Splunk Certification Exams Study Guide
Splunk Certification Exams Study Guide
Splunk
Certification
Certification Exam Study Guide
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Splunk Certification
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Splunk
Certification • Splunk Core Certified User
Exams •
•
Splunk Core Certified Power User
Splunk Core Certified Advanced Power User
Table of Contents • Splunk Cloud Certified Admin
Splunk Core Certified User is a recommended entry-level certification track for all candidates.
2. According to Splunk best practices, which of the following searches is most efficient if we are interested in searching
the Windows Security Event Log for failures?
a. status=failure
b. index=oswinsec sourcetype=WinEventLog:Security status=failure
c. index=oswinsec sourcetype=WinEventLog:* status=failure
d. index=oswinsec failure
2. According to Splunk best practices, which of the following searches is most efficient if we are interested in searching
the Windows Security Event Log for failures?
a. status=failure
b. index=oswinsec sourcetype=WinEventLog:Security status=failure
c. index=oswinsec sourcetype=WinEventLog:* status=failure
d. index=oswinsec failure
In order to be prepared for the certification exam, Splunk recommends completing the following
courses:
Prerequisite Certification(s):
❏ Working with Time
● None
❏ Statistical Processing
Prerequisite Course(s): ❏ Comparing Values
❏ Result Modification
● None
❏ Correlation Analysis
Recommended Next Steps: ❏ Creating Knowledge Objects
❏ Creating Field Extractions
● Splunk Core Certified ❏ Data Models
Advanced Power User
● Splunk Enterprise Certified Looking for more details? Review the test blueprint here.
Admin
● Splunk Cloud Certified
Admin
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2. Which of the following statements describe field aliases? (select all that apply)
a. Field aliases are applied after lookups.
b. Field aliases are applied before lookups.
c. Field aliases can be applied to lookups.
d. The original field is not replaced by the field alias.
2. Which of the following statements describe field aliases? (Select all that apply)
a. Field aliases are applied after lookups.
b. Field aliases are applied before lookups.
c. Field aliases can be applied to lookups.
d. The original field is not replaced by the field alias.
In order to be prepared for the certification exam, Splunk recommends completed the following courses:
❏ Using Fields
❏ Working with Time
Prerequisite Certification(s): ❏ Comparing Values
❏ Result Modification
● Splunk Core Certified Power User ❏ Leveraging Lookups and Subsearches
❏ Correlation Analysis
Prerequisite Course(s): ❏ Multivalue Fields
❏ Search Optimization
● None ❏ Creating Knowledge Objects
❏ Creating Field Extractions
Recommended Next Steps:
❏ Enriching Data with Lookups
❏ Data Models
● Splunk Certified Developer
❏ Introduction to Dashboards
● Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin ❏ Dynamic Dashboards
● Splunk Cloud Certified Admin
Looking for more details? Review the test blueprint here.
© 2022 SPLUNK INC.
Prerequisite Certification(s): The following content areas are general guidelines for the content to be included on the exam:
● Splunk Core Certified Power User
● Splunk Cloud overview
Prerequisite Course(s): ● Splunk index management
● Users, roles, and authentication
● None ● Splunk configuration files
● Universal forwarder
Recommended Next Steps: ● Forwarder management
● Data inputs in detail
● Splunk Certified Developer
● Event parsing with data preview
● Splunk ES Certified Admin
● Manipulating raw data
● Splunk ITSI Certified Admin
● Installing apps
● Splunk SOAR Certified
● Problem isolation and Splunk Cloud support
Automation Developer
1. Which Splunk component receives, indexes, and stores incoming data from forwarders?
a. Indexer
b. Search head
c. Cluster master
d. Deployment server
2. Which license type allows 500MB/day of indexing, but disables alerts, authentication, cluster, distributed search,
summarization, and forwarding to non-Splunk servers?
a. Free license
b. Forwarder license
c. Enterprise license
d. Enterprise trial license
3. What can be used when setting the host field option on a network input? (select all that apply)
a. IP
b. DNS
c. A binary file
d. Custom (explicit value)
© 2022 SPLUNK INC.
1. Which Splunk component receives, indexes, and stores incoming data from forwarders?
a. Indexer
b. Search head
c. Cluster master
d. Deployment server
2. Which license type allows 500MB/day of indexing, but disables alerts, authentication, cluster, distributed search,
summarization, and forwarding to non-Splunk servers?
a. Free license
b. Forwarder license
c. Enterprise license
d. Enterprise trial license
3. What can be used when setting the host field option on a network input? (select all that apply)
a. IP
b. DNS
c. A binary file
d. Custom (explicit value)
© 2022 SPLUNK INC.
