MSSP SOC Analyst Interviews (Microsoft Stack): The questions you’ll actually get -and the answers I’d actually give

Last updated on 04 Sep 2025

Alright class, let's do this.

Grab your coffee, silence your notifications, and get ready. We're about to break down the real interview questions you're going to face when you're trying to land that entry-level SOC Analyst gig at an MSSP that lives and breathes Microsoft.

Forget the textbook answers. We're going for the stuff that makes the interviewer nod and think, "Okay, this person actually gets it."

First, Why Is an MSSP Interview So… Different?

Before we dive in, you need to get your head in the right space. Working at a Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) isn't like being in the cosy, one-company-to-protect internal SOC. It’s a different kind of beast, and they're hiring for a different kind of analyst.

You're a Security Firefighter for Hire: You aren't protecting one castle; you're on call for ten, twenty, maybe fifty castles. You have to be a master of context-switching. One minute you're investigating a phishing attack for a small accounting firm, the next you're triaging a ransomware alert for a hospital.
The Clock is Always Ticking (Hello, SLAs): Clients pay big money for a promise: "We will respond in X minutes." That promise is called an SLA (Service Level Agreement), and it is your new religion. Speed and accuracy aren't just nice-to-haves; they're contractual obligations.
Playbooks Are Your Bible: To handle all those clients without going insane, MSSPs run on process. You will have a step-by-step guide (a playbook) for almost everything. They need to know you can follow instructions to the letter.
You're the Microsoft Whisperer: The environment is going to be 99% Microsoft. This means you need to understand how Sentinel (the brain), Defender (the muscle), and Entra ID (the bouncer) all talk to each other.

Got it? Good. They aren't just testing your security knowledge; they're testing your ability to survive and thrive in this specific, high-octane environment. Let's get to the questions.

Category 1: The "Let's See If You Know the Basics" Round

These are the warm-ups. Don't let them fool you; if you stumble here, it’s a massive red flag. They need to know you have a solid foundation before they trust you with their clients' security.

1. In your own words, explain the CIA Triad.

Why They're Really Asking: "Did you do the absolute bare minimum of studying? Do you understand why we're all here?" This is the "hello world" of security interviews.
How to Answer It: "Yeah, the good ol' CIA Triad. It's the whole point of what we do, right?

Confidentiality is keeping secrets secret -like a locked diary. Only authorised people can see the data.

Integrity is making sure nobody messes with that data—ensuring no one scribbles in your diary without you knowing.

Availability is making sure you can actually get to your diary when you need it. A perfect example of an attack that trashes all three is ransomware. It breaches confidentiality by accessing your files, destroys integrity by encrypting them, and kills availability because you can't use them anymore."

2. What's the difference between TCP and UDP?

Why They're Really Asking: "You're going to be looking at network logs all day. Do you have a clue what they mean?"
How to Answer It: "Simple. TCP is like sending a registered letter. It's all about reliability. It does a 'three-way handshake' to make sure the other side is ready, sends the data in order, and gets confirmation that it arrived. You use it for things where you can't afford to lose a single piece, like loading a webpage. UDP is like shouting a message across a room. It's fast and doesn't care if you heard everything. It just sends. You use it for things like DNS lookups or video streaming, where speed is more important than 100% perfect delivery."

3. What are some common port numbers you look out for?

Why They're Really Asking: "Can you spot something that looks weird at a glance?" It’s a quick-fire gut check.
How to Answer It: "Definitely. The usual suspects are always on my radar: 443 for HTTPS, 3389 for RDP, 22 for SSH, 53 for DNS. But what's more interesting is when you see things that don't belong. Like a huge amount of data going out over port 53—that screams DNS tunnelling. Or seeing RDP on a weird, non-standard port. That’s an immediate 'hang on a second' moment for me."

Category 2: The "Welcome to Microsoft Sentinel" Gauntlet

This is it, the core of the technical interview. Sentinel is your home, and KQL is the language you’ll speak. You must prepare for this section. Depending on the MSSP, you may not always be required to have hands-on experience with Microsoft Sentinel, but you’re expected to understand the core principles.

Think of it this way: if the job description clearly states that you’ll be working with a product, why would a company hire someone who hasn’t even taken the time to explore it? Candidates who take the initiative to familiarise themselves with Sentinel - even at a basic level - stand out immediately. That extra effort is often what separates a strong, serious candidate from the rest.

1. So, what is Microsoft Sentinel?

Why They're Really Asking: "Describe the main tool you'll be using for 8 hours a day. Show me you understand its purpose."
How to Answer It: "Think of Sentinel as the brain of the security operation. It's a cloud-native SIEM, which means it pulls in logs and data from everywhere - Defender on the endpoints, Entra ID for logins, firewalls, you name it. Its job is to be the central command centre where it connects the dots between all that noise to create a single, manageable incident. It's not just a log bucket; it's the place where we hunt, investigate, and even automate our responses with playbooks."

2. You get an alert in Sentinel. What's the difference between the Alert and the Incident?

Why They're Really Asking: "Do you understand the workflow? Do you know what to focus on and what's just noise?"
How to Answer It: "An Alert is just a single event. It’s one thing happening, like one failed login. You could get thousands of those, and you'd go crazy. An Incident is what we actually work on. It's Sentinel being smart and grouping a bunch of related alerts together. So instead of seeing 50 separate alerts for 'failed login' and one for 'successful login from a weird country' for the same user, Sentinel packages it all into one 'Multi-stage incident involving a potential account compromise.' It gives us the context we need to see the bigger picture."

