SPLK-1002 Advanced Searching and Statistics Practice Question
An analyst runs `index=web status=500 | top 10 uri` and gets results. Which statement is true about the 'top' command's behavior?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse `top` with commands like `sort` or `stats`, thinking it sorts by time or computes averages, when in fact it purely counts event frequencies per field value.
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
✓
It counts the number of events per URI and displays the 10 with the highest count.
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.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
It returns the 10 URIs that appeared most recently.
Why it's wrong here
Top returns most frequent, not most recent.
- ✗
It computes the average latency per URI and shows the top 10.
Why it's wrong here
Top does not compute averages; it counts events.
- ✗
It sums a numeric field per URI and shows the top 10 sums.
Why it's wrong here
Top uses count by default, not sum of a numeric field.
- ✗
It requires a 'by' clause to specify the field to group by.
Why it's wrong here
Top can take a field directly without 'by'.
- ✓
It counts the number of events per URI and displays the 10 with the highest count.
Why this is correct
Correct: top counts events per field value.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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