SPLK-1002 Advanced Searching and Statistics Practice Question
A security analyst is investigating a potential breach. They have a search that uses the transaction command to group events by session_id and calculates the total bytes transferred per session. However, the search takes over 30 minutes to complete on a 24-hour time range. The environment has 10 indexers with default settings. The analyst needs to reduce search time while preserving the ability to group by session_id. Which course of action should they take?
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
✓
Pre-aggregate events by session_id using 'stats values(*) as * sum(bytes) as total_bytes by session_id' before the transaction command.
Pre-aggregating events by session_id using stats with values(*) and sum(bytes) before the transaction command reduces the number of events the transaction command must process. The transaction command is resource-intensive as it correlates events across time; fewer input events significantly decrease execution time. The stats command runs in parallel across indexers, maintaining distributed processing. Other options: B adds overhead via subsearch, C (streamstats) does not group events like transaction, and D forces single-indexer processing, slowing performance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Pre-aggregate events by session_id using 'stats values(*) as * sum(bytes) as total_bytes by session_id' before the transaction command.
Why this is correct
Reduces the number of events per session, making transaction faster.
- ✗
Use an append command to add a subsearch that pre-filters events.
Why it's wrong here
append runs a subsearch and can add overhead, not reduce time.
- ✗
Replace transaction with the 'streamstats' command to compute running totals.
Why it's wrong here
streamstats does not group sessions the same way; it's a different logic.
- ✗
Add the 'local' keyword to the transaction command to force it to run on a single indexer.
Why it's wrong here
Forcing local processing removes parallelization, likely increasing time.
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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.