USMLE STEP2 Exam Prep
Step2 (Page 76 )

• The table is large.
• Queries frequently filter or join on particular columns.
• The table’s natural data order does not support good micro-partition pruning.
• Clustering improves performance enough to justify its maintenance cost.

• Creating and training machine-learning models
• Testing and evaluating models
• Deploying models as usable endpoints

• Create the field in the CRM on the relevant person records—typically Lead and Contact in Salesforce.
• Give the Marketo Sync User read/write access to the field.

• Honeypots: Decoy systems or services designed to attract attackers. Legitimate users should not access them, so activity there is a strong indicator of compromise.
• DNS sinkholes: Redirect malicious or suspicious DNS requests to a controlled destination. This can identify infected systems attempting to contact command-and-control infrastructure.

• Tokenization: Replaces sensitive data with non-sensitive tokens; it is not an attacker-detection method.
• CI/CD: Automates software development, testing, and deployment.
• Threat modeling: Identifies potential threats and weaknesses before or during system design; it does not directly detect an active infiltrator.
• Data obfuscation: Makes information harder to understand, but does not identify attackers.

• 24 cores: Available in the Business Critical provisioned-compute configurations.
• Approximately 124 GB memory: Matches the memory capacity of the relevant Business Critical hardware configuration.
• More than 50,000 IOPS: Business Critical uses local SSD storage and provides the high I/O performance required here.
• 500 GB storage: Well within the tier’s supported capacity.

• Premium: The DTU-based Premium tier does not provide the required combination of compute, memory, and I/O characteristics.
• Hyperscale: Hyperscale is primarily intended for very large databases and independent storage scaling. It is not the best match for these specific high-memory and high-IOPS requirements.

• Frequency/likelihood = how often or how likely the risk is to occur.
• Severity/impact = how damaging or costly the consequences would be.

• A minor equipment fault occurring frequently may have high frequency but low severity.
• A major cyberattack occurring rarely may have low frequency but high severity.
• A risk that happens often and causes substantial losses has high frequency and high severity.

• 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.

• Installing software
• Applying configuration changes
• Calling PowerShell scripts
• Running setup or customization commands

cmd 
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:\Scripts\ConfigureVM.ps1

• GPO logon script: Runs only when a user logs on and depends on domain/GPO processing.
• GPO startup script: Runs during startup, but requires the VM to be domain joined and receives the applicable GPO.
• Place scripts in a VHD: Merely makes the scripts available; it does not automatically execute them.

• IRR assumes that interim cash flows can be reinvested at the project’s own IRR. This may be unrealistic, especially when the IRR is very high.
• MIRR assumes reinvestment at a specified rate, usually the company’s cost of capital or another realistic reinvestment rate.

• B: MIRR does not specifically favour projects with long payback periods.
• C: MIRR and IRR can rank competing projects differently.
• D: MIRR is not always higher than IRR; it may be higher or lower depending on the cash flows and reinvestment rate.

• terraform apply
• terraform destroy

• 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.

• sn_si_admin is an SIR administrator role.
• The prefix helps prevent naming conflicts between applications.
• It does not refer to a “Secure Identity token” or an instance security check.

• Crowd-sourced evaluation: Requires recruiting and managing many evaluators.
• Human-worker evaluation: Provides human judgment but requires coordination, labeling instructions, and quality control.
• RLHF: Is a training and alignment process, not simply a low-overhead model comparison method.
• Automatic model evaluation: Quickly evaluates outputs using predefined toxicity or quality metrics with minimal manual effort.

• UPS battery-backed outlets: Connect only essential devices needed during an outage:

• Surge-protector-only outlets: Connect nonessential devices, especially the printer. Printing does not need to continue while you are saving work and shutting down.
• UPS power source: Plug the UPS directly into a wall outlet.
• Surge protector power source: Plug it directly into a wall outlet as well. Do not normally plug a surge protector into the UPS, because that creates a daisy chain and can overload the UPS.

