SC-200 Exam Simulation — 50 Questions

Question 1

Match each Microsoft Sentinel data connector on the left with the table name it populates on the right.

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Entra ID → SigninLogs; Windows Security Events via AMA → SecurityEvent; Cisco ASA via Syslog → CommonSecurityLog; Azure Activity → AzureActivity. It accurately maps each Microsoft Sentinel data connector to its corresponding log table. Microsoft Entra ID populates the SigninLogs table, Windows Security Events via AMA populates the SecurityEvent table, Cisco ASA via Syslog populates the CommonSecurityLog table (which is the standard schema for syslog-based security appliances), and Azure Activity populates the AzureActivity table. These mappings are defined by the data connectors themselves and are fundamental to querying the correct data in Sentinel.

Answer

The first and last mappings are swapped.

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Every item maps to the same log table or feature category.

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Only identity-related items are mapped; workload and network items are omitted.

Question 2

Which THREE steps are part of the incident response process when using Microsoft Sentinel?

Accepted Answer

Investigate the incident using hunting queries and entity timelines.. Investigating an incident using hunting queries and entity timelines is a core step in the Microsoft Sentinel incident response process. After an incident is created, analysts use KQL-based hunting queries to proactively search for related threats and leverage entity timelines to visualize the sequence of events and entity interactions, which is essential for understanding the scope and impact of the incident.

Answer

Identify the incident by creating an analytics rule.

Answer

Report the incident to the security team via email.

Question 3

A security analyst is investigating a suspicious process on an endpoint and needs to see all network connections initiated by that process. The analyst knows the ProcessId and DeviceName. Which advanced hunting table in Microsoft 365 Defender should the analyst query to retrieve network connection details associated with this process?

Accepted Answer

DeviceNetworkEvents. The DeviceNetworkEvents table in Microsoft 365 Defender is specifically designed to capture network connection events, including source and destination IP addresses, ports, protocols, and the initiating process ID (ProcessId). By querying this table with the known ProcessId and DeviceName, the analyst can retrieve all network connections initiated by that process, making it the correct choice for this investigation.

Answer

DeviceProcessEvents

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DeviceEvents

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IdentityLogonEvents

Question 4

A SOC analyst needs to investigate a potential data exfiltration incident involving a user uploading files to an external cloud storage service. Which Microsoft Sentinel data source would provide the MOST relevant information?

Accepted Answer

OfficeActivity. OfficeActivity (D) is the correct data source because it captures audit logs from Microsoft 365 services, including SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Exchange Online. These logs record file uploads, downloads, and sharing events, making them the most relevant for investigating data exfiltration to external cloud storage services like OneDrive or SharePoint.

Answer

SigninLogs

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CommonSecurityLog

Answer

AzureActivity

Question 5

Refer to the exhibit. A Microsoft Sentinel scheduled rule is configured as shown. The rule generates an alert, but the incident created contains only the first alert, and subsequent alerts do not update the incident. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The rule does not have incident grouping enabled.. The exhibit shows the rule is configured to create a single incident from alerts grouped by entities, but the 'Grouping' settings are not enabled. Without incident grouping enabled, each alert generates a separate incident, and subsequent alerts do not update the existing incident. Enabling incident grouping allows alerts matching the same grouping criteria to be merged into the same incident, ensuring updates occur.

Answer

The triggerOperator and triggerThreshold are misconfigured.

Answer

The KQL query is missing a join to include more data.

Answer

The severity is set to High, which prevents incident updates.

Question 6

During an incident investigation, you discover that an attacker used a legitimate account to access sensitive data in Microsoft Purview Information Protection. You need to identify what data was accessed and by whom. Which log source should you query?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Purview data access logs. Microsoft Purview data access logs (option B) are the correct source because they specifically record when users access sensitive data labeled with Microsoft Purview Information Protection, including details about what data was accessed and by whom. Unlike other logs, these capture data-level access events such as viewing, downloading, or modifying protected documents, which is essential for investigating an attacker using a legitimate account to exfiltrate sensitive information.

Answer

Microsoft 365 Defender alerts

Answer

Microsoft Entra ID sign-in logs

Answer

Office 365 audit logs (unified audit log)

Question 7

Which TWO of the following are required to enable Microsoft Sentinel to receive alerts from Microsoft Defender for Cloud? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Install the 'Microsoft Defender for Cloud' data connector in Microsoft Sentinel.. The 'Microsoft Defender for Cloud' data connector in Microsoft Sentinel is the specific integration point that ingests security alerts from Defender for Cloud into Sentinel. Without installing and configuring this connector, Sentinel cannot receive the alerts, even if Defender for Cloud is enabled on the subscription.

Answer

Deploy the Log Analytics agent on all VMs.

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Connect a non-Azure machine using Azure Arc.

Answer

Assign an Azure Policy to enable Defender for Cloud.

