PCNSE Manage, Monitor and Operate Practice Question
An administrator wants to generate a report that shows the top applications by bandwidth usage over the last week. Which report type should be used to accomplish this?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse the Traffic Report (which shows raw byte counts) with application-level reporting, failing to realize that only the Application Report uses App-ID to break down bandwidth by application identity rather than by IP or port.
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
✓
Application Report
The Application Report is designed to provide visibility into application usage, including bandwidth consumption, top applications, and application-level trends over a specified time period. This report type leverages the App-ID engine to classify traffic by application, regardless of port or protocol, making it the correct choice for identifying top applications by bandwidth usage.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
URL Filtering Report
Why it's wrong here
URL Filtering reports categorise web requests by site category and user activity; they contain no per-application byte counters. Application bandwidth trending belongs in an Application Usage report. URL filtering reporting is chosen when the requirement is visibility into browsing categories and blocked URLs.
- ✓
Application Report
Why this is correct
The Application Report aggregates traffic by application, exposing bandwidth consumption per application over a chosen period. Selecting a one-week timeframe directly satisfies the requirement to rank top applications by bandwidth usage, which other report types do not provide.
- ✗
Traffic Report
Why it's wrong here
Traffic reports aggregate by application and can show top talkers by bytes over a period, but they are built from session-level logs and do not provide the per-application bandwidth ranking the administrator needs; Application Reports (or the ACC's application view) are the correct report type for top applications by bandwidth over a week.
- ✗
Threat Report
Why it's wrong here
Threat reports list security events such as spyware, viruses and vulnerability exploits, not bandwidth consumption by application, so they cannot rank top applications by usage. They would be the right choice when the administrator needs to review detected threats or blocked attacks over a period.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCNSE 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 PCNSE exam.