I recently passed my SC-200 exam and I wanted to share the resources I used to pass this exam.
To keep it tl;dr, I recommend these three essential resources that are (in my opinion) key to passing the SC-200 exam:
- Udemy “SC-200 Microsoft Security Operations Analyst Course & SIMs” by John Christopher
- Microsoft Learn SC-200 Course
- MeasureUp Practice Test
Udemy “SC-200 Microsoft Security Operations Analyst Course & SIMs” by John Christopher
https://www.udemy.com/course/microsoft-security-operations-analyst-course-sims
Everyone learns differently, some prefer hands-on experience, while others learn best by reading documentation or structured content. Personally, I learn best through practical, real-world application. While it’s possible to create a free Microsoft account and use trial credits to activate trial subscriptions, the requirement to add a credit card (even for free trials) can feel intimidating. There’s always a worry of somehow accidentally triggering a subscription you didn’t intend to activate.
What I really wanted was a clean learning method, like watching someone else walking through the interface for me, explaining the purpose of each feature as they go, not worrying that your free trial might expire soon or you run out of free credits. That is when I found this course provided by John Christopher.
If you’re new to cybersecurity or unfamiliar with the Microsoft Defender/ the MS security stack, this course is a great place to start. It provides a solid high-level overview of the various Microsoft security products and how they contribute to protecting an organization.
However, it’s important to understand that this course does not prepare you for the SC-200 exam. If you rely solely on it and go straight into the exam, you’re likely to fail. The course only scratches the surface, while the actual SC-200 exam dives deep into the details, including how the tools work under the hood and KQL know-how.
Think of this course as a summary of the content. A useful foundation, but definitely not enough on its own to pass the exam. This is when you move towards the official training materials on Microsoft Learn.
Microsoft Learn SC-200 Course
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/courses/sc-200t00
This is the main focus for your study material. Everything you need to know for the SC-200 exam is either included in this free Microsoft course, or directly referenced within it somewhere. Thanks to reviewing the Udemy course beforehand, you should already be familiar with most of the products mentioned and won’t feel so overwhelmed.
That said, be prepared. Some sections can feel like a real slog. It’s tempting to skim through the material, but try to resist that urge. Take your time, read carefully, and make notes as you go. Be sure to follow the links to any referenced articles too. (I think I’ve read enough about Microsoft Purview and all its offerings to last a lifetime)
When you reach the end, don’t skip the practice assessment. Take it multiple times and aim to consistently score 80% or higher before moving on to the MeasureUp practice test.
MeasureUp
https://www.measureup.com/microsoft-practice-test-sc-200-microsoft-security-operations-analyst.html
After completing the Microsoft Learn course, it’s highly recommended (by many on Reddit and myself included) to tackle the practice exam questions from MeasureUp. While it is a paid resource, it’s worth the investment. The questions will resemble the types you’ll encounter on the real exam, and the explanations provided for each answer are useful. If you get a question wrong, MeasureUp will explain the correct answer clearly. Be sure to cross-reference any incorrect answers with the related Microsoft Learn material to reinforce your weak areas.
Personally, I liked to create custom sets of 10 questions at a time, enabling the option to view the correct answers as I went. This approach helped me stay focused without burning out. Even if I answered a question correctly, I still read the full explanation provided. Once you’ve gone through the entire question list, you should be confident enough now to book your exam. If not, there’s nothing wrong with going through the course material again on Microsoft Learn.
Pre-Exam Checks
I took the exam from the comfort of my home office using Pearson VUE’s OnVUE online proctoring system, running it on my laptop since I didn’t have a standalone webcam. OnVUE is an exam proctoring software that monitors your screen, webcam, and microphone while you take your test. It also scans your device for suspicious processes and applies system restrictions to prevent any kind of cheating during the exam – that’s the price for taking the exam at home instead of at a testing center.
Getting it set up does take a bit of effort. First, you need to run a mandatory system test before your exam day to ensure compatibility. In my case, I had to disable some background VPN and VMware services that were running. I also had to temporarily open port 1935 in my Windows Firewall to get the webcam stream working properly which was a minor inconvenience.
On the day of the exam, I completed the check-in process 30 minutes beforehand. This included the usual microphone, webcam, speaker, and system checks. I then had to take a picture of my ID using my phone, which briefly tripped me up, as I had to go into my Android settings and manually grant camera access to the Chrome app.
After that, I took a clear selfie, followed by photos of my testing environment: the front, back, left, and right sides of the room. Your exam space needs to be free from anything that could be considered a cheating aid, such as documents, TV screens, or cameras. I decided to move my desktop monitors into another room rather than just unplug them, since otherwise I may have needed to prove during check-in that they were truly unplugged. Make absolutely sure you won’t be disturbed during the exam. If the proctor hears someone talking or sees another person enter the room, it could be considered a cheating attempt and result in an automatic fail.
After a proctor checked my details and my pictures, I began my exam. Be sure to stay within view of your webcam at all times. Leaving the frame without explicit permission from the proctor could result in your exam being terminated.
The Exam
I can’t share too many specifics about the exam itself, but I will say it felt noticeably more difficult than any of the practice tests I’d taken beforehand. If I didn’t immediately know the correct answer to a question, I marked it for review and moved on. At the end of the exam, I revisited those marked questions and used the built-in access to Microsoft Learn documentation to look up some of the finer details, some of which would be tough to memorize outright. Even then, there were a few questions where it was difficult to locate the answer in Microsoft Learn. I ended up leaving the really complex questions until the very end, when I had some extra time to spare and dig a little deeper.
Thankfully, I finished with a score of 803 and still had 10 minutes left on the clock, comfortably above the passing mark. I can’t repeat the questions I saw on the exam but I can only recommend topics of interest I think you should be sure to review extra carefully:
Conclusion
Passing the SC-200 should bring you more value than just adding a bullet point to your resume. Along the way you will have learned how to work with the Microsoft security tools, which is a big win! These are skills that are incredibly relevant, especially as more and more companies are moving towards cloud based offerings such as Microsoft 365 and Azure. It’s a challenging exam for sure, but achievable with effort. I hope that sharing my experience helps you on your SC-200 study path. Good luck!
