USMLE STEP2 Exam Prep
Step2 (Page 35 )

• Filtering harmful or inappropriate content
• Blocking specified topics
• Detecting and masking sensitive information
• Enforcing content policies suitable for children

• Amazon Rekognition analyzes images and videos; it does not control text generated by a language model.
• Amazon Bedrock playgrounds are for testing models and prompts, not enforcing production safety policies.
• Agents for Amazon Bedrock help models complete tasks and use tools; they do not primarily provide content-safety controls.

• Disable default accounts: Default or unused accounts may have known usernames or predictable settings, making them targets. They should be disabled, removed, or securely configured.
• Remove unnecessary services: Every running service creates potential vulnerabilities. Removing services the server does not need reduces exploitable entry points.

• Add the server to the asset inventory: Important for asset management, but not a hardening step.
• Document default passwords: Default passwords should be changed or eliminated—not documented for continued use.
• Send server logs to the SIEM: Valuable for monitoring and detection, but generally performed as part of logging/monitoring configuration.
• Join the server to the corporate domain: May be necessary operationally, but does not itself harden the server.

• state preserves the client’s original context, such as the specific idea URL the user requested.
• The portal sends that value in the OAuth authorization request.
• Salesforce returns it after authorization, allowing the portal to redirect the user to the original idea rather than the Ideas home page.

• CHAP: Uses a challenge-response exchange, so the password is not directly transmitted.
• IPsec: Provides authentication, integrity, and encryption for IP communications.
• EAP: An authentication framework that supports stronger methods, such as certificates or token-based authentication.

• The S3 bucket as an origin for static content
• The Application Load Balancer (ALB) as an origin for dynamic content
• An Amazon Route 53 alias record pointing the application domain to CloudFront

Why this works

• Static data: CloudFront caches objects from S3 at edge locations, reducing latency for users worldwide.
• Dynamic data: CloudFront forwards requests that require application processing to the ALB. It can also maintain persistent connections and use the AWS global edge network to improve delivery performance.
• One domain: CloudFront behaviors can route different path patterns to different origins—for example, /static/* to S3 and other paths to the ALB.

Why the other options are incorrect

• Global Accelerator is designed primarily for accelerating traffic to applications with endpoints such as ALBs, not for caching S3 content.
• Using separate domains or splitting static and dynamic traffic adds unnecessary complexity.
• CloudFront already provides the required global edge distribution and caching, so combining it with Global Accelerator is unnecessary here.

• Unrestricted data mining: Data mining is not automatically a privacy violation. It becomes an issue when personal data is collected or used improperly.
• Identity theft: This is a possible consequence of inadequate privacy protection, but it is not the central focus of privacy regulations.
• Human rights protection: Privacy can be considered a human right, but this option is broader than the specific regulatory focus.
• Identifiable personal data: Regulations such as HIPAA focus directly on controlling the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of personal information.

• Active-active routers: Provide redundant Internet connections/devices. Both can operate, so traffic can fail over or be load-balanced.
• Active-active firewalls: Avoid a single firewall becoming a failure point while maintaining security inspection.
• Load balancers: Distribute requests across multiple web servers. If one server fails, traffic can go to the other.
• Redundant power supplies: A server with separate power supplies should connect to independent power sources or circuits.
• UPS A and UPS B: Provide backup power and redundancy. Ideally, each power supply is connected to a different UPS.
• SONET ring: A ring topology provides alternate paths if a fiber link or segment fails.

• Scanning is not essential during a power outage.
• A scanner can consume UPS battery power without helping the user save cloud documents or shut down safely.
• The UPS should be reserved for the computer, monitor, and necessary network equipment.
• The surge protector helps protect the scanner from voltage spikes, but it will not keep it running during an outage.

• Injection
• Broken access control
• Authentication failures
• Security misconfiguration
• Cross-site scripting

• STIX: A standardized language and format for exchanging threat intelligence.
• OVAL: Used to describe and assess system vulnerabilities and configuration issues.
• Threat intelligence feed: Provides current indicators and intelligence about threats, but not necessarily a structured overview of common application exploitation methods.
• CVE: A catalog of individually identified, publicly disclosed vulnerabilities.

