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.
In Microsoft Sentinel, an incident is created from a Fusion rule that correlates multiple alerts. The incident has a high severity. What should the analyst do first?
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.
Run an automated playbook to contain the threat
Why wrong: Playbooks are run after triage and assessment.
Close the incident as false positive
Why wrong: Closing without investigation is inappropriate.
Triage the incident by reviewing the evidence
Triage confirms the validity and urgency.
Escalate the incident to senior management
Why wrong: Escalation should occur after triage.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Triage the incident by reviewing the evidence
Option C is correct because the first step in incident response within Microsoft Sentinel is to triage the incident by reviewing the evidence. A Fusion rule correlates multiple alerts into a single incident, and the analyst must examine the correlated alerts, entities, and timeline to validate the incident's legitimacy and understand the scope before taking any action. Automated playbooks or escalations should only occur after triage confirms the incident is a genuine threat.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Run an automated playbook to contain the threat
Why it's wrong here
Playbooks are run after triage and assessment.
Close the incident as false positive
Why it's wrong here
Closing without investigation is inappropriate.
Triage the incident by reviewing the evidence
Why this is correct
Triage confirms the validity and urgency.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "first" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Escalate the incident to senior management
Why it's wrong here
Escalation should occur after triage.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates may assume a high-severity incident automatically requires immediate containment or escalation, but Microsoft Sentinel's incident response process mandates triage first to validate the correlation and avoid acting on false positives.
Detailed technical explanation
Fusion rules in Microsoft Sentinel use machine learning to correlate multiple low-fidelity alerts across different data sources (e.g., Azure AD, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint) into a single high-fidelity incident. The evidence includes the raw alerts, entities (IPs, users, hosts), and the kill chain mapping, which the analyst must review in the Sentinel incident blade to determine if the correlation is valid. A real-world scenario might involve a Fusion rule correlating a suspicious sign-in from a new location with a subsequent malware detection, requiring the analyst to verify the user's identity and the alert timestamps before triggering a playbook.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
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FAQ
Respond to security incidents — This question tests Respond to security incidents — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Triage the incident by reviewing the evidence — Option C is correct because the first step in incident response within Microsoft Sentinel is to triage the incident by reviewing the evidence. A Fusion rule correlates multiple alerts into a single incident, and the analyst must examine the correlated alerts, entities, and timeline to validate the incident's legitimacy and understand the scope before taking any action. Automated playbooks or escalations should only occur after triage confirms the incident is a genuine threat.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Yes — watch for: "first". Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 25, 2026
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