PCNSE Practice Test

Skills this practice test covers

• Plan high availability, security zones and traffic flows for a firewall design.
• Configure interfaces, NAT rules and security profile groups on PAN-OS.
• Control traffic by application with App-ID and by user with User-ID.
• Set up IPsec tunnels, GlobalProtect remote access and SSL decryption.
• Manage firewalls at scale with Panorama device groups and template stacks.
• Troubleshoot NAT, policy and VPN faults with CLI commands and packet captures.

5 domains · 36 topics · 230 of 395 questions sorted by domain

Requirements

• No formal prerequisites.
• Recommended: three to five years of networking or network security experience.
• Recommended: a year or more managing Palo Alto Networks firewalls, including PAN-OS, Panorama and GlobalProtect.
• Recommended: the PCNSA certification first.

About the PCNSE exam

How to earn the certification

Earns

Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE)Professional

The PCNSE certification stays valid for two years.

Before

• PCNSA Network Security Administrator

  The administrator exam usually taken first. It covers everyday firewall setup, and PCNSE builds on it.

After

• NetSec-Architect Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Architect

  Palo Alto Networks' architect-level certification. It moves from configuring firewalls to designing network security as a whole.

How to prepare for PCNSE

1. 1

   Confirm which exam to book

   This practice test follows the PCNSE objectives. Palo Alto Networks' newer firewall engineer exam is Next-Generation Firewall Engineer, so check which exam the booking page lists before planning study time.

2. 2

   Run a lab firewall with Panorama

   Use a PAN-OS virtual firewall, managed by Panorama if possible, so every task in the syllabus can be tried by hand.

3. 3

   Pair every NAT rule with its policy

   Deploy and Configure is the largest domain. Build source, destination and U-turn NAT, and check which address and which zone each matching security rule must use.

4. 4

   Practise reading CLI output

   Run show, test and debug commands on working and broken setups, and take packet captures. The troubleshooting domain is built on this skill.

5. 5

   Drill weak domains, then time it

   Work through the PCNSE practice test one domain at a time in Study Mode, then take a full run in Timed Mode. Repeat every missed NAT or VPN case in the lab.

   Start a timed PCNSErun

Palo Alto Networks recommends Firewall Essentials: Configuration and Management (EDU-210), Panorama: Managing Firewalls at Scale (EDU-220) and Firewall: Troubleshooting (EDU-330).

Who PCNSE is for

• Network security engineers who build and run Palo Alto Networks firewalls for their organization.
• Firewall administrators who hold PCNSA and want engineer-level skills.
• Engineers who manage many firewalls through Panorama.
• Security staff who troubleshoot VPN, NAT and policy problems on PAN-OS.

Typical job titles: Network security engineer · Firewall engineer · Security architect · Firewall administrator · Security operations engineer · Network engineer

PCNSE glossary

18 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.

Active/Passive

A high availability mode in which one firewall handles all traffic while its peer waits to take over.

App-ID

The firewall feature that identifies the application in a traffic flow, whatever port it uses.

Device group hierarchy

Panorama's nested device groups, where lower groups inherit policies and objects from the groups above.

Dynamic user groups

Groups whose members change automatically when users are tagged, so policy follows the tag.

GlobalProtect

Palo Alto Networks' remote access VPN, made up of a portal, gateways and an app on each device.

HIP checks

Host information profile checks, which test a device's state, such as its patch level, before access is allowed.

Packet capture

A recording of packets at chosen stages inside the firewall, used to find where traffic is dropped.

PAN-OS

The operating system that runs on Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls.

Panorama

Palo Alto Networks' central manager for configuring many firewalls and collecting their logs.

Panorama Log Collectors

Devices that receive and store firewall logs for Panorama, so log storage can grow on its own.

Security profile groups

Bundles of security profiles, such as antivirus and anti-spyware, that attach to a rule in one step.

Single-Pass Architecture

The firewall design that processes each packet once for all its security checks, instead of passing it through separate engines.

SSL Forward Proxy

Decryption of outbound traffic in which the firewall stands between the user and the website and presents its own certificate.

SSL Inbound Inspection

Decryption of traffic going to an internal server, using a copy of that server's certificate and private key.

Template stacks

Ordered sets of Panorama templates that combine to give each firewall its network and device settings.

U-Turn NAT

A NAT setup that lets internal users reach an internal server through its public address.

User-ID

The feature that maps IP addresses to user names, so rules can allow or block traffic by user or group.

Zero Trust Architecture

A security model that trusts no user, device or network by default and checks every connection.