300-220 exam at a glance
Cisco Certified Cybersecurity Specialist – Threat Hunting and Defending · Professional level
| Exam code | 300-220 CBRTHD |
|---|---|
| Certification | Cisco Certified Cybersecurity Specialist – Threat Hunting and Defending; also satisfies a concentration exam requirement for CCNP Cybersecurity |
| Level | Professional |
| Duration | 90 minutes |
| Delivery | Proctored exam offered in person or online |
| Exam cost | US$300, or use Cisco Learning Credits |
| Languages | English |
| Certification validity | 3 years |
| Retake policy | After a failed attempt, candidates must wait five calendar days, beginning the day after the failed attempt, before retaking the same exam. After passing, candidates must wait at least 180 days before taking the same exam number again. |
| Prerequisites | None |
The exam is intended for professionals conducting threat hunting and defending activities. Cisco identifies relevant audiences for the associated training as Security Operations Center staff, Security Operations Center Tier 2 Analysts, Threat Hunters, and Cyber Threat Analysts. The exam covers threat modeling, threat actor attribution, threat hunting techniques and processes, and threat hunting outcomes.
Skills measured and their weighting
| Skill area | Weight |
|---|---|
| Threat Hunting Fundamentals | 20% |
| Threat Modeling Techniques | 10% |
| Threat Actor Attribution Techniques | 20% |
| Threat Hunting Techniques | 20% |
| Threat Hunting Processes | 20% |
| Threat Hunting Outcomes | 10% |
Source: cisco.com — official 300-220 CBRTHD exam page. The current official exam topics document is Conducting Threat Hunting and Defending using Cisco Technologies for Cybersecurity v1.0. Figures were checked against Cisco’s official documentation. Confirm current details there before booking.
The full bank covers every domain, with timed mode and per-domain scoring.
300-220 Practice Questions By Domains
6 domains covered1. Threat Hunting Techniques
15 free questions available
2. Threat Hunting Outcomes
5 free questions available
3. Threat Actor Attribution Techniques
4 free questions available
4. Threat Hunting Processes
2 free questions available
5. Threat Modeling Techniques
2 free questions available
6. Threat Hunting Fundamentals
2 free questions available
Practice the full exam, not a sample
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Unlock all 60 questionsCisco 300-220 CBRTHD Practice Test
A suspicious sign in a security log does not tell the whole story. A threat hunter needs to decide what the sign might mean, where to look next, and how to explain the evidence. That is why preparing for the Cisco 300-220 CBRTHD practice test works best when you study the reasoning behind each answer. Search certification assessments by category and use a practice session to find the areas where your understanding needs work.
CBRTHD is Cisco’s Conducting Threat Hunting and Defending using Cisco Technologies for Cybersecurity exam. Cisco says it covers threat modeling, actor attribution, hunting methods, processes, and outcomes. Passing it earns the Cisco Certified Cybersecurity Specialist – Threat Hunting and Defending credential and can meet the concentration requirement for CCNP Cybersecurity. The concentration alone does not complete the whole CCNP certification. Cisco’s CBRTHD overview.
Threat hunting means actively looking for suspicious activity that routine alerts may not have identified. Cisco’s training approaches this work through network records, endpoint information, and other datasets. For learners, the useful question is simple: What evidence would support or challenge this possible threat? Cisco’s threat hunting training.
Who Benefits From CBRTHD Practice?
Cisco identifies security operations centre staff, experienced SOC analysts, threat hunters, and cyber threat analysts among the audiences for its CBRTHD training. It recommends general knowledge of networks and network security as a foundation. Cisco’s course guidance.
If you are new to security operations, start by learning what normal user, device, and network activity looks like. Become familiar with logs, basic network connections, and the difference between an observation and a conclusion. These foundations will help you make sense of a hunting scenario.
If you already investigate alerts at work, the practice test can help you widen your perspective. Daily tasks may make you comfortable with one log source while leaving gaps in cloud activity, endpoint evidence, or reporting. Recording those gaps gives you a specific study plan.
Whatever your experience, explain each answer in your own words. Ask what the available evidence shows, what remains uncertain, and what you would check next. This habit turns a practice result into a useful learning activity.
Official Cisco 300-220 CBRTHD Domains
Cisco’s published CBRTHD v1.0 topic outline divides the syllabus into six areas. The domain names and weights below come from the Cisco Learning Network’s CBRTHD exam topics.
Use the percentages to plan coverage, then adjust your time according to your practice results. A smaller domain can still contain unfamiliar concepts, and topics frequently connect across domains.
1. Threat Hunting Fundamentals — 20%
This domain builds the language of threat hunting. You should understand why a team searches for activity beyond its existing alerts, what data it can examine, and how the organisation’s ability to hunt can improve over time.
