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PCNSA Practice Question: Which THREE actions can improve firewall…
Which THREE actions can improve firewall performance by reducing CPU load? (Choose three.)
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
✓
Enable hardware acceleration for packet processing
Options A, C, D are correct. Enabling hardware acceleration offloads packet processing from the CPU, reducing load. Reducing log verbosity for allowed traffic lowers I/O and processing overhead. Disabling unused security profiles frees up resources. Option B is incorrect because reactive policy updates via API can introduce additional processing, not reduce CPU load. Option E is incorrect because enabling SSL decryption for all traffic significantly increases CPU load due to encryption/decryption overhead.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable hardware acceleration for packet processing
Why this is correct
Hardware acceleration offloads processing to specialized chips, reducing CPU load.
- ✗
Use reactive policy updates via API
Why it's wrong here
Reactive updates can cause CPU spikes and are not recommended for performance.
- ✓
Reduce log verbosity for allowed traffic
Why this is correct
Logging requires CPU and disk I/O; reducing log volume lowers load.
- ✓
Disable unused security profiles
Why this is correct
Unused profiles still consume resources during policy lookup; disabling them reduces overhead.
- ✗
Enable SSL decryption for all traffic
Why it's wrong here
SSL decryption is computationally intensive and increases CPU load.
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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.