How Recruiters Use Technical Scenarios to Filter Real SOC Analysts
In the current job market, security roles attract a massive wave of applicants, many of them relying on buzzwords, bootcamps, and…
In the current job market, security roles attract a massive wave of applicants, many of them relying on buzzwords, bootcamps, and automation tools without truly understanding how investigations work. To cut through the noise, a lot of security recruiters and hiring managers now use pre-interview technical scenarios to filter candidates before they even get to a live call.
One of the most common filters I’ve seen is a scenario involving a suspicious PowerShell command, a child process, and a network connection. The goal isn’t to see if you can copy/paste an answer, it’s to see whether you can think like an analyst. Instead of just giving quick answers, we’re walked through the deep investigative mindset required for the job.
Why This Kind of Scenario Exists
From experience, recruiters at serious security teams are trying to answer one question:
“If I drop this person into a SOC queue, will they be able to handle a real alert without panicking or missing obvious red flags?”
That’s why they present a small slice of telemetry, for example:
- A Bit.ly URL
- A PowerShell command
- A parent and child process
- One network connection
Your job is to decide: Is this suspicious? Why? What do you do next?
If all you can do is ask a chatbot to explain it for you, they’ll spot that very quickly.
The Analyst’s Thought Process (Sample Investigative Scenario)
Here is the step-by-step breakdown of how to approach such scenarios, moving from initial detection to the final fix.
1. Identifying the Red Flags
Right away, several elements are highly suspicious in any Powershell command:
- PowerShell
invoke-expression(iex): This is a classic indicator for fileless malware, as it’s used to execute code (like a downloaded script) directly in memory system.net.webclient&download string: The command is clearly designed to download content from a URLbit.lyURL: This is a URL shortening service, often used by attackers to obfuscate the final, malicious destinationnet service scheduled: This parent process is a major red flag. It strongly implies a persistence mechanism has been set up via a Windows Scheduled Task
2. Parent/Child Processes and Persistence
The parent process may show up as something like svchost.exe tied to services and scheduled tasks, indicating that:
- A scheduled task may have been created as a persistence mechanism.
- A built-in Windows process might be doing something it normally doesn’t.
As an analyst, you don’t stop at oh, it’s just svchost. You:
Verify the file path (is it in the expected Windows directory?). Check the hash to confirm the binary is legitimate. Look for signs of masquerading or tampering.
Windows-native processes are abused constantly. Recruiters expect you to know this and to think in those terms.
3. Stop the Bleeding
Before digging any deeper, the first and most critical action is containment. You must immediately isolate the device from the network. This prevents any potential malware from moving laterally to other devices or communicating with a command and control (C2) server.
4. Following the Rabbit Hole
With the device contained, the investigation begins:
Typical options:
- Threat intel & URL reputation services
- URL sandboxing or URL scanning tools
- Safe detonation environments
In the scenario referenced, the link ultimately resolves to an obfuscated PowerShell script .
However, as an analyst, you don’t just close the case. Why?
- Public benign scripts can be chained with malicious payloads.
- An attacker can piggyback on a harmless script to distract you.
So the mindset is: treat it as potentially malicious until you prove otherwise.
5. How a Real Analyst Digs Deeper
This is where good candidates distinguish themselves and where recruiters start paying attention. A thorough investigation means:
Cyber Security Notes and Cheat Sheets 👇
Process & Timeline Analysis
You don’t just stare at one line of telemetry. You:
- Look at process logs before, during, and after the execution.
- Check what else ran alongside that PowerShell script.
- Identify if it spawned additional tools, scripts, or binaries.
Scheduled Task Investigation
Since scheduled tasks are involved, you:
- Search for when the task was created.
- Determine what process or user created it.
- Ask: was it social engineering (copy-paste commands), a fake installer, or admin action?
The goal: identify the initial compromise, the “smoking gun.”
Lateral Movement Checks
No device exists in isolation:
- Did this host reach out to other machines on the network?
- Are there other devices running the same command or hitting the same URL?
If multiple devices are involved, each one may need isolation and investigation.
7. Persistence and Stealth Techniques
Beyond obvious registry keys and startup folders, attackers may use:
- Modified Windows services
- DLL hijacking
- Admin scripts that have been silently altered
Without good telemetry (EDR, SIEM), these are hard to spot.
A recruiter wants to see that you at least know these possibilities exist and won’t claim all clear after checking only one or two obvious places.
8. Network and Possible Data Theft
Because so much is happening in memory, you may not see every step of execution. That means:
- Checking network connections around the time of execution.
- Using tools like
netstatto find unusual established connections or listening ports. - Watching for any signs of command-and-control (C2) activity.
If C2 is confirmed or strongly suspected, you must assume:
- Passwords, cookies, banking info, and other sensitive data might already be gone.
- Any stored credentials on that device are potentially compromised.
That implies follow-up actions like password resets and session revocations.
Ready to Nail your SOC interview? check out the guide below: 👇
When You Can’t Trust the Device Anymore
This is the uncomfortable but realistic part of the job.
If you cannot confidently identify how the device was compromised, confirm whether additional payloads ran, prove there is no hidden persistence and rule out significant data exfiltration
Then the safest and most honest recommendation is:
Wipe the device and rebuild it.
Recruiters love seeing this kind of reasoning: risk-based, realistic, and not overly optimistic.
Hardening After the Incident
Post-incident steps you should be thinking and talking about:
- Reset all passwords stored or used on the device.
- Remove local admin rights where not absolutely necessary.
- Restrict or review access to network shares.
- Confirm EDR or endpoint tools are properly configured (not left in “audit only” mode).
- Add custom detection rules for similar patterns (IEX + WebClient + shortened URLs, for example).
- Monitor the device (if not wiped) more closely for an extended period.
Recruiters pay attention to whether you talk about prevention and hardening, not just containment.
👉 Explore coaching & mentoring programs here:
These coaching and mentoring programs give you personalized direction, clear priorities, and a real path forward built around your goals and schedule.
Why Recruiters Love This Scenario Type
From the hiring side, these scenarios reveal whether a candidate knows how to break apart a suspicious PowerShell command, understands fileless malware and in-memory execution, thinks in terms of persistence, lateral movement, and exfiltration and uses a structured approach: investigate → contain → eradicate → remediate → harden → document.
A good analyst:
- Doesn’t assume.
- Doesn’t stop at the first “benign-looking” explanation.
- Documents everything and feeds improvements back into playbooks.
Over time, this becomes second nature, but that’s also when complacency creeps in. Having well-maintained playbooks and checklists helps ensure nothing critical is missed, even on autopilot.
What This Signals to Recruiters
When you’re given a scenario like this in a pre-interview test or live interview, the recruiter isn’t looking for perfect screenshots, perfect wording, or a magical one-line answer
They’re looking for:
- Your thought process
- How you prioritize actions
- Whether you understand risk and impact
- Whether you can communicate a clear plan
If you can show that you, contain first, Investigate deeply, Avoid assumptions, and Recommend realistic remediation and hardening steps, you’re already miles ahead of candidates who just describe the command and stop there.
🧠 Get Strategic cyber security and tech insights weekly to your email by joining my newsletter below
Conclusion
This scenario isn’t about knowing the answer to a trivia question; it’s about demonstrating your structured approach to the full incident response lifecycle: Investigate, Contain, Eradicate, Remediate, and Document. You need to show that you’ll leave no stone unturned.