• Customers may boycott V’s products.
• Supermarket customers may stop buying from V.
• Investors may view V as having higher legal, ethical and reputational risk.
• V could face fines, lawsuits, contract losses and higher costs.
• Expected future profits may fall.

• Sets a high initial price for a new product.
• Targets customers willing to pay more, often called early adopters.
• Gradually reduces the price to attract more price-sensitive customers as the product becomes less novel and competition increases.

• Penetration pricing: starts with a low price to gain market share quickly.
• Premium pricing: maintains a high price to communicate superior quality or status; it does not necessarily involve later price reductions.
• Loss leader pricing: sells one product at a very low price, sometimes below cost, to attract customers who may buy other products.

• Amazon EC2 instances — ???????? ?? ?? ??????? CPU, memory ??? instance size ???????? ???????
• AWS Lambda functions — memory configuration ?????????? ???????
• Amazon EBS volumes — volume type ?? size optimize ???? ???????
• ??????? ECS workloads — resource configuration ? cost optimization-?? ???????

• Memory ? compute usage ?????????? ???? custom code ????? ???? development ? maintenance ??????
• Cost allocation tags ???? ????? ??? ?????? ???? ??????? ???; inefficient resource ??????? ?? recommendation ???? ???
• CloudTrail resource ???? ?? API activity ??????, resource utilization ????

• 25 — Traditional SMTP server-to-server mail delivery; often restricted and not the usual client submission port.
• 110 — POP3, used for retrieving email; normally unencrypted.
• 143 — IMAP, used for retrieving and synchronizing email; normally unencrypted.

• Highly polished, organization-wide presentations
• Advanced dashboard design and customization
• Broader business-user distribution and interaction
• Specialized BI governance and modeling features

• Portfolio definition cycle — establishes and maintains the portfolio strategy, objectives, and management framework.
• Portfolio delivery cycle — coordinates and monitors the delivery of change initiatives, ensuring the portfolio remains aligned with strategic objectives and delivers value.

• Practice — a structured area of portfolio management activity, such as risk management or resource management.
• Technique — a method used to perform an activity; it is not the term for portfolio delivery itself.
• Principle — a guiding rule for effective portfolio management.

• DB1 (500 TB): Azure Data Box Heavy

• Virtual machines: Azure Migrate

• Three DHCP scopes: Each VLAN has its own IPv4 subnet. DHCP scopes are subnet-specific, so create one scope for:

• Two DHCP relays: DHCP client discovery begins as a broadcast, and broadcasts do not cross routers or VLAN boundaries. Therefore, configure a DHCP relay on the router or Layer 3 switch interface for each client VLAN.

• Load balancer: Distributes application traffic; it does not protect switch MAC tables.
• IPS: May detect some attack traffic, but it is not the primary control for switch-port MAC learning.
• NGFW: Protects at network boundaries but does not directly limit MAC addresses learned on access ports.

• B. Versioned configuration files — Infrastructure is defined in machine-readable files and tracked in version control, allowing repeatable provisioning and change history.
• D. Docker files — Assuming “Doctor files” is a typo for Dockerfiles, a Dockerfile declaratively defines how to build a container image and is commonly considered infrastructure/configuration as code.

• A. Cloned virtual machine images — These are prebuilt infrastructure artifacts, but cloning an image is not itself a code-based infrastructure definition.
• C. Change management database records — A CMDB records information about infrastructure; it does not define or provision that infrastructure.

• Least privilege: Limits users to only the access necessary for their job.
• Background checks: Help identify potentially risky individuals before employment.
• Separation of duties: Ensures that one person cannot complete a sensitive process alone, reducing fraud and abuse.

• The selling division receives a credit based on a favourable transfer price, often market price or full cost plus a profit margin.
• The receiving division is charged a lower amount, such as marginal cost or another agreed price.
• The difference is accounted for centrally by head office or a corporate adjustment.