Start with the distinction between an indicator and a behaviour. An indicator might be an individual address or file value observed during an investigation. Behaviour describes what a person or program did. A useful study activity is to consider whether a single sign would still be meaningful if the suspected actor changed tools or infrastructure.
Learn the idea behind the Threat Hunting Maturity Model: a team’s processes, data, and analytical capabilities affect the kinds of hunts it can run. You do not need to assume every organisation starts with advanced automation. Consider what an analyst could investigate using the logs currently available and what additional visibility would help.
Cisco also includes the strengths and limits of detection tools and automation in its topic outline. When reviewing a scenario, note which sources were collected, what they could show, and what they could miss. This makes it easier to avoid treating the absence of an alert as proof that nothing happened. Cisco’s published CBRTHD objectives.
Finally, practise reading a threat intelligence summary. Identify the observed behaviour, the analyst’s interpretation, and any recommendation. Keep those parts separate in your notes.
2. Threat Modeling Techniques — 10%
A threat model gives an analyst a way to organise possible attacker behaviour. It helps turn a broad concern, such as unusual access to a system, into smaller questions that available evidence can address.
MITRE ATT&CK describes observed adversary behaviour. Its tactics express an attacker’s goal; its techniques describe ways that goal may be pursued. MITRE’s CAPEC catalog describes common attack patterns and how adversaries exploit weaknesses. These resources have different purposes, so learn which one fits the question you are trying to answer. MITRE ATT&CK definitions, MITRE’s CAPEC overview.
For practice, take a short, invented workplace scenario: a staff account accesses an unusual system after hours. Describe the concern without declaring it an attack. Then list records that could clarify the activity, such as the sign-in context and related device activity. This exercise helps you move from a possibility to a testable plan.
Cisco’s outline also distinguishes structured and unstructured hunts. For revision, compare a hunt guided by a defined behaviour or hypothesis with a wider search for anomalies. In either case, write down your question before choosing a data source. Cisco’s CBRTHD topic outline.
3. Threat Actor Attribution Techniques — 20%
Attribution involves examining whether a collection of actions resembles a known actor or type of threat. It requires careful use of evidence. A shared tool, file name, or network destination may raise a lead, but that observation alone does not establish who was responsible.
MITRE ATT&CK uses publicly available reporting to document patterns of adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures, often shortened to TTPs. In plain language, ask three things: What was the goal? What method appeared? What specific action was observed? MITRE’s explanation of ATT&CK and TTPs.
Practise constructing a short timeline from several records. Which event happened first? Which observations are connected? Which actions could have an ordinary explanation? Note the difference between evidence and a reasonable hypothesis.
One useful distinction is between an authorised security assessment and unexpected activity. Both can generate suspicious looking records. In a realistic workplace, you would check the approved scope, timing, and activity records before deciding how to describe the event. The CBRTHD outline includes this comparison. Cisco’s attribution objectives.
When checking practice explanations, watch for conclusions that reach further than the evidence. A careful answer may identify behaviour that warrants investigation while leaving the actor’s identity unresolved.
4. Threat Hunting Techniques — 20%
This area asks you to examine different kinds of evidence. Cisco’s training includes network traffic, Windows event logs, endpoint processes, endpoint memory, and threat hunting across tools. Its published outline also covers scripting and cloud hunting. Cisco’s practical course outline, Cisco’s CBRTHD topics.
Make a simple evidence map for each practice activity:
| Source | Useful question to ask |
| Network records | Which systems communicated, and when? |
| Endpoint records | Which process or user activity was observed? |
| Sign-in records | Was the access expected for this account? |
| Cloud records | Which account or service performed an action? |
The table is a study aid; the available records will depend on the environment. A successful hunt depends on matching the question to the evidence you can actually collect.
Begin by reading existing scripts and queries before trying to write complicated ones. Explain what a query filters, which time period it covers, and what a result would mean. This builds confidence in interpreting analysis without treating a tool as a substitute for judgment.
When a technique is unfamiliar, use a three-part note: what the activity would look like, where you might see it, and what else you would need to know before reaching a conclusion. Keep your explanation simple enough to discuss with a teammate.
5. Threat Hunting Processes — 20%
A process makes a hunt repeatable. It keeps the team focused on a clear question and gives another analyst a way to understand what was checked.
Use the following study sequence when reviewing a scenario:
- Define the concern. State the behaviour you want to investigate.
- Choose available evidence. Identify relevant records, devices, and time periods.
- Examine the results. Separate ordinary activity from observations needing more work.
- Check alternative explanations. Ask what would support or weaken your initial idea.
- Record the outcome. Describe what you found, what remains unknown, and what should happen next.
Cisco’s CBRTHD training covers practical hunts from investigation through reporting, including endpoint and network analysis. Its topic outline also includes identifying gaps in detection and building playbooks. Cisco’s training objectives, Cisco’s published exam topics.
