USMLE STEP2 Exam Prep
Step2 (Page 20 )

• Outer packet: 10.5.1.1 > 52.165.16.154
• IPv4 protocol field: 41, which indicates IPv6 encapsulation
• Inner packet: IPv6 traffic between 2001:... addresses

• MAC address spoofing: Changes Layer 2 addressing; it does not explain the IPv6-in-IPv4 structure.
• Steganography: Hides data inside files or media, not visibly in a tunneled protocol.
• Broken encryption: No evidence of encryption being cracked.
• On-path sniffing: Involves intercepting traffic, not sending data to an external host.

• A. Continue using the current system: It will eventually fail and offers no recovery strategy.
• B. Virtualize the entire system: Correct. A VM can preserve the old OS, application, settings, and dependencies while running on newer physical hardware.
• C. Containerize the application: Containers generally share the host OS kernel and are not suitable for preserving an entire incompatible legacy OS.
• D. Clone the disks to USB: A disk clone may provide backup or temporary recovery, but it does not solve hardware compatibility or provide a reliable long-term platform.

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

• Due diligence: Researching and evaluating a third party before entering or continuing a business relationship.
• Internal audit: Evaluates controls within the organization itself.
• Penetration testing: Actively tests systems for exploitable vulnerabilities.
• Attestation: A formal statement or report—such as a SOC 2 report—provided by an independent party about an organization’s controls.

• 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

• 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.

• C — Some risks cannot be eliminated.

• D — Accepting residual risk does not imply recklessness.

• E — Most companies in this industry will say something similar.

• 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.

• Each team’s Bedrock workflow uses a separate IAM service role.
• The role’s Amazon S3 permissions can be limited to only that team’s customer folder or objects.
• This enforces least privilege and prevents one team’s Bedrock application from accessing another team’s data.
• Access is enforced by AWS permissions, not by asking users to provide a customer name in each request.

• A single role with broad S3 access does not provide team-level isolation.
• Asking teams to specify a customer name is not an access-control mechanism.
• Redacting data does not prevent unauthorized access.
• A bucket policy alone is insufficient unless it explicitly enforces the required team-role restrictions.

• 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.

• Accept: Acknowledge the risk and take no additional action.
• Transfer: Shift the risk or financial impact to another party, such as through insurance or a contract.
• Mitigate: Reduce the likelihood or impact using controls, such as firewalls, training, or backups.
• Avoid: Eliminate the activity that creates the risk.

• Relationship cardinality:

• Filter direction:

• Active versus inactive relationships: only active relationships automatically propagate filters.
• Blank or unmatched values: a fact-table value without a matching dimension row can create the model’s blank/unknown member.
• Uniqueness: the “one” side must contain unique values; duplicate keys generally belong on the “many” side.

• A. Adjust resolution: Incorrect because an incompatible resolution usually causes no display, distortion, or an unsupported-mode message—not intermittent flickering.
• B. Swap the HDMI cable: Correct. Replacing the common, easily tested component is the appropriate troubleshooting step.
• C. Replace the projector: Incorrect because the issue also occurs with a monitor.
• D. Configure refresh rate: A mismatched refresh rate can cause visual problems, but the repeated flicker across displays points more strongly to the cable.

• Static IP address: Not needed if the workstation already has network connectivity.
• Subnet mask: Incorrect subnetting would usually prevent local communication, including pinging the server.
• Default gateway: Primarily affects communication outside the local network; it does not normally prevent finding an internal domain controller.

• Report on the discount approval time for quotes

• Dashboard of opportunity stage duration

• Lead conversion trends measure lead-generation effectiveness, not opportunity closing time.
• Campaign ROI evaluates marketing performance, not delays in the sales process.

• Plenum: Describes a fire-resistant cable jacket rating, not a transmission medium or speed.
• Ethernet: Describes a networking technology; Ethernet can use copper or fiber, so the term alone does not identify the fastest cable type.
• DAC (Direct Attach Copper): Uses copper and is typically intended for short-distance, high-speed connections in data centers.

• Free: Doesn’t support the required custom domain and SSL configuration.
• Shared: Doesn’t provide the required SSL support or scalability.
• Basic: Supports multiple instances and SSL, but its storage limit is insufficient for the required 12 GB.
• Standard: Supports:

• Accept: Acknowledge the risk without taking additional action.
• Transfer: Shift the risk’s impact to another party, such as through insurance or outsourcing.
• Mitigate: Reduce the likelihood or impact, such as by implementing controls.
• Avoid: Eliminate the activity or situation that creates the risk.

• Restrict a port to a defined number of MAC addresses
• Use statically assigned or “sticky” MAC addresses
• Shut down or restrict the port when violations occur

• Load balancer: Distributes application traffic; it does not protect switch MAC tables.
• IPS: May detect suspicious network activity, but is not the primary control for limiting switch MAC entries.
• NGFW: Filters traffic at the network boundary; it does not directly prevent MAC table flooding on access switches.

