PCNSE Sample Questions for Palo Alto Network Security Engineer Exam

Ace the Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE) exam with this high-quality collection of sample questions and hands-on practice tests. These expertly designed PCNSE sample questions cover all domains of the exam, including firewall configuration, security policies, advanced threat prevention, and network troubleshooting. Ideal for professionals aiming to validate their expertise in Palo Alto’s technologies, this guide helps reinforce your concepts, identify weak areas, and simulate real exam scenarios. Whether you're reviewing dumps or taking structured mock tests, this resource is your path to PCNSE certification success.

PCNSE Sample Questions List :

1. Cortex XDR notifies an administrator about grayware on the endpoints. There are no entries about grayware in any of the logs of the corresponding firewall. Which setting can the administrator configure on the firewall to log grayware verdicts?

1. in Threat General Settings, select "Report Grayware Files"

2. within the log settings option in the Device tab

3. in WildFire General Settings, select "Report Grayware Files"

4. within the log forwarding profile attached to the Security policy rule

2. Decrypted packets from the website https://www.microsoft.com will appear as which application and service within the Traffic log?

1. web-browsing and 443

2. SSL and 80

3. SSL and 443

4. web-browsing and 80

3. Which function is handled by the management plane (control plane) of a Palo Alto Networks firewall?

1. logging

2. signature matching for content inspection

3. Quality of Service

4. IPSec tunnel standup

4. A firewall has Security policies from three sources: 1. locally created policies 2. shared device group policies as pre-rules 3. the firewall's device group as post-rules How will the rule order populate once pushed to the firewall?

1. shared device group policies, local policies, firewall device group policies

2. firewall device group policies, local policies, shared device group policies

3. local policies, firewall device group policies, shared device group policies

4. shared device group policies, firewall device group policies, local policies

5. Which Security profile generates a packet threat type found in threat logs?

1. WildFire

2. Zone Protection

3. Anti-Spyware

4. Antivirus

6. A firewall engineer reviews the PAN-OS GlobalProtect application and sees that it implicitly uses web-browsing and depends on SSL. When creating a new rule, what is needed to allow the application to resolve dependencies?

1. Add SSL application to the same rule

2. SSL and web-browsing must both be explicitly allowed

3. Add SSL and web-browsing applications to the same rule

4. Add web-browsing application to the same rule

7. An engineer wants to forward all decrypted traffic on a PA-850 firewall to a forensic tool with a decrypt mirror interface. Which statement is true regarding the configuration of the Decryption Port Mirroring feature?

1. The engineer should install the Decryption Port Mirror license and reboot the firewall

2. The PA-850 firewall does not support decrypt mirror interface, so the engineer needs to upgrade the firewall to PA-3200 series

3. The engineer must assign an IP from the same subnet with the forensic tool to the decrypt mirror interface

4. The engineer must assign the related virtual-router to the decrypt mirror interface

8. In a security-first network, what is the recommended threshold value for content updates to be dynamically updated?

1. 1 to 4 hours

2. 6 to 12 hours

3. 24 hours

4. 36 hours

9. A company is deploying User-ID in their network. The firewall team needs to have the ability to see and choose from a list of usernames and user groups directly inside the Panorama policies when creating new security rules. How can this be achieved?

1. by configuring User-ID group mapping in Panorama > User Identification

2. by configuring Master Device in Panorama > Device Groups

3. by configuring User-ID source device in Panorama > Managed Devices

4. by configuring Data Redistribution Client in Panorama > Data Redistribution

10. A firewall administrator requires an A/P HA pair to fail over more quickly due to critical business application uptime requirements. What is the correct setting?

1. Change the HA timer profile to "user-defined" and manually set the timers

2. Change the HA timer profile to "fast"

3. Change the HA timer profile to "aggressive" or customize the settings in advanced profile

4. Change the HA timer profile to "quick" and customize in advanced profile

11. A network administrator notices there is a false-positive situation after enabling Security profiles. When the administrator checks the threat prevention logs, the related signature displays: threat type: spyware category: dns-c2 threat ID: 1000011111 Which set of steps should the administrator take to configure an exception for this signature?

1. Navigate to Objects > Security Profiles > Anti-Spyware Select related profile Select the signature exceptions tab and then click show all signatures Search related threat ID and click enable Change the default action Commit

2. Navigate to Objects > Security Profiles > Anti-Spyware Select related profile Select the Exceptions tab and then click show all signatures Search related threat ID and click enable Commit

3. Navigate to Objects > Security Profiles > Vulnerability Protection Select related profile Select the Exceptions tab and then click show all signatures Search related threat ID and click enable Commit

4. Navigate to Objects > Security Profiles > Anti-Spyware Select related profile Select DNS exceptions tabs Search related threat ID and click enable Commit

12. An administrator troubleshoots an issue that causes packet drops. Which log type will help the engineer verify whether packet buffer protection was activated?

1. Configuration

2. Data Filtering

3. Traffic

4. Threat

13. An administrator is configuring SSL decryption and needs to ensure that all certificates for both SSL Inbound inspection and SSL Forward Proxy are installed properly on the firewall. When certificates are being imported to the firewall for these purposes, which three certificates require a private key? (Choose three.)

1. Forward Untrust certificate

2. Enterprise Root CA certificate

3. Forward Trust certificate

4. End-entity (leaf) certificate

5. Intermediate certificate(s)

14. An administrator connects four new remote offices to the corporate data center. The administrator decides to use the Large Scale VPN (LSVPN) feature on the Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewall. What should the administrator configure in order to connect the sites?

1. Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) Tunnels

2. GlobalProtect Satellite

3. SD-WAN

4. IKE Gateways

15. If a template stack is assigned to a device and the stack includes three templates with overlapping settings, which settings are published to the device when the template stack is pushed?

1. The settings assigned to the template that is on top of the stack

2. The administrator will be promoted to choose the settings for that chosen firewall

3. All the settings configured in all templates

4. Depending on the firewall location, Panorama decides with settings to send

16. An engineer notices that the tunnel monitoring has been failing for a day and the VPN should have failed over to a backup path. What part of the network profile configuration should the engineer verify?

1. Destination IP

2. Threshold

3. Action

4. Interval

17. A company needs to preconfigure firewalls to be sent to remote sites with the least amount of preconfiguration. Once deployed, each firewall must establish secure tunnels back to multiple regional data centers to include the future regional data centers. Which VPN preconfigured configuration would adapt to changes when deployed to the future site?

1. GlobalProtect client

2. PPTP tunnels

3. IPsec tunnels using IKEv2

4. GlobalProtect satellite

18. What is the best description of the Cluster Synchronization Timeout (min)?

1. The maximum interval between hello packets that are sent to verify that the HA functionality on the other firewall is operational

2. The maximum time that the local firewall waits before going to Active state when another cluster member is preventing the cluster from fully synchronizing

3. The timeframe within which the firewall must receive keepalives from a cluster member to know that the cluster member is functional

4. The time that a passive or active-secondary firewall will wait before taking over as the active or active-primary firewall

19. Which protocol is supported by GlobalProtect Clientless VPN?

1. FTP

2. HTTPS

3. SSH

4. RDP

20. Which two subscriptions are available when configuring Panorama to push dynamic updates to connected devices? (Choose two.)

1. Content-ID

2. User-ID

3. Applications and Threats

4. Antivirus

21. What is a correct statement regarding administrative authentication using external services with a local authorization method?

1. The administrative accounts you define on an external authentication server serve as references to the accounts defined locally on the firewall

2. Prior to PAN-OS 10.2, an administrator used the firewall to manage role assignments, but access domains have not been supported by this method

3. Starting with PAN-OS 10.2, an administrator needs to configure Cloud Identity Engine to use external authentication services for administrative authentication

4. The administrative accounts you define locally on the firewall serve as references to the accounts defined on an external authentication server

22. A network security engineer has applied a File Blocking profile to a rule with the action of Block. The user of a Linux CLI operating system has opened a ticket. The ticket states that the user is being blocked by the firewall when trying to download a TAR file. The user is getting no error response on the system. Where is the best place to validate if the firewall is blocking the user's TAR file?

1. Threat log

2. Data Filtering log

3. WildFire Submissions log

4. URL Filtering log

23. A security engineer needs firewall management access on a trusted interface. Which three settings are required on an SSL/TLS Service Profile to provide secure Web Ul authentication? (Choose three.)

1. Authentication Algorithm

2. Encryption Algorithm

3. Certificate

4. Maximum TLS version

5. Minimum TLS version

24. If an administrator wants to apply QoS to traffic based on source, what must be specified in a QoS policy rule?

1. Post-NAT destination address

2. Pre-NAT destination address

3. Pre-NAT source address

4. Post-NAT source address

25. An administrator has configured a QoS policy rule and a QoS Profile that limits the maximum allowable bandwidth for the YouTube application. However, YouTube is consuming more than the maximum bandwidth allotment configured. Which configuration step needs to be configured to enable QoS?

1. Enable QoS interface

2. Enable QoS in the Interface Management Profile

3. Enable QoS Data Filtering Profile

4. Enable QoS monitor

FAQs

1. What is the Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE) certification?

The PCNSE certification validates advanced skills in designing, deploying, and managing Palo Alto Networks security platforms to protect enterprise networks effectively.

2. How do I become PCNSE certified?

To earn the PCNSE certification, you must pass the PCNSE exam, which tests your knowledge of network security, firewall management, and advanced threat prevention using Palo Alto products.

3. What are the prerequisites for the Palo Alto PCNSE certification exam?

There are no mandatory prerequisites, but it’s recommended to have hands-on experience with Palo Alto Networks products and prior completion of the PCNSA certification.

4. How much does the Palo Alto PCNSE certification exam cost?

The PCNSE exam costs around $175 USD, though pricing may differ slightly depending on your country or currency.

5. What topics are covered in the PCNSE certification exam?

The exam covers firewall configuration, Panorama management, VPNs, threat prevention, advanced routing, and troubleshooting concepts.

6. How difficult is the Palo Alto PCNSE exam?

The PCNSE is an advanced-level certification, requiring strong practical knowledge and experience with Palo Alto’s security solutions.

7. How long does it take to prepare for the PCNSE certification exam?

Most candidates take about 6–10 weeks to prepare, depending on their existing knowledge and professional experience.

8. How long is the PCNSE certification valid?

The PCNSE certification is valid for two years from the date of passing the exam.

9. What career opportunities are available after earning the PCNSE certification?

PCNSE certified professionals can work as Network Security Engineers, Firewall Specialists, Cybersecurity Analysts, or Security Architects in leading IT and security firms.

10. What is the average salary for a Palo Alto Networks PCNSE certified professional?

On average, PCNSE-certified professionals earn between $95,000 and $130,000 per year, depending on experience, region, and job role.