The following content areas are general guidelines for the content to be included on the exam:
● Requirements definition
● Index and infrastructure planning
Prerequisite Certification(s): ● Clustering Overview
● Forwarder and Deployment
● Splunk Core Certified Power User ● Integration
● Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin ● Splunk Support model
● Splunk troubleshooting methods and tools
Prerequisite Course(s): ● Clarifying the problem, installation, licensing, and crash problems
● UI and search problems
● Architecting Splunk Enterprise ● Configuration problems
● Deployment problems
Deployments
● User management problems
● Troubleshooting Splunk Enterprise
● Large-scale Splunk deployment overview
● Splunk Cluster Administration ● Single-site (high-availability) indexer cluster, multi-site (disaster-recovery) indexer cluster
● Splunk Deployment Practical Lab ● Indexer cluster management and administration
● Indexer discovery forwarder configuration
Recommended Next Steps: ● Search head cluster
● Search head cluster management and administration
● Splunk Core Certified Consultant ● KV Store collection and lookup management
1. Search mode is a setting that optimizes search performance by controlling the amount or type of data that the
search returns. Which of the following are valid search mode settings? (select all that apply)
a. Fast
b. Smart
c. Verbose
d. Transform
2. By default, what is the retention period for the Splunk _audit index?
a. 14 days
b. 30 days
c. 90 days
d. 6 years
3. All Splunk users are unable to run searches. A legacy license file is suspected to have caused the issue. Which
Splunk log component could be used to clarify and confirm the issue?
a. Metrics
b. LMStackMgr
c. ServerConfig
d. SearchProcessRunner
© 2022 SPLUNK INC.
1. Search mode is a setting that optimizes search performance by controlling the amount or type of data that the
search returns. Which of the following are valid search mode settings? (select all that apply)
a. Fast
b. Smart
c. Verbose
d. Transform
2. By default, what is the retention period for the Splunk _audit index?
a. 14 days
b. 30 days
c. 90 days
d. 6 years
3. All Splunk users are unable to run searches. A legacy license file is suspected to have caused the issue. Which
Splunk log component could be used to clarify and confirm the issue?
a. Metrics
b. LMStackMgr
c. ServerConfig
d. SearchProcessRunner
Splunk Core Certified Consultant © 2022 SPLUNK INC.
The following content areas are general guidelines for the content to be included on the exam:
● Splunk Validated Architectures
● Monitoring Console configuration
● Authentication Protocols
Prerequisite Certification(s): ● Splunk to Splunk (S2S) Communication
● Data Inputs
● Splunk Core Certified Power User ● Forwarder Types
● HEC Tokens
● Splunk Core Certified Advanced Power User
● Fishbucket Records
● Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin ● Pretrained Sourcetypes
● Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect ● Indexing Buckets
● Event Processing
Prerequisite Course(s): ● Indexing Intervals
● Data Retention
● Search Head Dispatch
● Core Consultant Labs ● Sub-searches
● Services: Core Implementation ● Deployment Apps
● Deployment Server
Recommended Next Steps: ● Indexer Clustering
● Upgrading an Indexer Cluster
● Indexer Cluster Failure Modes
● None
● Multi-site Clustering
● Indexer Migration
● Search Head Clustering
The following content areas are general guidelines for the content to be included on the exam:
Prerequisite Certification(s):
● Splunk deployment overview
● Splunk Core Certified Power User ● License management
● Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin ● Splunk apps
● Splunk configuration files
Prerequisite Course(s): ● Users, roles, and authentication
● Getting data in
● None ● Distributed search
● Introduction to Splunk clusters
Recommended Next Steps: ● Deploy forwarders with Forwarder Management
● Configure common Splunk data inputs
● None ● Customize the input parsing process
2. Simple XML extensions can be used for which of the following file types?
a. JS, CSS
b. CSS, EXE
c. JS, CSS, DOC
d. CSS, HTML, JS
3. To stop a search job with a sid of 1519670895.34, which REST request should be used?
a. /services/search/jobs/1519670895.34/command -d action=stop
b. /services/search/jobs/1519670895.34/command -d action=remove
c. /services/search/jobs/1519670895.34/control -d action=cancel
d. /services/search/jobs/1519670895.34/control -d action=delete
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2. Simple XML extensions can be used for which of the following file types?
a. JS, CSS
b. CSS, EXE
c. JS, CSS, DOC
d. CSS, HTML, JS
3. To stop a search job with a sid of 1519670895.34, which REST request should be used?
a. /services/search/jobs/1519670895.34/command -d action=stop
b. /services/search/jobs/1519670895.34/command -d action=remove
c. /services/search/jobs/1519670895.34/control -d action=cancel
d. /services/search/jobs/1519670895.34/control -d action=delete
© 2022 SPLUNK INC.