1. insert con; ? 1
2. Database.setSavepoint(); ? 2
3. update con; ? 3
4. Database.rollback(sp_admin); ? 4

• Required response and resolution times
• Availability or uptime targets
• Performance standards
• Support obligations
• Remedies or penalties for failing to meet the terms

• SOW (Statement of Work): Defines the project’s scope, tasks, deliverables, and schedule.
• MOA (Memorandum of Agreement): Describes agreed responsibilities between parties, often for a specific activity.
• MOU (Memorandum of Understanding): Records a mutual understanding or intention, usually less formal than a contract.

1. Search & Intelligence in the Microsoft 365 admin center — No

1. Audit in the Microsoft Defender portal — Yes

1. Audit in the Microsoft Purview portal — Yes

• Firewall
• Intrusion prevention and detection
• Antivirus or antimalware
• Web and email filtering
• Virtual private networking (VPN)
• Sometimes content filtering and centralized reporting

• 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.

• SQL injection
• Cross-site scripting (XSS)
• Malicious or malformed web requests
• Some application-layer attacks

• Layer 4 firewall: Filters based mainly on IP addresses, ports, and transport protocols; it cannot deeply inspect web application content.
• NGFW: Provides advanced network filtering and may include application awareness, but a WAF is more specifically designed to protect web applications.
• UTM: Combines several security functions in one appliance, but it is not the most targeted solution for a web portal.

• 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.

• 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.

• Design Studio > Emails ? create an email-template folder
• Design Studio > Landing Pages ? create a landing-page-template folder
• Add the relevant assets to each folder
• Right-click the folder and choose Share Folder
• Select the destination workspaces

• 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.

• Ramen is a Linux worm associated with Red Hat Linux 6.2 and 7.0 systems.
• It spreads by scanning randomly generated IP addresses using tools such as synscan.
• It exploits vulnerable network services, including web-related services, and may leave malicious files or altered web content.
• The tar.gz file is also a clue because it is a common Linux archive/package format.

• Code Red: Primarily targeted Microsoft IIS servers running Windows.
• LoveLetter: Spread mainly through email attachments.
• Nimda: A Windows-based worm that spread through email, web servers, and network shares.

• Minimum and maximum values
• Number of distinct values
• NULL information
• Other metadata used for pruning

• Future costs — Only costs occurring in the future can be affected by the investment decision. Past costs are sunk and irrelevant.
• Incremental costs — These are additional costs caused by choosing the investment. They are relevant because they differ between alternatives.
• Cash flows — Capital investment decisions are based on future cash inflows and outflows, usually discounted to present value.

• Committed costs have already been agreed or incurred and generally cannot be changed by the decision.
• Unavoidable costs will arise regardless of which option is selected, so they do not affect the choice.

• 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.

• Deploy five individual VMs: This does not create a VM scale set.
• Modify Availability Zones or Size settings: These actions do not create the required scale set and add unnecessary steps.
• VM orchestration mode: This is Flexible orchestration, intended for more individually managed VMs and mixed configurations. It is not the best choice for a straightforward group of identical instances.

• Marketing users: Dynamic Forms can show all fields.
• Support users: Field visibility rules can display only the Support preference fields on the record page.
• Reporting: Both profiles can still report on all fields because Dynamic Forms controls page visibility, not the underlying field access.

• A — Two record types and page layouts: Page layouts can control field placement and editability, but they are less flexible for conditional field visibility and would not be the best fit here.
• C — Muting permission set: Permission-set muting is used with permission-set groups; it does not conditionally hide fields on a page.
• D — Field-Level Security: FLS would remove field visibility at the security level. If fields are hidden by FLS, users generally cannot report on or access those fields, conflicting with the requirement that both users report on all data.

• API tool matcher: runs a deterministic normalization command after the API tool returns.
• Write/Edit matcher: checks whether the target path begins with src/api/ and runs the linter.

json 
{ 
  "hooks": { 
    "PostToolUse": [ 
      { 
        "matcher": "api_tool", 
        "hooks": [ 
          { "type": "command", "command": "normalize-to-snake-case" } 
        ] 
      }, 
      { 
        "matcher": "Write|Edit", 
        "hooks": [ 
          { "type": "command", "command": "lint-if-under-src-api" } 
        ] 
      } 
    ] 
  } 
}

• terraform init is normally required first, especially for a new or changed working directory. It installs providers/modules and configures the backend.
• terraform plan previews the proposed changes.
• terraform apply applies those changes. It also creates a plan internally if you have not supplied a saved plan.

text 
terraform init 
terraform validate       # optional but recommended 
terraform plan 
terraform apply

• 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.