• Dataset file: Use Import mode. Excel files are imported into Power BI, and the two Sales tables can be combined with Power Query.
• Report file: Use a live connection to the published dataset. This keeps the report separate from the dataset and avoids importing the data again.

• Report file: DirectQuery/live connection
• Dataset file: Import

• Security
• Availability
• Processing integrity
• Confidentiality
• Privacy

• Whether controls are suitably designed, and
• Whether they operated effectively over a period of time

• 2018-12-31 — the date
• 08:59 — the time

• Changing the original column to Date may fail because it still contains the text at and a time.
• Extracting the last 11 characters does not isolate the date.
• Extracting the first 11 characters gets the date plus a space, but the option does not specify changing the result to the Date type.

• Repetitive and time-consuming
• Based on measurable conditions, such as last check-in time
• Easy to automate with alerts, dashboards, or scheduled reports
• Important for ensuring scan coverage

• Assigning custom recommendations usually requires analyst judgment and context.
• Analyzing false positives can sometimes be assisted by automation, but validation often requires human review.
• Rendering an additional executive report increases reporting activity rather than reducing a core operational workload.

• A is valid:

apex 
  for (Account theAccount : AccountList) { 
      // process theAccount 
  }

• D is conceptually valid, using an index:

apex 
  for (Integer i = 0; i < AccountList.size(); i++) { 
      Account theAccount = AccountList[i]; 
  }

• B is invalid because for(AccountList) is not valid loop syntax.
• C is invalid because each item is an Account, not a List.

1. Append Table1 and Table2 as a new query

1. Select the product column in the appended query.

1. Choose Remove Rows > Remove Duplicates

• Security controls
• Processes and procedures
• Compliance evidence
• Performance against contractual requirements

• Service-level agreement (SLA): Defines expected service performance, such as uptime and response times.
• Memorandum of agreement (MOA): Documents a general agreement between parties, but does not necessarily provide audit rights.
• Supply chain analysis: Identifies risks across suppliers and dependencies, but is not a contractual mechanism for reviewing vendor controls.

Correct reasoning

• Create storage5 as a General-purpose v2 (StorageV2) account.
• Configure Blob object replication from storage5 to an existing compatible storage account.
• The destination must support object replication—typically another StorageV2 or premium block blob account.
• Blob versioning must be enabled on both accounts.
• Blob change feed must be enabled on the source account.
• The accounts must meet Azure’s object-replication requirements, including being in supported regions and having compatible configuration.

• The listener uses a virtual IP address shared by the availability-group replicas.
• Floating IP, also called Direct Server Return (DSR), allows the SQL Server nodes to respond using the listener’s IP address rather than their individual VM IP addresses.
• This is required for the availability-group listener to function correctly with an Azure internal load balancer.

• A user connects with their Google account.
• Google associates the user’s SSH key with that identity.
• IAM roles determine whether they can log in.
• Access can be tied to a specific employee for auditing.
• Removing the IAM role removes their login access.

• compute.osLogin: regular OS login access
• compute.osAdminLogin: OS login with administrative privileges, typically including sudo

text 
enable-oslogin=TRUE

1. Open the Microsoft Entra Connect wizard.
2. Select Configure.
3. Choose Customize synchronization options.
4. Authenticate when prompted.
5. On the Domain and OU filtering page, select:

1. Complete the wizard.

• Start-ADSyncSyncCycle only starts synchronization; it does not change which OUs are included.
• Manage federation configures federation settings, which are unrelated to OU filtering.
• Add-ADSyncConnectorAttributeInclusion concerns connector attributes, not selecting additional OUs for synchronization.

• Understating expenses and liabilities
• Overstating profit
• Misleading users of the financial information
• Potentially breaching integrity, objectivity, and professional competence and due care

• Custom domains: Supported by Basic and higher tiers.
• Dedicated compute: Basic and Standard use dedicated virtual machine instances; Free and Shared use shared infrastructure.
• Load balancing between instances: Standard provides scaling across multiple instances with load balancing.
• Storage: Standard provides more storage than Basic.
• Cost: Standard is the least expensive option that satisfies all the stated requirements.

• Free/Shared: Use shared compute and have limited features; they don’t meet the dedicated-compute requirement.
• Basic: Provides dedicated compute and custom domains, but does not provide the required Standard-level multi-instance capabilities in the exam’s feature comparison.

• Packet loss
• Latency
• Jitter
• Call quality by user, device, network, location, or building

• Teams Usage Report: Shows adoption and usage statistics, not detailed call-quality metrics.
• Teams Device Usage Report: Reports which devices are being used and how, but does not provide detailed packet-loss analysis.
• Microsoft Network Testing Companion: Helps assess network readiness before deployment, but it is not the primary tool for analyzing packet loss from actual Teams calls.

