SOC Analyst interview question

How do you decide whether an alert is a true positive or a false positive?

What interviewers are really testing

• Evidence-driven reasoning
• Context use: asset criticality, baseline behavior
• Honesty about uncertainty

A strong answer framework

1. Reproduce evidence: raw logs, process tree, network flows
2. Compare against the known-good baseline for host/user
3. Enrich with threat intel and asset context
4. Look for corroborating signals on other hosts
5. If unsure, escalate with a confidence level and notes

Follow-ups you should be ready for

• What do you do with a benign positive?
• How does the outcome feed detection tuning?

More real SOC Analyst interview questions

• A domain controller is making outbound connections to an external IP on port 443. No maintenance is scheduled. How do you investigate?
• A user reports clicking a link in a phishing email. Walk me through your response.
• How would you write a Splunk search to detect multiple failed logins followed by a success?