Question 8

You are a security administrator for a multinational company using Microsoft Sentinel. You need to ensure that critical incidents are automatically escalated to the on-call team via email and SMS. The on-call schedule uses Microsoft Teams channel. What is the most efficient way to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Build a playbook using Microsoft Teams connector to post a message in the on-call channel with an adaptive card that allows acknowledge and escalate.. It uses a Microsoft Teams connector playbook triggered by an automation rule to post an adaptive card in the on-call channel. This allows the on-call team to acknowledge or escalate the incident directly from Teams, fulfilling the requirement for email and SMS escalation through the Teams channel schedule. Automation rules in Sentinel can trigger playbooks based on incident creation or update, making this the most efficient integrated approach.

Answer

Create an automation rule that sends email directly to the on-call team.

Answer

Configure the analytics rule to send an email when the incident is created.

Answer

Use a workbook to display critical incidents and expect the team to monitor it.

Question 9

Which TWO actions are effective when threat hunting for lateral movement using remote desktop protocol (RDP) in Microsoft Defender XDR?

Accepted Answer

Query DeviceNetworkEvents for inbound connections on port 3389. Querying DeviceNetworkEvents for inbound RDP connections (port 3389) helps identify potential lateral movement. Correlating with LogonEvents for successful RDP logins confirms the movement. Option B (reviewing CloudAppEvents) is not directly RDP-related but could indicate lateral movement via cloud apps. Option D (checking for unusual email forwarding rules) is typically for exfiltration, not lateral movement. Option E (searching for SMB file share connections) is more related to file sharing and not specifically RDP lateral movement.

Answer

Review CloudAppEvents for access to cloud apps from multiple IPs

Answer

Check for unusual email forwarding rules

Answer

Search for SMB file share connections

Question 10

A SOC analyst in Microsoft Sentinel is creating a scheduled analytics rule to detect a possible password spray attack. The rule must trigger when a single source IP address has more than 10 failed logon attempts on different user accounts within a 30-minute window. The analyst writes a KQL query starting with 'SigninLogs | where ResultType == 50057' (failed logon). Which operator should the analyst use to group events by source IP and count distinct user accounts, then filter for counts above 10?

Accepted Answer

summarize. The `summarize` operator is required to group events by source IP address and count distinct user accounts using `dcount()` or `count()`. After summarizing, you apply a `where` clause to filter for counts above 10, which meets the rule's threshold. This is the standard pattern for aggregation in KQL.

Answer

where

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extend

Answer

project

Question 11

Which THREE are valid incident classification options in Microsoft Sentinel?

Accepted Answer

Benign Positive. (Benign Positive) is correct because Microsoft Sentinel uses incident classification to categorize the outcome of an investigation. A Benign Positive indicates that an alert is triggered by legitimate activity that is expected or acceptable, such as a security tool scanning the network or a user performing an authorized administrative task. This classification helps analysts distinguish between true threats and harmless events without marking them as false positives.

Answer

Informational

Answer

Malicious

Question 12

Your organization uses Microsoft Sentinel. You receive an alert for a suspicious sign-in from an unusual location. You want to automatically create an incident and assign it to the security team for investigation. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Configure an automation rule that runs when the alert is generated, creates an incident, and sets the owner to the security team.. Automation rules in Microsoft Sentinel allow you to automatically create incidents from alerts and assign them to specific teams or owners. This is the native, efficient method to handle the scenario without manual intervention or custom playbooks.

Answer

Add the user to a watchlist and configure a fusion rule.

Answer

Create a playbook that triggers on the alert and creates an incident manually.

Answer

Modify the analytics rule to set the incident creation setting to 'Create incident from alert'.

Question 13

You are managing a Microsoft Defender XDR environment. The security team wants to receive email notifications when a new incident is created with severity 'High' or 'Medium'. They also want to ensure that notifications are sent only for incidents that are not automatically resolved by AIR. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Create an email notification rule in Microsoft Defender XDR with conditions for severity and status set to 'Active'.. Microsoft Defender XDR allows you to create email notification rules specifically for incidents, with conditions to filter by severity (e.g., High, Medium) and status (e.g., Active). This ensures notifications are sent only for new incidents that are not automatically resolved by AIR, as AIR-resolved incidents would have a status of 'Resolved' or 'Redirected', not 'Active'.

Answer

Create a playbook in Microsoft Sentinel that sends an email when an incident is created.

Answer

Configure an automation rule in Microsoft Sentinel to send email notifications.

Answer

Configure alert service settings in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal to send emails for high and medium severity alerts.

Question 14

You are a SOC analyst using Microsoft Sentinel. You have a scheduled analytics rule that generates incidents from KQL queries. Recently, incidents are being created but automatically closed within minutes without any actions taken. You suspect a configuration issue. What should you check first?

Accepted Answer

Review the incident automation rules that might have a 'Close incident' action triggered by a condition.. Incident automation rules in Microsoft Sentinel can be configured to automatically close incidents when specific conditions are met, such as a related alert being resolved or a playbook completing. Since the incidents are being closed within minutes without manual intervention, an automation rule with a 'Close incident' action is the most likely cause, as it directly triggers closure based on conditions. Checking this first aligns with the SOC analyst's need to identify automated actions that could prematurely close incidents.

