This 350-701 practice question tests your understanding of security concepts. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A financial company has a data center with Cisco FTD firewalls in a high-availability pair. They use Cisco ISE for network access control and Cisco Stealthwatch for network visibility. Recently, they deployed a new web application that is accessed by both internal employees and external customers. The application uses HTTPS on port 443. After deployment, the security team notices that the FTD is dropping some HTTPS sessions that appear legitimate. The drops are inconsistent and seem to occur only during peak hours. The FTD logs show the drop reason as 'TCP state violation'. The team has verified that the web server and clients are configured correctly. The Stealthwatch reports show no anomalies. What is the most likely cause and solution?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Configure TCP state bypass on the FTD for the web server traffic
The 'TCP state violation' drops during peak hours indicate that the FTD's stateful inspection engine is seeing TCP segments that do not match the expected state machine, likely due to asymmetric routing or session timeouts under load. Configuring TCP state bypass for the web server traffic disables stateful inspection for those flows, allowing the firewall to forward packets based on ACLs alone without tracking TCP states, which resolves the issue without compromising security for legitimate traffic.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Enable SSL decryption to inspect the encrypted traffic
Why it's wrong here
SSL decryption does not solve TCP state violations.
✗
Increase the TCP timeout values on the FTD to accommodate longer sessions
Why it's wrong here
Longer timeouts may help but the issue is state mismatch, not timeout.
✗
Block all traffic to the web server except from trusted IPs
Why it's wrong here
This is too restrictive and would block legitimate external customers.
✓
Configure TCP state bypass on the FTD for the web server traffic
Why this is correct
Bypassing state tracking allows packets that may be asymmetric to pass without being dropped.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume SSL decryption is needed for encrypted traffic issues, but the 'TCP state violation' drop reason directly points to a stateful inspection problem, not an encryption inspection problem.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cisco FTD uses a stateful inspection engine that tracks TCP connections in a state table; under high traffic loads, the firewall may exhaust its state table or encounter asymmetric routing where SYN packets traverse one firewall and data packets another, causing state mismatches. TCP state bypass (configured via the 'set connection advanced-options' or 'tcp-state-bypass' command in FlexConfig) instructs the FTD to skip state tracking for specified traffic, forwarding packets purely based on Layer 3/4 ACLs, which is useful for high-volume, short-lived connections or environments with non-standard TCP behavior.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A security administrator must allow nursing staff to reach a patient records server while blocking access from the guest Wi-Fi VLAN. After applying an extended ACL, traffic is still blocked from nursing workstations. The ACL was applied outbound instead of inbound on the wrong interface. Questions like this test ACL direction and placement rules.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Security Concepts — This question tests Security Concepts — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Configure TCP state bypass on the FTD for the web server traffic — The 'TCP state violation' drops during peak hours indicate that the FTD's stateful inspection engine is seeing TCP segments that do not match the expected state machine, likely due to asymmetric routing or session timeouts under load. Configuring TCP state bypass for the web server traffic disables stateful inspection for those flows, allowing the firewall to forward packets based on ACLs alone without tracking TCP states, which resolves the issue without compromising security for legitimate traffic.
What should I do if I get this 350-701 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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