For a practice activity, imagine a hunt whose planned endpoint data was not available. Explain what that absence prevents you from concluding. Then document the data gap so the next hunt can be better supported.
A playbook records the actions a team should take for a defined situation. As a learner, concentrate on its purpose: making evidence gathering, escalation, and documentation easier to follow. In your review notes, distinguish a step that gathers information from a step that recommends a defensive change.
6. Threat Hunting Outcomes — 10%
A hunt can produce useful results even when it does not confirm malicious activity. The team may find missing logs, improve a detection rule, clarify expected behaviour, or identify a question that requires a separate investigation.
Cisco’s outcomes domain includes assessing analytical gaps, improving hunting methods, recommending mitigations, and explaining findings. Its training also covers reporting after an investigation. Cisco’s CBRTHD exam topics, Cisco’s training outline.
Practise writing a brief summary with four parts: the question investigated, evidence examined, conclusion supported by that evidence, and recommended next action. Mark uncertainty plainly. For example, limited endpoint visibility may leave the scope of an observation unclear.
You can also evaluate the value of combined data. A network record might show a connection; an endpoint record might show which process made it. Connecting those views can improve an investigation, provided the records refer to the same activity and time period.
Keep your language accessible to its reader. A teammate may want the technical evidence, while a manager may need the finding, level of confidence, and recommended action.
Study Features That Make CBRTHD Practice Useful
Edurely describes several features that can support a focused study routine: browser based practice, explanations for each answer choice, sessions organised by domain, a timed mode, mistake review, and results broken down by subject. These are the platform’s published features; check the available material for the particular exam you choose. You can Discover resources for technical career growth while reviewing the platform’s preparation options.
Use them in a way that answers a study question:
- Practice Mode can help while you are learning terminology and reviewing immediate feedback.
- Answer explanations can show why a tempting option does not fit the available evidence.
- Domain practice can focus your time on modeling, attribution, or another weak area.
- Mistake review helps you revisit an assumption that appeared more than once.
- Timed practice can help you work on pacing after you understand the concepts.
Choose a single aim for each session. You might work on telling observation from interpretation, selecting a useful data source, or explaining the outcome of a hunt.
A Clear Way to Use Your Practice Results
Record uncertainty as well as mistakes
An answer you guessed correctly can reveal a knowledge gap. After each session, list the questions that made you hesitate. Write down the concept behind your uncertainty, rather than copying only the answer choice.
Keep a small revision tracker with the domain, the question you could not explain, an official source to read, and a short activity to try next. For example, “I cannot explain why two events suggest related activity” is more useful than “study logs.”
Work through a small investigation
Create a hypothetical activity timeline using made up information. Write one possible explanation and one ordinary alternative. Decide which records could distinguish them. This gives you practice applying a method without needing access to a live investigation.
Cisco’s training describes activities such as analysing event logs, examining network data, reviewing endpoint evidence, and reporting the results. Use those topics to shape a simple exercise that fits the tools you can access. Cisco CBRTHD lab outline.
Return to the original objective
After studying a missed concept, check the corresponding item in Cisco’s topic outline. Ask whether your revision now helps you perform the action named there: interpret, distinguish, assess, or recommend.
When you want to compare related credentials, Search Cisco assessments by certification code and select the preparation material relevant to your planned path.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main purpose of a Cisco 300-220 CBRTHD practice test?
It helps you check how well you understand threat hunting concepts and apply them to short scenarios. Review the explanations to identify whether a mistake came from unfamiliar terminology, missing evidence, or a conclusion that went beyond the facts.
Do I need security operations experience to start studying?
You can begin without working as a threat hunter, though familiarity with networks and network security will help. Cisco recommends that background for its CBRTHD training. Build your foundation in logs, endpoint activity, and network connections as you work through the syllabus. Cisco’s course prerequisites.
Can one suspicious indicator identify a threat actor?
An indicator can provide a lead, but attribution requires careful evaluation of context and several pieces of evidence. Use observed behaviour, timeline, and source reliability to judge what can reasonably be concluded. MITRE describes ATT&CK as a collection of documented adversary behaviours rather than a tool that automatically identifies whoever caused an event. MITRE ATT&CK FAQ.
Is CBRTHD the whole CCNP Cybersecurity certification?
CBRTHD can meet the CCNP Cybersecurity concentration requirement. Passing it also earns Cisco’s Threat Hunting and Defending specialist credential. Cisco lists the wider professional certification separately. Cisco’s CBRTHD certification page.
How do I know that practice is improving my understanding?
Look beyond your score. Try explaining a new scenario by stating the hunting question, the evidence you would check, a reasonable alternative explanation, and the conclusion the available facts support. Progress shows in clearer reasoning across unfamiliar situations.