The Administering Splunk Enterprise Security course focuses on Administrators who manage a Splunk Enterprise
Prerequisite Certification(s):
Security environment, including ES event processing and normalization, deployment requirements, technology
● None add-ons, settings, risk analysis settings, threat intelligence and protocol intelligence configuration, and
customizations.
Prerequisite Course(s):
The following content areas are general guidelines for the content to be included on the exam:
● None
● Identifying normal ES use cases
Recommended Next Steps: ● Examining deployment requirements for typical ES installs
● Knowing how to install ES and gather information for lookups
● Splunk SOAR Certified Automation
● Knowing the steps to setting up inputs using technology add-ons
Developer
● Creating custom correlation searches
● Configuring ES risk analysis, threat, and protocol intelligence
● Fine tuning ES settings and other customizations
2. In order for ES to automatically take an action upon locating a particular event, what can a correlation search be
configured to execute?
a. Action script
b. Activation prompt
c. Adaptive response
d. Integration script
3. When creating a correlation search, which command will generate a notable event if the risk score for any one host
is greater than 100?
a. | where 'risk_score' > 100
b. | eval risk_score > 100
c. | sum(host)risk_score > 100
d. | All_Risk.risk_score > 100
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2. In order for ES to automatically take an action upon locating a particular event, what can a correlation search be
configured to execute?
a. Action script
b. Activation prompt
c. Adaptive response
d. Integration script
3. When creating a correlation search, which command will generate a notable event if the risk score for any one host
is greater than 100?
a. | where 'risk_score' > 100
b. | eval risk_score > 100
c. | sum(host)risk_score > 100
d. | All_Risk.risk_score > 100
© 2022 SPLUNK INC.
The Implementing ITSI course focuses on the use of ITSI to monitor mission-critical services. Major topics include
Prerequisite Certification(s):
ITSI architecture, deployment planning, installation, service design and implementation, configuring entities,
● None notable events, and developing glass tables and deep dives.
Prerequisite Course(s): The following content areas are general guidelines for the content to be included on the exam:
The following content areas are general guidelines for the content to be included on the exam.
● Installation/Initial configuration
● Apps and assets
● User management
● Ingesting data
● Events and containers
● Mission control
Prerequisite Certification(s): ● Running actions and playbooks
● Case management/workflows
● None ● Multi-tenacity
● Clustering
Prerequisite Course(s): ● Automation best practices
● The visual playbook editor
● None
● Using actions and decisions
● Using action results
Recommended Next Steps:
● Testing and debugging playbooks
● Using interaction
● None
● Output formatting
● Complex logic
● Interacting with artifacts
● Using the vault in a playbook
● Custom lists
● Integrating Splunk with SOAR (Phantom)
● None Candidates may reference the Splunk How-To YouTube Channel, Splunk Docs, and draw
from their own Splunk experience. The following is a suggested and non-exhaustive list of
Prerequisite Course(s):
training from our Course Catalog that may cover topics listed in the exam blueprint:
● None
❏ Getting Data into Splunk Observability Cloud
Recommended Next Steps: ❏ Introduction to Splunk Observability
❏ Introduction to Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring
● Splunk Core Certified Power User
❏ Splunk Observability Cloud Teams
● Splunk SOAR Certified
❏ Splunk Observability Cloud Enterprise Features
Automation Developer
❏ Fundamentals of Metrics Monitoring in Splunk Observability
● Splunk IT Service Intelligence
❏ Kubernetes Monitoring with Splunk Observability Cloud
Certified Administrator
❏ Visualizing and Alerting in Splunk IM
© 2022 SPLUNK INC.
Prerequisite Certification(s): Candidates may reference the Splunk How-To YouTube Channel, Splunk Docs, Splunk Boss
of the SOC (BOTS) Blog, and draw from their own Splunk experience. The following is a
● None - it’s recommended to have suggested and non-exhaustive list of training from our Course Catalog that may cover topics
Power User Level Knowledge of listed in the exam blueprint:
Splunk Enterprise.
❏ Intro to Splunk
Prerequisite Course(s):
❏ Using Fields
● None ❏ Visualizations
❏ Search Under the Hood
Recommended Next Steps: ❏ Creating Knowledge Objects
● SOC administrator learning path ❏ Data Models
● Splunk Enterprise Security ❏ Introduction to Dashboards
Certified Admin ❏ Using Splunk Enterprise Security
❏ Introduction to Splunk Security Essentials