Cisco Designing Cisco Security Infrastructure Exam Practice Test
The Cisco Designing Cisco Security Infrastructure Exam (300-745 SDSI) focuses on planning security controls across enterprise networks, endpoints, and data flows. Relevant design work includes deciding where to enforce access, how to contain administrative activity, and how to balance inspection with availability and performance. The practice bank samples scenarios involving wired access, outbound connections, data protection, resilience, and secure branch connectivity.
Exam overview
About the Cisco Designing Cisco Security Infrastructure Exam
Security infrastructure design requires matching controls to specific threats and operational constraints. Practice scenarios call for distinguishing behavior-based analytics from signature detection, planning outbound monitoring around known dependencies, and reducing exposure to appliance vulnerabilities through lifecycle practices. They also raise resilience questions about shared power and network paths, and ask how to restrict and record third-party administration. Other design decisions involve preventing unauthorized data transfers, protecting laptop data at rest, and extending secure connectivity between branches and data centers. For time-sensitive voice, candidates must consider how inspection and traffic handling affect latency and service quality. Work through each scenario by identifying the asset, trust boundary, failure mode, and business requirement before selecting a control; then consider whether the design remains manageable and avoids unnecessary disruption.
Sample Practice Questions
Review a selection from this exam's published US Practice Tests practice bank.
A business must ensure that only approved devices can connect to wired office networks. Which control is a suitable first layer for enforcing this requirement?
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Correct answer: ANetwork access control can authenticate devices or users at the point of connection and apply authorization decisions, such as denying or quarantining unapproved devices.
A security team wants to detect suspicious behavior by identifying deviations from normal network activity, including activity that does not match known attack signatures. Which analytic approach is most directly suited to this goal?
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Correct answer: AAnomaly-based detection compares observed behavior with a baseline and can flag unusual patterns that are not represented in signature rules. The other choices provide access control, certificate validation, or recovery support.
A security team is designing controls for outbound connections from servers. The team wants to detect unexpected destinations while avoiding disruption to known service dependencies. Which initial step is most appropriate?
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Correct answer: BAn observed and validated baseline helps distinguish legitimate dependencies from unexpected egress before restrictive controls are introduced. Immediate blanket blocking can interrupt services, while unrestricted egress and disabled logging weaken security.
An organization wants to reduce the chance that a vulnerability in a network security appliance can be exploited before a fix is available. Which lifecycle practice best supports this objective?
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Correct answer: AAn accurate inventory and ongoing advisory review help identify affected products and unsupported versions, enabling timely risk assessment and remediation. The other choices weaken operational security or delay response.
A design uses redundant firewalls, but both units depend on one power circuit and one upstream switch. What is the most important design concern?
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Correct answer: BRedundancy at one layer does not provide end-to-end resilience if both devices rely on shared infrastructure. Independent power and network paths can reduce common-mode failure risk.
An organization wants to prevent employees from sending sensitive files to unauthorized external destinations, while allowing approved business transfers. Which control is most directly designed for this purpose?
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Correct answer: ADLP controls can inspect data in use, in motion, or at rest and apply policies to detect or restrict unauthorized disclosure. Policy tuning is needed to support legitimate business workflows.
A security architect is planning access for third-party support personnel who need to troubleshoot a limited set of systems. Which design most effectively constrains and records their administrative activity?
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Correct answer: BNamed accounts, a controlled gateway, limited permissions, and session records improve accountability and constrain the scope of third-party access. Shared or broad direct access makes misuse harder to prevent and investigate.
How to use this practice test
Access 50 free practice questions in the bank. Each session presents up to 20 random questions, with results shown after you finish. Use the scenarios to test how you map security goals to controls, recognize shared failure points, and account for operational dependencies; revisit missed decisions by identifying the risk or constraint you overlooked.
Preparation tips
- For wired access-control scenarios, compare device admission controls with controls that only monitor or filter traffic after connection.
- When evaluating outbound monitoring, first map expected destinations and service dependencies, then identify deviations that warrant investigation.
- For high availability, trace power, switching, and upstream paths to find shared failure points beyond the redundant appliances.
- For third-party administration, assess least-privilege access alongside session recording and limits on reachable systems.
- For voice and inspection designs, consider latency-sensitive traffic separately from flows that can tolerate deeper inspection.