PCNSE Troubleshoot Practice Question
Which TWO are valid methods to troubleshoot a firewall not passing traffic? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume rebooting or updating signatures will fix traffic issues, but these actions do not address the most common causes like policy misordering or session state problems, which are directly verifiable through the session table and policy order review.
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
✓
Verify the security policy order
Security policy order determines which rule matches traffic first; if a policy is misordered or a deny rule precedes an allow rule, traffic will be blocked. Verifying policy order ensures that the intended allow rule is evaluated before any conflicting deny rules, which is a fundamental step in troubleshooting traffic flow on a Palo Alto Networks firewall.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reboot the firewall
Why it's wrong here
Rebooting is a nuclear option and not a standard troubleshooting step.
- ✗
Change the interface IP address
Why it's wrong here
Changing IP addresses would likely cause more issues.
- ✓
Verify the security policy order
Why this is correct
Misplaced rules can cause traffic to be denied or not matched.
- ✓
Check the session table for the traffic
Why this is correct
The session table shows whether the firewall is tracking the traffic.
- ✗
Update the threat prevention signature
Why it's wrong here
Updating signatures is unrelated to basic traffic forwarding.
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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.