ISC2 CC Practice Question: Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, and Incident Response
A company performs a full backup every Sunday and incremental backups on other days. On Wednesday, a server failure occurs. Which backups are needed to restore the server to its state at Tuesday's backup?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse incremental with differential backups — candidates who think each incremental is self-contained will pick 'only Tuesday incremental', but incrementals always require the full plus all prior incrementals.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Sunday full backup, Monday incremental, and Tuesday incremental
With a weekly full backup on Sunday and daily incrementals, each incremental captures only changes since the last backup. To restore to Tuesday's state you must apply the Sunday full backup first, then Monday's incremental, then Tuesday's incremental in sequence. Incrementals cannot be applied standalone because they depend on the previous backup chain.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Only Tuesday incremental backup
Why it's wrong here
An incremental captures only blocks changed since the previous backup, so Tuesday's file depends on Sunday's full plus Monday's incremental. A lone incremental is sufficient only in a differential scheme, where each backup contains all changes since the last full.
- ✓
Sunday full backup, Monday incremental, and Tuesday incremental
Why this is correct
Incremental backups capture only changes since the previous backup, so restoration requires the last full backup plus every incremental in sequence. Sunday's full plus Monday's and Tuesday's incrementals reconstruct Tuesday's state; omitting either incremental loses intervening changes.
- ✗
Only the Sunday full backup
Why it's wrong here
Restoring only Sunday's full backup discards Monday's and Tuesday's incremental changes, returning the server to Sunday's state. A full backup alone is the correct basis only when no incrementals have been taken since it, or when restoring to that full backup's point in time.
- ✗
Sunday full backup and Monday incremental backup
Why it's wrong here
Restoring to Tuesday's state requires the Sunday full plus Monday and Tuesday incrementals, since each incremental captures only changes since the previous backup. Omitting Tuesday's incremental loses that day's data. This pair would restore only to Monday's state, not Tuesday's.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official ISC2 exam blueprint
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