- A
Block the source IP address on the firewall
Why wrong: Blocking should follow investigation to avoid blocking legitimate users.
- B
Investigate the incident details
Investigation confirms the attack and provides context.
- C
Notify the users of the failed login attempts
Why wrong: Notification is not the first step; containment and investigation come first.
- D
Reset passwords for all affected accounts
Why wrong: Password reset is a remediation step after confirmation.
Question 1,249 of 1,639
SC-200 Respond to security incidents Practice Question
This SC-200 practice question tests your understanding of respond to security incidents. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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.
Your security team uses Microsoft Sentinel analytics rules to detect brute-force attacks. A rule triggers when more than 10 failed logins occur within 5 minutes from a single IP. An incident is generated. Which first step should the analyst take?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"first"Why it matters: Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
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
✓
Investigate the incident details
Option B is correct because the first step in incident response within Microsoft Sentinel is to investigate the incident details to validate the alert and understand the scope. This aligns with the NIST incident response lifecycle (identification and analysis) and Sentinel's built-in investigation graph, which allows analysts to correlate entities, timelines, and related events before taking any containment action.
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.
- ✗
Block the source IP address on the firewall
Why it's wrong here
Blocking should follow investigation to avoid blocking legitimate users.
- ✓
Investigate the incident details
Why this is correct
Investigation confirms the attack and provides context.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "first" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Notify the users of the failed login attempts
Why it's wrong here
Notification is not the first step; containment and investigation come first.
- ✗
Reset passwords for all affected accounts
Why it's wrong here
Password reset is a remediation step after confirmation.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often jump to a reactive containment action (blocking the IP) without first validating the alert, confusing incident triage with incident response escalation.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, the Sentinel analytics rule uses a KQL query that aggregates `SigninLogs` with a `bin(TimeGenerated, 5m)` and `summarize dcount(ResultType)` where `ResultType == 50057` (user account disabled) or similar failure codes. The investigation graph leverages entity enrichment (IP, user, device) from Microsoft Graph and UEBA to show related alerts and anomalies. In a real-world scenario, a single IP behind a corporate VPN could trigger the rule due to legitimate retries, and blocking it would cut off all users behind that NAT.
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 healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group 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.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SC-200 question test?
Respond to security incidents — This question tests Respond to security incidents — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Investigate the incident details — Option B is correct because the first step in incident response within Microsoft Sentinel is to investigate the incident details to validate the alert and understand the scope. This aligns with the NIST incident response lifecycle (identification and analysis) and Sentinel's built-in investigation graph, which allows analysts to correlate entities, timelines, and related events before taking any containment action.
What should I do if I get this SC-200 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: "first". Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
This SC-200 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft 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 SC-200 exam.
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