• Guest access: Controls external users invited into your teams as guests. It is not the primary setting for restricting federated communication by domain.
• Messaging policy: Controls messaging features, such as chat or message editing, rather than which organizations users can communicate with.
• Org-wide Teams settings: Contains broad Teams-wide configuration, but domain-based external communication is configured under External access.

1. The original app version exists.
2. You create and publish a new version, so there are now two versions.
3. When you restore the previous version, Power Apps does not delete or overwrite the newer version. Instead, it creates another version based on the restored one.

• Original version
• Newly created and published version
• New version created by the restore operation

• A is incorrect: Flow Debugger is for debugging Salesforce Flows, not Trust Layer masking.
• B is incomplete/misleading: Requesting audit data may be part of reviewing the results, but collection and storage must first be enabled.
• C is correct: It describes the initial validation step.

• IaaS: You deploy and manage virtual machines, including the operating system and installed software. Azure manages the physical datacenter, hosts, and networking infrastructure.
• PaaS: Azure manages the infrastructure and operating system, while you deploy and manage your application code. Examples include Azure App Service and Azure Functions.

• Regression predicts continuous numeric outcomes, such as house price, temperature, or sales amount.
• Linear regression assumes the target can be estimated from a linear relationship between the input features and the target.
• In Azure Machine Learning, you use a labeled dataset containing:

• Classification predicts a category or class, such as “spam” or “not spam.”
• Clustering groups similar records without a known label; it is an unsupervised learning technique.

• transform() — modifies every element in an array
• filter() — keeps elements matching a condition
• exists() — checks whether any element matches
• aggregate() — reduces array elements to one result

sql 
SELECT transform(scores, x -> x * 2) 
FROM student_scores;

• A is incorrect because higher-order functions are mainly useful for nested or complex data.
• B is incorrect because they do not convert logic into Python.
• D is incorrect because their purpose is not to fix slow built-in functions, but to process arrays or maps with custom logic.

• A business-hours greeting
• An after-hours greeting
• A holiday greeting

• Weekday evenings/nights
• Saturdays and Sundays

1. Auto attendant 1

1. Auto attendant 2

• The message came from the claimed sender (authentication)
• The message was not altered (integrity)
• The sender cannot easily deny sending it (non-repudiation)

• Attackers can send unsigned phishing emails.
• Attackers may compromise a legitimate account and send signed malicious emails.
• Users may still be tricked by a validly signed message.

• Customer needs: Primary focus in agile; guides prioritization and decision-making.
• Organization’s needs: Important constraints, but processes should be tailored when they create waste.
• Agile lead/project manager: Their role is to facilitate value delivery, not prioritize their own preferences.

• JDBC
• SnowSQL
• Snowflake Web Interface (UI)
• ODBC
• Python connector

• Existing Eventhouse data: remains available only in the KQL database.
• Data ingested after enabling the feature: is copied to OneLake and can be accessed through OneLake file explorer.
• New databases: are irrelevant; the setting applies to the selected KQL database.

• File hashes
• Strings and metadata
• Binary or code structure
• Known malicious patterns
• Embedded indicators or signatures

• Sandbox: Executes the file in an isolated environment; useful for observing behavior, but usually slower.
• Network traffic analysis: Examines communications generated by a system or application, not the file itself.
• Package monitoring: Tracks software packages or installations and is not the primary method for examining malware signatures.

• Penetration test: Tests for exploitable vulnerabilities; it does not provide a broad opinion on whether security controls operate effectively.
• Annual self-assessment: Not independent, so it provides less assurance.
• Allow each client the right to audit: Inefficient because every customer may conduct a separate audit, creating duplicated effort and disruption.

• The connected switch
• The switch’s port/interface
• Device and port descriptions
• Sometimes VLAN or management information

• IKE: Establishes security associations for IPsec VPNs.
• VLAN: Defines logical network segmentation; it does not identify a physical switch port.
• netstat: Displays local network connections and statistics, not the upstream switch and port.

• Record changes — a flow can start when a record is updated or otherwise changes.
• Schedules — a flow can run at a specified date/time or on a schedule.
• Record inserts — a flow can start when a new record is created.

