Information Security Interview Questions

February 20, 2021

Below are some questions I like to ask folks during interviews.

I think these questions lead to a much more natural and “conversational” type interview.

Security Engineer – Example Questions

Why are you passionate about cyber security?

What is your ideal role?

What things have you learned recently?

What do you want to learn?

Tell me about a true-positive security incident and how you remediated it?

How do you know if a machine is compromised?

Tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them

Tell me about a time when you were not able to implement all the security controls you wanted.  What happened? 

What compensating controls were put in place?

What are your first three steps when securing a server?

How does DNS Work?

What do your home setup look like? Do you tinker at home on security projects?

Tell me about two scripts you wrote to accomplish something at work.

What don’t you like about xyz (Pretty much anything on their resume.. This shows if they truly have a knowledge of the subject)?

How can you tell what programs load with a windows/linux server?

How do you trace the execution of a process?