Answer

Verify the 'Alert grouping' settings in the analytics rule; they might be grouping alerts incorrectly.

Answer

Check if the analytics rule has a 'Suppression' setting enabled that causes the incident to close.

Answer

Examine the entity mapping configuration; it might be causing the incident to close automatically.

Question 15

Refer to the exhibit. You are analyzing a KQL query in Microsoft Sentinel. The query returns no results even though you know there are alerts with the name 'Malware detected'. What is the most likely issue?

Accepted Answer

The operator 'mv-expand' should be lowercase 'mv-expand'.. The `mv-expand` operator in KQL is case-sensitive and must be written in lowercase. Using uppercase `MV-Expand` or any other casing causes KQL to treat it as an unrecognized command, resulting in a syntax error or no results. Since the query returns no results despite alerts existing, the most likely issue is the incorrect casing of the operator.

Answer

The 'project' operator should be 'project-away'.

Answer

The 'Entities' column might be null for these alerts.

Answer

The function 'parse_json' should be 'parse_json()' with parentheses.

Question 16

A SOC analyst suspects a user account is compromised based on anomalous sign-in activity detected by Microsoft Entra ID Protection. The analyst needs to confirm and contain the threat. What is the first action the analyst should take?

Accepted Answer

Review the user's risk level and sign-in logs in Microsoft Entra ID Protection. The first step when investigating a potential account compromise is to review the user's risk level and sign-in logs in Microsoft Entra ID Protection. This allows the analyst to confirm the threat by examining risk detections, sign-in patterns, and contextual details before taking any containment actions. Prematurely resetting passwords or disabling accounts could disrupt legitimate user activity or alert the attacker without a full understanding of the scope.

Answer

Reset the user's password immediately

Answer

Disable the user account in Microsoft Entra ID

Answer

Block the user's sign-in from all locations

Question 17

Wide World Importers uses Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender XDR, and Microsoft Purview for data loss prevention (DLP). An incident is generated: 'DLP policy violation - sensitive data shared externally.' The incident shows that a user shared a document containing credit card numbers via SharePoint Online with an external guest. The user is a finance department employee. You need to respond to the incident. The organization wants to minimize business disruption while protecting data. Which of the following is the BEST immediate action?

Accepted Answer

Remove the external guest's access to the document in SharePoint Online.. Removing the external guest's access to the document stops data exposure without affecting the user's work. Option A is wrong: disabling the user prevents all work and may be too drastic. Option B is wrong: deleting the document destroys evidence. Option D is wrong: DLP policy change takes time and does not stop current exposure.

Answer

Delete the document from SharePoint Online.

Answer

Modify the DLP policy to block sharing of credit card numbers.

Answer

Disable the user's account in Microsoft Entra ID and investigate.

Question 18

Your organization uses Microsoft Sentinel with Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) to collect Windows security events. You need to collect process creation events (Event ID 4688) and include command-line information. The current Data Collection Rule (DCR) collects only basic security events. What should you modify?

Accepted Answer

Enable the 'Include command line in process creation events' policy in Windows Group Policy.. Event ID 4688 (process creation) can include command-line arguments, but this data is not captured by default. The 'Include command line in process creation events' Group Policy setting must be enabled on the Windows machines to populate the CommandLine field in the security event log. Without this policy, the AMA and DCR will collect the event but the command-line information will be empty.

Answer

Upgrade the AMA to the latest version.

Answer

Modify the DCR to include Event ID 4688 in the data source.

Answer

Switch to the Windows Security Events via Legacy Agent connector.

Question 19

You are reviewing a PowerShell script used for automated response on a Windows 10 device managed by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. What is the intended outcome of this script?

Accepted Answer

It triggers a quick scan if any Trojan detection exists.. The script checks for Trojan detections using Get-MpThreat with a threat category filter for Trojans. If any Trojan is found, it triggers Start-MpScan -ScanType QuickScan to perform a quick scan. This matches option C exactly.

Answer

It removes all Trojan threats from the device.

Answer

It updates the antimalware signatures and then performs a scan.

Answer

It configures Windows Defender to exclude Trojan files.

Question 20

A security analyst is investigating a complex incident in Microsoft 365 Defender that involves multiple stages: a phishing email, credential theft, and lateral movement. The analyst wants to view a visual representation of the attack chain, showing how alerts and entities are related. Which feature should the analyst use?

Accepted Answer

Incident graph. The incident graph in Microsoft 365 Defender provides a visual, interactive map of the entire attack chain, linking alerts, entities (such as users, devices, and IPs), and suspicious activities. This allows the analyst to see the progression from the phishing email to credential theft and lateral movement in a single view, making it the correct tool for understanding complex, multi-stage incidents.

Answer

Advanced hunting

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Automated investigation

Answer

Alert timeline