ISC2 CC Practice Question: Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, and Incident Response
Which backup strategy requires the least amount of time to perform a daily backup but the most time to perform a full restore?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is mixing up differential and incremental—candidates often remember 'incremental is fast' but forget that fast backups mean slow, chain-dependent restores.
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
✓
Incremental backup
An incremental backup only captures data changed since the last backup of any type, so each daily run is very fast and small. However, a full restore requires the last full backup plus every incremental since then, applied in sequence—making restore the slowest of all strategies.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Differential backup
Why it's wrong here
Differential backups copy everything changed since the last full backup, so each successive daily run grows larger, not smaller. It tempts because restores need only the last full plus one differential, but the scenario demands minimal daily backup time, which incremental backups provide by copying only changes since the previous backup.
- ✗
Full backup
Why it's wrong here
A full backup copies the entire dataset every day, making daily backup time the longest of any strategy, directly contradicting the requirement. It tempts because restores are fastest, needing only one backup set, but the question asks for the shortest daily backup with the longest restore.
- ✗
Synthetic full backup
Why it's wrong here
A synthetic full constructs a new full backup from existing backups on the backup server, so daily backup time depends on server-side processing rather than minimal client data transfer. It tempts when reducing production-host load matters, but incremental backups copy only changed blocks, giving the shortest daily backup window.
- ✓
Incremental backup
Why this is correct
Incremental backups copy only data changed since the last backup, so daily runs are quick. Restores require the last full backup plus every subsequent incremental in sequence, making full recovery the slowest of the strategies.
About these practice questions
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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
This CC practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CC exam.