PCNSE Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield PCNSE facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. What is the primary purpose of security zones in Palo Alto Networks firewalls? → To logically group interfaces and enforce policy between groups
2. When configuring GlobalProtect for IPv6, which statement is correct? → GlobalProtect supports IPv6 for both the tunnel interface and client-assigned addresses
3. Which HA feature allows a Palo Alto firewall to monitor an upstream router and trigger failover if the path fails? → Path Monitoring
4. In Panorama's policy hierarchy, which policy takes precedence over all others for a managed firewall? → Shared Pre-Rules
5. With a Palo Alto Networks firewall, how many zones can be allocated to a given interface? → One
6. Which zone type allows a Palo Alto firewall to monitor traffic passively without being in the traffic path? → Tap
7. What minimum HA timer setting results in the fastest failover detection but highest CPU overhead? → Aggressive
8. How should an administrator configure decryption to honor employee privacy for traffic to financial services sites? → Create a no-decrypt rule targeting the 'financial-services' URL category
9. Which of the following two statements about App-ID content changes is true? (Select two.) → Existing security policy rules are not affected by application content updates
10. Which Panorama feature enables automatic provisioning of new firewalls without manual configuration? → Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP)
11. Which Palo Alto Networks security feature analyzes DNS queries to block connections to malicious domains, including C2 servers? → DNS Security
12. What condition triggers a failover in an Active/Passive HA pair? → The Active firewall fails a link monitoring or heartbeat check
13. What two actions should be made in a File Blocking profile to allow file types that support vital apps? (Select two.) → Clone and edit the Strict profile.
14. When PAN-OS SSH Proxy decryption is configured, what specific SSH behavior is it designed to detect and control? → SSH tunneling and port forwarding used to bypass security controls
15. Which two components of a URL filtering security profile can have actions configured for them? (Select two.) → Allow List
16. What does the 'HA Suspended' state mean on a Palo Alto firewall? → The firewall has been administratively removed from the HA pair and will not take over
17. In a decryption policy, which action explicitly exempts matched traffic from SSL/TLS inspection? → no-decrypt
18. Which Panorama report type provides a summary of traffic patterns and top applications across all managed firewalls? → Application Usage and Risk Report
19. In Active/Active HA mode, how is traffic distributed between the two firewalls? → Both firewalls simultaneously process traffic, typically with a load balancer
20. A virtual container known as a ____ is used to encapsulate data delivered across an Ethernet network. → frame
21. A mobile banking app stops working after SSL Forward Proxy decryption is enabled on the firewall. What is the most likely cause? → The app uses certificate pinning that rejects the firewall's re-signed certificate
22. What happens when a HIP check fails in a GlobalProtect deployment with policy enforcement enabled? → The user is placed in a quarantine zone with restricted access
23. What is the purpose of an Anti-Spyware profile in a Palo Alto security policy? → To detect and block command-and-control traffic and spyware phone-home communications
24. What is a Device Group in Panorama? → A logical grouping of firewalls that share common policy and object configurations
25. What is the function of a URL Filtering profile in Palo Alto Networks? → To control user access to websites based on URL categories
26. In a large enterprise GlobalProtect deployment, what is the recommended approach for scaling gateway capacity? → Deploy multiple gateways in different geographic locations
27. Which decryption type requires uploading the web server's private key to the firewall for inspecting inbound HTTPS traffic? → SSL Inbound Inspection
28. What is the primary security benefit of micro-segmentation in a data center environment? → It limits lateral movement by isolating workloads and applying policy between them
29. What is the primary function of Palo Alto Networks Panorama? → To provide centralized management and visibility across multiple Palo Alto firewalls
30. In Panorama, which administrator role has full read/write access to all managed devices and Panorama itself? → Superuser