Ethical Hacking Tutorial
Top 50 SOC Analyst Interview Questions for 2025
Table of Contents
- 1. Define SOC.
- 2. What are threat, vulnerability, and risk?
- 3. Explain the difference between hashing and encryption.
- 4. Differentiate between symmetric and asymmetric encryption. Which is better?
- 5. Define CSRF.
- 6. Explain the term security misconfiguration.
- 7. Explain IPS. How does it differ from IDS?
- 8. What is a white hat, black hat, and grey hat hacker?
- 9. Define XSS. How will you mitigate it?
- 10. What is a firewall?
- 11. Explain the CIA triangle.
- 12. HIDS or NIDS, which one is better?
- 13. Explain port scanning.
- 14. Differentiate between VA and PT.
- 15. What objects must be included in a good penetration testing report?
- 16. Define compliance.
- 17. Name the different response codes from a web application.
- 18. What is the use of tracert or traceroute?
- 19. Explain DDOS and its mitigation.
- 20. Define WAF. What are its types?
- 21. Explain the objects of basic web architecture.
- 22. How will you manage Antivirus alerts?
- 23. What is the meaning of false positive and false negative in the case of IDS? Which one is more acceptable?
- 24. Differentiate between software testing and penetration testing.
- 25. Explain the blue team and red team.
- 26. Mention the tools used to secure a standard network.
- 27. What is DHCP?
- 28. How to prevent Man-in-middle-attack?
- 29. Explain the role of the network layer in OSI layers.
- 30. Explain 2FA. How to implement it for public websites?
- 31. Why does a company need a Security Operations Center(SOC) team?
- 32. Explain the responsibilities of an L1 and L2 Security Analyst.
- 33. Explain the various SOC models.
- 34. What are the stages of SOC implementation?
- 35. Differentiate between SIEM and IDS.
- 36. Define SQL injection vulnerability. Give countermeasures to prevent it.
- 37. Explain phishing attacks. How to prevent it?
- 38. What is cognitive cybersecurity?
- 39. Define SOC runbook.
- 40. Differentiate between firewall deny and drop.
- 41. Differentiate between TCP and UDP.
- 42. Name the steps to develop the Data Loss Prevention(DLP) strategy.
- 43. Explain the term data leakage.
- 44. Explain the three-way handshake.
- 45. Which port number does Ping use?
- 46. Give examples of algorithms for encoding, encryption, and hashing techniques.
- 47. When is Base64 used in the encryption context?
- 48. What would you do if you found 300 alerts triggered simultaneously, being a SOC Analyst?
- 49. Explain DNS. Why is DNS monitoring essential?
- 50. List some of the common cyber-attacks.
