SPLK-1002 Advanced Searching and Statistics Practice Question
A search returns many events, and the analyst wants to see a summary table of the top 5 values of the field `src_ip` along with the count of events for each. Which command should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse `top` with `sort` or `eventstats`, thinking that sorting or adding statistics to events is sufficient, when in fact only `top` provides the aggregated summary table of the most frequent values with counts.
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
✓
top
The `top` command in Splunk is specifically designed to find the most common values of a field and display them in a summary table with counts and percentages. By default, `top` returns the top 10 values, but you can use the `limit=5` parameter to restrict the output to the top 5 values of `src_ip` along with their event counts. This directly meets the analyst's requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
eventstats
Why it's wrong here
eventstats adds aggregation to each event but does not produce a summary table.
- ✓
top
Why this is correct
top returns the most frequent values with count and percent.
- ✗
sort
Why it's wrong here
sort sorts events but does not count or summarize.
- ✗
rare
Why it's wrong here
rare shows the least common values, not the top.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This SPLK-1002 question is part of Courseiva's 475-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
2 more ways this is tested on SPLK-1002
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A security analyst needs to find the top 10 users with the most failed login attempts from the linux_secure sourcetype. Which SPL command is most efficient for this task?
medium- ✓ A.index=main sourcetype=linux_secure "Failed password" | top limit=10 user
- B.index=main sourcetype=linux_secure "Failed password" | stats count by user | sort 10 -count
- C.index=main sourcetype=linux_secure "Failed password" | stats count by user | sort -count | head 10
- D.index=main sourcetype=linux_secure | regex _raw="Failed password" | stats count by user | top limit=10
Why A: The `top` command in SPL is specifically designed to return the most frequent values of a field, and the `limit=10` parameter directly restricts the output to the top 10 results. This approach is more efficient than using `stats count` followed by `sort` and `head` because `top` performs the aggregation and ranking in a single operation, reducing processing overhead. The search also correctly filters for 'Failed password' events within the `linux_secure` sourcetype, ensuring only failed login attempts are considered.
Variation 2. An analyst runs `index=web status=500 | top 10 uri` and gets results. Which statement is true about the 'top' command's behavior?
easy- A.It returns the 10 URIs that appeared most recently.
- B.It computes the average latency per URI and shows the top 10.
- C.It sums a numeric field per URI and shows the top 10 sums.
- D.It requires a 'by' clause to specify the field to group by.
- ✓ E.It counts the number of events per URI and displays the 10 with the highest count.
Why E: The `top` command in Splunk counts the occurrences of each distinct value of a specified field (here, `uri`) and returns the values with the highest counts. By default, it returns the top 10 results, so option E correctly describes that it counts events per URI and displays the 10 with the highest count.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SPLK-1002 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Splunk 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 SPLK-1002 exam.