sentinel trigger on incident creation and support conditions based on incident properties such as tactics and severity, and they can invoke a playbook. Creating multiple automation rules with tactic/severity conditions that each run an assignment-and-notification playbook delivers the required automatic triage and Teams alerting. This is the native, supported pattern for conditional incident routing.

Answer

Use a workbook to create a triage dashboard and instruct analysts to manually claim incidents from the dashboard.

Answer

Modify each analytics rule to include a custom details field that specifies the analyst, and use a playbook to send Teams notification based on that field.

Answer

Create a single playbook that checks the incident's tactics and severity, assigns it to the appropriate analyst, and sends a Teams notification, then configure that playbook to run automatically on all new incidents.

Question 13

Your organization uses Microsoft Defender XDR and has a custom detection rule that queries DeviceProcessEvents for suspicious PowerShell commands. You notice that the rule is generating a high number of false positives. You need to reduce false positives while still detecting real threats. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Add a condition to exclude processes signed by trusted certificates or from known IT admin accounts.. Adding a condition to exclude processes signed by trusted certificates or from known IT admin accounts directly reduces false positives by filtering out legitimate administrative activity. Custom detection rules in Microsoft Defender XDR allow you to refine queries with additional conditions, such as excluding specific signers or accounts, which preserves detection of malicious PowerShell commands while ignoring benign ones.

Answer

Disable the rule and create a new rule with a different MITRE technique.

Answer

Increase the lookback period from 7 to 30 days.

Answer

Modify the rule to set the severity to 'Informational'.

Question 14

Your Microsoft Sentinel workspace is ingesting data from multiple sources. You need to ensure that data from a specific source is retained for 2 years while other data remains at the default retention. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Create a custom table for that source and set its retention to 2 years.. In Microsoft Sentinel, retention is set at the table level. By creating a custom table for the specific data source and configuring its retention period to 2 years, you can override the default workspace retention for that table only. This allows other tables to retain the default retention setting while the custom table retains data for the required duration.

Answer

Adjust the data ingestion settings for that source.

Answer

Set the workspace retention to 2 years.

Answer

Configure archiving for that source's data.

Question 15

Your organization uses Microsoft Sentinel. You need to design a solution to automatically respond to a specific type of incident by sending an email to the SOC manager and creating a ticket in ServiceNow. What should you use?

Accepted Answer

Create a playbook in Microsoft Sentinel and trigger it with an automation rule.. Microsoft Sentinel uses Azure Logic Apps-based playbooks to execute complex, multi-step automated responses, such as sending an email and creating a ServiceNow ticket. An automation rule is required to trigger the playbook when an incident meets specific criteria, as analytics rules alone cannot directly invoke external systems like ServiceNow.

Answer

Create an analytics rule that directly sends an email.

Answer

Create a workbook that triggers a webhook.

Answer

Create an automation rule that sends an email and creates a ticket.

Question 16

Which TWO actions should you take when handling a confirmed ransomware incident in an environment protected by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint?

Accepted Answer

Block the ransomware file hash using threat intelligence indicators in Microsoft Defender.. Blocking the ransomware file hash via threat intelligence indicators in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) immediately prevents further execution of that known malicious file across all endpoints in the environment, leveraging the built-in TI indicator feature. Option B is correct because initiating device isolation from the MDE console disconnects the affected device from the network while maintaining connectivity to the MDE service, containing the spread of ransomware without losing visibility or control.

Answer

Disable Windows Defender real-time protection.

Answer

Submit the ransomware sample to Microsoft for analysis.

Answer

Reimage all affected servers immediately.

Question 17

Match each Microsoft 365 Defender workload to its description.

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: Provides enterprise-grade endpoint security, including antivirus, anti-malware, and advanced threat protection for devices.. Microsoft 365 Defender includes four main workloads: Defender for Endpoint (endpoint security), Defender for Office 365 (email & collaboration), Defender for Identity (on-premises AD security), and Defender for Cloud Apps (cloud app security). Common confusions involve mixing up definitions between these workloads.

Answer

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: Safeguards email and collaboration tools (Exchange, SharePoint, Teams) against phishing, spam, malware, and other threats.

Answer

Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Uses on-premises Active Directory signals to identify, detect, and investigate advanced threats and identity compromises.

Question 18

You are a security operations analyst at a company that uses Microsoft Sentinel. You need to ensure that all incidents generated from Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps are automatically assigned to the same SOC team. The team uses Microsoft Teams to collaborate. Which configuration should you implement?

Accepted Answer

Create an automation rule that sets the owner to the team entity.. Automation rules in Microsoft Sentinel can directly set the incident owner to a specific user or group (such as a SOC team) without requiring a playbook. This ensures all incidents from Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps are automatically assigned to the designated team, streamlining ownership and collaboration via Microsoft Teams.

Answer

Create a playbook that assigns the incident to the team and configure an automation rule to run it.

Answer

Configure the Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps connector to assign incidents to the team.

Answer

Use a logic app to automatically post incidents to a Teams channel and have the team claim them.

Question 19

Your organization is using Microsoft Sentinel and has deployed the Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) connector. You need to create an analytics rule that triggers an incident when a user from a specific IP address is assigned the Global Administrator role. The IP address is not in your trusted IP list. Which KQL query should you use as the rule logic?

Accepted Answer

AuditLogs | where ActivityDisplayName == 'Add member to role' and TargetResources[0].displayName == 'Global Administrator' and InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress !in (dynamic(['10.0.0.1', '10.0.0.2'])). It uses the `!in` operator to filter out specific IP addresses from the `InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress` field, ensuring that only events from IP addresses not in the trusted list trigger an incident. The query correctly targets `AuditLogs` with `ActivityDisplayName == 'Add member to role'` and checks that the role assigned is `Global Administrator` via `TargetResources[0].displayName`. This logic matches the requirement to alert when a user from a specific IP address (10.0.0.1) that is not in the trusted list is assigned the Global Administrator role.

Answer

AuditLogs | where ActivityDisplayName == 'Add member to role' and TargetResources[0].displayName == 'Global Administrator' and InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress == '10.0.0.1'

Answer

AuditLogs | where ActivityDisplayName == 'Add member to role' and TargetResources[0].displayName == 'Global Administrator' and InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress !has '10.0.'

Answer

AuditLogs | where ActivityDisplayName == 'Add member to role' and TargetResources[0].displayName == 'Global Administrator' and InitiatedBy.app.ipAddress !in ('trusted IP list')

Question 20

Your SOC team uses Microsoft Sentinel incident investigation. An analyst needs to quickly see all related entities (users, IPs, machines) for an incident. Which feature should the analyst use?

Accepted Answer

Incident investigation graph. The Incident investigation graph in Microsoft Sentinel provides a visual, interactive map of all entities (users, IPs, machines) linked to an incident, allowing analysts to quickly see relationships and pivot between entities. This is the dedicated feature for entity-centric incident exploration, unlike other options that serve different purposes.

Answer

Incident timeline

Answer

Hunting blade

Answer

Entity behavior analytics page