Why They're Really Asking: "Show me the code. Can you actually do the job?" This is where many people freeze. Don't. Even if your syntax isn't perfect, talk them through your logic.

How to Answer It: "Absolutely. Let's do this. First, I need to tell it what data to look at, which for logins is the SigninLogs table. Then I'll filter for the time, then the user, then the result. It would look something like this:"

SigninLogs
| where TimeGenerated > ago(1d)
| where UserPrincipalName == 'bob@client.com'
| where ResultType != 0 // '0' means success, so not-0 means failure
| project TimeGenerated, UserPrincipalName, AppDisplayName, IPAddress, Location

"And I'd project just the columns I care about at the end to make the output clean. The key is to filter down the data step-by-step so the query runs efficiently."

Category 3: The "In the Trenches" Scenario Questions

Here, they'll throw realistic scenarios at you to see how you think on your feet. It's all about your process.

1. Ding! A high-severity alert from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint fires: "PowerShell execution with base64 encoded command." Walk me through your next steps, right now.

Why They're Really Asking: "An attack is happening. What do you do? Don't tell me the theory. Tell me your actions."
How to Answer It:
1. "First, I grab it. I acknowledge the incident in Sentinel and assign it to myself. The SLA clock stops screaming, and everyone knows I'm on it."
2. "I pivot straight to Defender. I'm not wasting time in Sentinel. I need the endpoint context. I open the alert in the Defender portal, and the first thing I look at is the process tree. What kicked off PowerShell? Was it Word? Outlook? A scheduled task? That tells me the entry point."
3. "Decode the gibberish. I copy that base64 string and throw it into something like CyberChef. I need to see what that command is actually trying to do. Is it trying to download Mimikatz? Is it running reconnaissance? This tells me intent."
4. "CONTAIN. IMMEDIATELY. If that decoded command looks malicious, I'm not waiting. I hit the 'Isolate device' button in Defender. This cuts it off from the network, so it can't spread, but it keeps my connection so I can keep investigating. It’s the single most important immediate action."
5. "Then I hunt. Now that the fire is contained, I start looking for the spread. I check the Defender timeline on that machine for other weird activity. I go back to Sentinel and search for that malicious IP or domain across all my other clients to see if this is a wider campaign."

Why They're Really Asking: "Identity is everything. How do you handle a potential VIP account compromise?"
How to Answer It: "Okay, 'Impossible Travel' on a VIP is an all-hands-on-deck situation.
1. Don't assume it's bad. First, I check the basics. What are the IPs? Is the New York IP their corporate office or a known VPN? Is the Singapore IP coming from a Microsoft datacenter, maybe from a weird cloud app sync? Is the user agent the same on both? Sometimes it's a false positive caused by cloud services.
2. Look for post-login activity. This is the real tell. I'm diving into the Entra ID audit logs for that user right after the Singapore login. Did they create a new email forwarding rule? Did they try to share a bunch of files from SharePoint? That's my proof of malicious activity.
3. Time to talk. If I see anything suspicious, I'm following the playbook, which almost certainly means an immediate, out-of-band call. No emails. I'm calling the CEO or their assistant to verify. 'Hi, this is [Name] from the SOC. We're seeing some strange login activity on your account. Can you confirm if you just logged in from Singapore?'
4. If they say no, it's go time. I'm immediately disabling the account, revoking all sessions, and triggering the official incident response process for a confirmed compromise." - depending on the contract, you may want to swap points 3 & 4

Category 4: The "Are You Built for This?" Questions

These are less about technical skills and more about your mindset, personality, and whether you'll crumble under pressure.

1. Why do you want to work at an MSSP? Be honest.

Why They're Really Asking: "Do you understand what you're signing up for? Or are you just going to burn out and quit in 3 months?"
How to Answer It: "Honestly? Because of the sheer exposure. I want to learn, and I learn fastest by doing. At an MSSP, I'm not just going to see one company's problems; I'm going to see dozens. I'll see more attack types, more environments, and more technologies in six months here than I would in two years at an internal SOC. I thrive in an environment where there are clear processes and playbooks to follow. I want to build that foundational muscle memory of how to respond to incidents correctly, and this seems like the best place on earth to do it."

2. It's Tuesday morning. You've got three high-severity alerts for three different clients, all firing at once. How do you prioritise?

Why They're Really Asking: "Can you handle pressure and make smart decisions when everything is on fire?"
How to Answer It: "First rule is don't panic. Second is to follow the process. Prioritisation is usually a mix of two things: the severity of the attack and the client's SLA. An active ransomware alert for a client with a 15-minute SLA is going to take priority over a credential stuffing alert for a client with a 1-hour SLA. I'd tackle the most critical, time-sensitive incident first, but I'd also immediately flag the situation to my shift lead. That way, they know what's on my plate and can delegate one of the other incidents to a teammate if needed. It's about handling my own ticket while being aware of the team's overall workload."

That's the gist of it. They want to see your passion, your process, and your ability to stay calm under fire. Be honest, be enthusiastic, and show them you're not just looking for a job, you're looking to start a career as a defender.

Now go get that job.