PCNSA Policy Evaluation and Management Practice Question
A network engineer needs to ensure that all traffic from the 'Guest' zone to the 'Internet' zone is inspected for malware, but also wants to allow high-bandwidth video conferencing traffic to bypass threat inspection for performance reasons. Which approach best achieves this?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume the firewall can automatically detect and exempt video traffic from inspection without explicit rule configuration, or that a single rule with a threat profile can be configured to skip inspection for certain applications, but Palo Alto firewalls require separate rules or profile exceptions to achieve selective bypass.
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
✓
Create two rules: one for general traffic with 'allow' action and a 'threat' profile, and a higher-priority rule for video conferencing traffic with 'allow' action and no threat profile.
It uses two security rules with different priorities: a higher-priority rule for video conferencing traffic with an 'allow' action and no threat profile to bypass inspection, and a lower-priority rule for general traffic with an 'allow' action and a threat profile to enforce malware inspection. This leverages the firewall's rule-ordering logic, where the first matching rule is applied, allowing selective bypass of threat inspection for specific traffic while maintaining security for other traffic.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Create two rules: one for general traffic with 'allow' action and a 'threat' profile, and a higher-priority rule for video conferencing traffic with 'allow' action and no threat profile.
Why this is correct
Security policy is evaluated top-down, so a higher-priority rule matching video conferencing with no threat profile permits that traffic uninspected, while the lower general rule still applies the threat profile to all remaining Guest-to-Internet sessions.
- ✗
Create a single rule with 'allow' action and no security profiles, and rely on the firewall's default behavior to inspect malware.
Why it's wrong here
A single allow rule with no security profiles applies to all Guest-to-Internet traffic, so video conferencing cannot be exempted while other traffic retains malware inspection. It would be correct only where no traffic on that rule requires threat inspection at all.
- ✗
Create a single rule with 'allow' action and a 'threat' profile applied, and rely on the firewall's ability to skip inspection for video traffic automatically.
Why it's wrong here
Security policy cannot selectively skip threat inspection for video within a single rule; the profile applies to all matching sessions. A separate rule with a dedicated application or service match and no threat profile is needed, which is exactly how performance-sensitive traffic is exempted.
- ✗
Use policy-based forwarding to route video traffic to a separate interface that has no security profiles.
Why it's wrong here
Policy-based forwarding steers traffic by destination or path, not by application, so video conferencing cannot be selectively excluded from inspection. It suits routing traffic down specific WAN links or to different egress points, not bypassing security profiles for one application within a zone pair.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCNSA practice question is part of Courseiva's free Palo Alto Networks 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 PCNSA exam.