• Subflows are reusable flow components called by another flow; they are not normally trigger types.
• Record views do not generally initiate a Flow Designer flow.

• Identifies which user or department owns the device
• Supports inventory and compliance requirements
• Enables tracking of lost, stolen, retired, or unauthorized devices
• Helps enforce security controls such as mobile-device management and secure configuration

• Malware or malicious software
• Command-and-control tools
• Internet surveillance and intrusion software

• ITAR: A U.S. regulation controlling defense-related articles and services; it is not the international arrangement described.
• Palermo Convention: Focuses on transnational organized crime and related protocols, not export controls for cyber weapons.
• GDPR: European data-protection and privacy legislation.

• A is correct: It establishes the revised dates and identifies the effect on the critical path.
• B is premature: Stakeholders should be informed after the impact has been assessed and the updated schedule is understood.
• C is not automatically appropriate: Fast-tracking may introduce additional risk and should be considered only after analyzing schedule options.
• D is premature: Adding resources may not resolve a dependency and could increase costs without addressing the actual constraint.

• A. IDS attack signatures: An IDS primarily detects suspicious network activity; it is not the best tool for scanning uploaded files.
• C. Load balancer: Improves availability and distributes traffic but does not inspect files for malware.
• D. WAF: Protects web applications against attacks such as SQL injection and command injection. It may inspect HTTP requests, but malware scanning of uploaded PDFs is the key requirement here.

• Which batches and markets are affected
• Whether the deficiency affects product quality, efficacy, or patient safety
• Whether the issue is an ongoing manufacturing problem
• Whether immediate containment or distribution suspension is needed

• A — Withdraw the product: may be necessary, but is premature before assessing the risk.
• B — “Dear Dr.” letter: may be appropriate later, depending on the risk.
• C — Notify global authorities: may become mandatory, but the scope and urgency depend on the assessment.

• Deterministic approve/reject results
• Strict adherence to predefined rules
• Consistent, reproducible outcomes
• Auditability and regulatory compliance

• Espionage: Stealing information for intelligence or competitive purposes.
• Data exfiltration: Unauthorized removal or transfer of data.
• Nation-state attack: An attack sponsored or conducted by a government.
• Shadow IT: Unapproved technology or methods used to access organizational resources.

• The load balancer provides the listener’s frontend IP address.
• The active SQL Server node must also respond to that same listener IP.
• Enabling Floating IP allows the listener IP to be preserved and handled correctly by the active replica.
• Without it, SQL connections may be sent to a node that cannot correctly claim the listener address.

• A health probe for the SQL Server port
• A load-balancing rule using the listener port
• Floating IP enabled on that rule

• A. IDS attack signatures: Detects suspicious network activity, but is not primarily designed to scan uploaded files for malware.
• C. Load balancer: Distributes traffic among servers and improves availability; it does not inspect files for threats.
• D. WAF: Protects web applications from attacks such as SQL injection and command injection, but its primary role is not malware scanning of uploaded documents.

• Response and resolution times
• Availability or uptime
• Performance targets
• Support obligations
• Penalties for failing to meet commitments

• SOW (Statement of Work): Describes the work, deliverables, scope, and tasks.
• MOA (Memorandum of Agreement): Documents a formal agreement about roles or responsibilities.
• MOU (Memorandum of Understanding): Records a general mutual understanding, often without detailed service metrics.

• Data source: Folder
• Transformation: Remove the Content column (or keep only the file-metadata columns)

Why

• File name
• Extension
• Date modified
• Folder path
• Content — the binary contents of the file

• A: Concerns task scheduling and avoiding missed runs, not directly sizing the warehouse.
• B: The amount of data in a stream alone does not reliably determine compute needs; the SQL processing is what matters.
• D: A multi-cluster warehouse addresses concurrency, not the compute size needed for one task execution.

Manager role

DAX 
Country[Manager] = USERPRINCIPALNAME()

• Sales
• Human Resources

CFO role

• See sales for all countries
• See no Human Resources data

• Do not restrict the Country table or Sales table.
• Apply a filter to Human Resources that always returns false, such as:

DAX 
FALSE()