SSCP Security Operations and Administration Practice Question
A company has a backup policy that performs a full backup every Sunday and incremental backups on other days. On Wednesday, a server fails. How many backup sets are needed to restore the server to its state on Tuesday night?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse incremental backups with differential backups; candidates often think two sets are enough (full + latest incremental) or mistakenly count the days incorrectly, leading them to choose option B or C instead of recognizing the sequential dependency of incremental chains.
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
✓
Three
To restore the server to its state on Tuesday night, you need the full backup from Sunday and the incremental backups from Monday and Tuesday. Incremental backups only capture changes since the last backup (full or incremental), so you must restore them in sequence: full backup first, then Monday's incremental, then Tuesday's incremental. This requires three backup sets total, making option D correct.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
One
Why it's wrong here
One backup set is insufficient because incremental backups only contain changes since the last backup.
- ✗
Two
Why it's wrong here
Two is not enough; you need the full and two incrementals.
- ✗
Four
Why it's wrong here
Four would include Wednesday's backup, which is not needed.
- ✓
Three
Why this is correct
You need Sunday's full backup, Monday's incremental, and Tuesday's incremental to restore to Tuesday night.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SSCP 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 SSCP exam.