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CISSP Practice Question: A business continuity coordinator is planning a…
A business continuity coordinator is planning a test of the disaster recovery plan. Which type of test involves a walk-through of the plan with key stakeholders without actually invoking the technical recovery?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse a tabletop exercise with a checklist review, but a tabletop is an interactive discussion with stakeholders, not a passive document check.
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
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Tabletop exercise
A tabletop exercise is a discussion-based session where key stakeholders walk through the disaster recovery plan step-by-step without invoking any technical recovery procedures. This validates roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes in a low-risk environment, ensuring the plan's logic is sound before any actual failover or system restoration is attempted.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Tabletop exercise
Why this is correct
A tabletop exercise is a collaborative, discussion-based session where key stakeholders verbally walk through a simulated disaster scenario. Participants discuss their roles, responsibilities, decision-making processes, and interdependencies without activating any technical systems. This low-cost, low-risk method effectively identifies gaps in plans, validates communication protocols, and enhances team understanding of the business continuity strategy before more complex tests.
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Full interruption test
Why it's wrong here
A full interruption test involves completely shutting down primary production systems and activating the disaster recovery site and associated processes to restore critical operations. This highly realistic test provides definitive proof of recovery capabilities but carries significant risks of actual service disruption, data loss, or system instability if the recovery plan fails. Due to its inherent risks and resource intensity, it is typically performed only after less disruptive tests have validated the plan's integrity.
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Checklist review
Why it's wrong here
A checklist review verifies that documented recovery steps exist and are complete, but it does not simulate stakeholder decision-making or procedural logic. The stem explicitly requires a walk-through with key stakeholders, which demands interactive discussion of roles and dependencies—something a static checklist cannot provide. This option is tempting because checklist reviews are a low-effort method to confirm documentation accuracy, and they would be correct for validating that procedural steps are not missing before a more dynamic test.
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Parallel test
Why it's wrong here
A parallel test involves operating the disaster recovery site concurrently with the primary production environment, often processing a copy of live data or simulated transactions. This method verifies the functionality of the alternate site, data synchronization, and recovery procedures without impacting live production services. While less disruptive than a full interruption test, it demands substantial resources to maintain and operate two active environments simultaneously.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CISSP 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 CISSP exam.