CST Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the CST exam in one place: the exam format, every topic to study, real practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and full-length practice tests. Free, no sign-up needed.
📋 CST Exam Format at a Glance
📚 CST Topics to Study (69)
✍️ Sample CST Questions & Answers
1. Which practice BEST supports the legal defensibility of a surveillance system's footage in litigation?
Access controls, audit logs, and encryption collectively demonstrate that footage has not been altered or accessed improperly, supporting its authenticity and admissibility as evidence.
2. What is the primary function of video analytics in a surveillance system?
Video analytics uses algorithms to automatically analyze video content and detect specific events, behaviors, or objects without continuous human monitoring.
3. A PM task calls for checking the video wall display used in a control room. What is the primary maintenance concern for these displays?
Video wall displays in continuous-use control rooms degrade in pixel uniformity and backlight brightness over time, and heat management must be verified to prevent premature failure.
4. When exporting video evidence for court, which file attribute is most critical to preserve to demonstrate the footage has not been altered?
A cryptographic hash value (MD5 or SHA) provides a verifiable fingerprint proving the exported file is bit-for-bit identical to the original.
5. What is the purpose of 'camera tamper detection' in a video analytics system?
Camera tamper detection identifies when a camera has been physically interfered with—such as being covered, repositioned, or defaced—and triggers an immediate alert.
6. When selecting cameras for an indoor retail environment, which feature is most important to prevent blind spots near shelving units?
A varifocal lens with a wide minimum angle lets the installer adjust the field of view to eliminate blind spots around shelving.