• Containment policy: controls permitted communication during containment.
• Detection/response configuration: determines when containment is initiated.

• Group1 — security-enabled: Eligible.
• Group2 — mail-enabled and security-enabled: Eligible because it is still a security group.
• Group3 — Microsoft 365 group: Not eligible for group-based licensing.
• Group4 — Microsoft 365 group, not security-enabled: Not eligible.

• Packet capture: Collects and analyzes network traffic; it does not describe the scan type.
• Privilege escalation: Attempts to gain higher permissions after obtaining access.
• System enumeration: Identifies systems, services, or resources, but is not specifically defined by the lack of credentials.
• Passive scan: Observes traffic without actively probing systems. A vulnerability scan is generally an active assessment.

• Minimum
• Maximum
• Average
• Count
• Null/empty values
• Distinct values

• Enable column profile
• Enable details pane
• Show column profile in details pane

1. System prompts can authorize users — No

1. System prompts can reduce TPM consumption — Yes, with qualification

1. System prompts guide generative AI behavior — Yes

1. Write a structured log entry to CloudWatch Logs containing:

1. Create a CloudWatch Logs metric filter that:

text 
ApiRequests 
Operation=GetOrders 
ResponseCode=500 
Version=2.4.0

• B is incorrect: CloudWatch Logs Insights queries analyze logs but do not directly publish metrics in this manner.
• C is incorrect: ALB access logs do not contain arbitrary Lambda response metadata as custom fields.
• D is incorrect: X-Ray traces and insights are not the appropriate mechanism for creating these custom, dimensioned application metrics.

xml 
<apex:page> 
    <apex:stylesheet value="{!URLFOR($Resource.MyStyles, 'styles/main.css')}" /> 
</apex:page>

• <apex:includeScript> is for JavaScript.
• <apex:includeStyle> is not a valid Visualforce component.
• <apex:require> is not the Visualforce tag used to load CSS.

• The ERSPAN source is the device or interface whose traffic is being copied.
• The ERSPAN destination is the device receiving the encapsulated copy and forwarding it to the traffic analyzer.
• The local monitor session number is locally significant. Therefore, the source and destination do not need matching session IDs such as 47 or 48.
• The erspan-id identifies the ERSPAN stream and must correspond between the source and destination configuration.

• Accept: Acknowledge the risk and take no additional action.
• Transfer: Shift the risk or its financial impact to another party, such as through insurance or outsourcing.
• Mitigate: Reduce the likelihood or impact of the risk, such as by implementing security controls.
• Avoid: Eliminate the activity or exposure that creates the risk.

• Feedback form: Captures opinions, not necessarily actual behavior; users may not respond.
• Questionnaire: Relies on memory and subjective judgments about usefulness.
• Interviews: Can provide valuable qualitative insights, but a sample of users may not represent overall usage accurately.

• The requirement is an assessment of the Azure environment’s design, which requires a support plan offering proactive architectural guidance.
• Premier support would provide this capability, but it is a high-cost option.
• Since the requirement says to minimize expenses, Premier is not the best recommendation.
• A lower-cost plan with the required advisory/design-review capability—historically Professional Direct in Azure’s support-plan model—would be more appropriate.

• Active remediation actions role in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

• Security Reader role in Azure AD/Entra ID

• Security Administrator is broader than necessary because it grants extensive security-management permissions, violating least privilege.
• Compliance Data Administrator is intended for compliance data management, not Defender for Endpoint remediation approvals.

• 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.

• Amazon SageMaker — charges apply for compute, storage, and other resources used.
• AWS Config — generally charges for configuration recording and rule evaluations.
• Amazon CloudWatch — has a limited free tier, but many metrics, logs, alarms, and API usage can incur charges.

spl 
error AND host=WWW3 
status=404 OR status=500 
NOT source=access.log

• Quotation marks are used for exact phrases or values containing spaces.
• Parentheses group parts of a Boolean expression, but they are not required for every Boolean search.

• Vulnerability scanner: Finds known technical weaknesses in systems or applications, but does not provide complete supply-chain visibility.
• Penetration test: Simulates attacks against defined targets; it is narrower than a full supply-chain analysis.
• SCAP: A set of standards and protocols for automated security configuration and vulnerability assessment, not a comprehensive supply-chain mapping tool.

• Maximum response and resolution times
• Expected uptime or availability
• Performance requirements
• Escalation procedures
• Consequences for failing to meet requirements

• SOW: Defines a project’s scope, tasks, deliverables, and schedule.
• MOA: Documents specific responsibilities agreed upon by two parties.
• MOU: Records a general understanding or intent to cooperate.