SC-200 Respond to security incidents Practice Question
You are a SOC analyst in Microsoft Defender XDR. An incident has been created that includes alerts from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft Defender for Office 365. You need to assign the incident to a colleague and add a note about initial findings. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming you must export or recreate the incident to share it, rather than using the native assignment and commenting features.
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
✓
Open the incident, use the 'Assign to' option to select your colleague, and add a comment in the incident's activity log.
Microsoft Defender XDR provides built-in incident assignment and commenting. Assigning the incident to a colleague from the incident page ensures they are notified and can take ownership. Adding a comment in the activity log documents initial findings without altering the incident's alert correlation. This maintains a clear audit trail and supports efficient collaboration.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Export the incident to a CSV file and email it to your colleague, then close the incident.
Why it's wrong here
Exporting and emailing does not assign the incident in Defender XDR, and closing it would prevent proper tracking. This approach bypasses the built-in collaboration features and could lead to lost context. The incident would remain unassigned and open, causing confusion and potential duplicate work.
- ✓
Open the incident, use the 'Assign to' option to select your colleague, and add a comment in the incident's activity log.
Why this is correct
In Microsoft Defender XDR, you can assign an incident to a specific user directly from the incident page, and you can add comments to the incident timeline. This action notifies the assignee and records your findings for collaboration. It is the standard way to hand off an incident while preserving context.
- ✗
Use the 'Manage incident' option to change the status to 'In progress' and set the 'Assigned to' field to your colleague's email address.
Why it's wrong here
While you can set status to 'In progress', the assignment is not done via a 'Manage incident' option with an email address. In Defender XDR, assignment is done through the 'Assign to' dropdown, which lists users, not by typing an email. This option describes a non-existent workflow.
- ✗
Create a new incident manually and copy the alerts from the original incident, then assign the new incident to your colleague.
Why it's wrong here
Manually creating a new incident and copying alerts is unnecessary and can break the correlation of alerts. Defender XDR automatically groups related alerts into incidents; duplicating them would create redundant work and skew metrics. The correct action is to assign the existing incident.
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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 Microsoft exam blueprint
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.