Staff Aug: Scenario Based Questions

SP

You discover Global Admins are using their accounts for daily email and Teams. What do you do?

Recommend separate admin-only accounts without productivity licensing and explain the phishing and blast-radius risk to leadership.

An IT Director wants MFA enforced everywhere immediately. How do you respond?

Explain the risks of disruption and recommend phased MFA rollout starting with admins and high-risk users.

Admins are signing in from multiple countries unexpectedly. What’s your approach?

Review sign-in logs

The internal team is resistant to changes you recommend. How do you handle it?

Listen to concerns

A Conditional Access policy locks out an admin. What should have prevented this?

Break-glass accounts excluded from Conditional Access with monitored usage.

Leadership asks why security improvements take time. How do you explain?

Security must be phased to reduce risk without causing outages or business disruption.

The client wants compliant-device enforcement for all users immediately. What do you recommend?

Start with admins first

You identify legacy authentication is enabled but rarely used. What’s your move?

Confirm dependencies

An IT Director asks how you prioritize remediation. How do you answer?

Based on risk severity

You’re asked to “lock everything down.” How do you respond?

Explain that over-restriction creates outages and propose balanced

Teams sprawl is out of control. What governance steps do you suggest?

Control team creation

The internal team fears automation will replace their roles. How do you address this?

Position automation as reducing noise and freeing them for higher-value work.

Leadership asks why admins shouldn’t have E3 licenses. What’s your explanation?

Productivity licenses expose admins to phishing and collaboration-based attacks.

You see inconsistent Conditional Access policies. What’s your recommendation?

Standardize policies using baseline + admin-specific models.

The client wants faster remediation but no downtime. What’s your strategy?

Prioritize low-impact changes first and schedule higher-risk changes during approved windows.

An IT Director asks how you measure success in this role. What do you say?

Reduced risk

You’re asked to justify a recommendation leadership doesn’t like. How do you respond?

Present risk

The internal team escalates everything to you. What do you do?

Resolve issues collaboratively and ensure knowledge transfer to avoid becoming a bottleneck.

You’re asked what you would not change immediately. How do you answer?

Business-critical systems without full dependency understanding.

The client wants proof security improvements worked. What do you show?

Before-and-after risk posture

You detect risky sign-ins but no incident yet. What’s your response?

Investigate

An admin complains about access restrictions. What do you do?

Explain security rationale and adjust policies only if business impact requires it.

The IT Director asks how you handle disagreements. What do you say?

By focusing on data

A security change causes user complaints. What’s your next step?

Assess impact

You’re asked how you ensure long-term sustainability. What’s your answer?

Documentation