• Run the backup with WITH CHECKSUM
• Store the backup on an SMB network share

sql 
BACKUP DATABASE DB1 
TO DISK = '\\FileServer\SqlBackups\DB1_full.bak' 
WITH CHECKSUM;

• DMS does not create the SQL Server backups for you.
• You must provide a valid full database backup.
• You must continue taking transaction log backups while the source database remains online.
• The full backup and subsequent log backups must be available in the SMB share that DMS can access.
• WITH CHECKSUM enables backup checksum validation, helping detect backup corruption.

• Existing expected ROI: 15%
• New project ROI: 14%
• Cost of capital: 12%

• Project return = 14%
• Cost of capital = 12%
• It earns 2% more than the cost of capital, so it should increase shareholder value.

• 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 ????

• 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.

• IaaS: você gerencia a VM e o sistema operacional.
• PaaS: o Azure gerencia a infraestrutura; você se concentra no aplicativo.

• The users currently have Office 365 Enterprise E3 licenses assigned directly.
• Assigning Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5 through a group does not automatically remove their directly assigned E3 licenses.
• From the Licenses blade, you can select the E3 product and remove it from all assigned users in one operation. This requires less effort than editing 2,500 users individually.

• Identity Governance manages access reviews, entitlement management, and related governance—not bulk license removal.
• Set-AzureAdUser does not remove product licenses.
• Set-WindowsProductKey applies Windows product keys and is unrelated to Microsoft 365 licensing.

1. Horizontal scaling — Yes

1. Vertical scaling — Yes

1. Scaling can manage costs — Yes

• Horizontal = more or fewer instances
• Vertical = larger or smaller instances

• B — Sales staff will tender for riskier contracts:

• C — Sales staff will encroach on other territories:

• D — Sales staff will look for new jobs:

• Internal hostnames and subdomains
• Network structure and naming conventions
• Servers and services
• Relationships between systems

• Determining ISP-assigned address space: Usually involves external registration and DNS information, not internal host discovery.
• Bypassing DNS sinkholing: Would require evidence that malicious DNS requests avoided redirection.
• Initial access: DNS queries alone do not show that the attacker gained access.
• Exfiltrating data: DNS tunneling can do this, but the snippet would typically show encoded or unusually long DNS queries.

• A — Technical review by business owner: A business owner may approve the business impact, but a technical review is normally performed by technical personnel.
• C — Cost-benefit analysis after implementation: Cost-benefit analysis should occur before implementation to support the approval decision.
• D — Business continuity testing: This can be appropriate for major changes, but it is primarily part of business continuity and disaster recovery planning—not a universal change-management activity.

• How quickly the vendor must respond to incidents or requests
• Availability or uptime requirements
• Resolution time targets
• Performance expectations and penalties for failing to meet them

• SOW (Statement of Work): Describes the work, deliverables, scope, and schedule.
• MOA (Memorandum of Agreement): Documents an agreement in which parties commit to specific responsibilities.
• MOU (Memorandum of Understanding): Records a general intention to cooperate; it may not be legally binding.

• Espionage: Stealing confidential information, often for a competitor or foreign entity.
• Data exfiltration: Unauthorized removal or transfer of data.
• Nation-state attack: A cyberattack sponsored or conducted by a government.
• Shadow IT: Unapproved technology or services used outside IT oversight.

• Instant messaging/chat: Can be abused to send malicious links or attachments, but P2P file sharing is the more direct high-risk source.
• E-mail: A common malware delivery method, but this question specifically emphasizes an application type associated with direct file exchange.
• End-to-end applications: This describes communication protection or architecture, not a specific application category known for malware distribution.

apex 
Set<Id> accountIds = new Set<Id>{ accountId1, accountId2 }; 


List<Account> accounts = [ 
    SELECT Id, Name 
    FROM Account 
    WHERE Id IN :accountIds 
];

• A: LIMIT accepts a number, not a collection of IDs.
• B: Set.containsAll() checks set contents in Apex; it does not filter SOQL results.
• C: Database.query() accepts a dynamic SOQL string, not a Set<Id> directly.

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

• 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