164 Real Network Security Interview Questions to Ace Your Tech Interview

This article compiles two extensive collections of network security interview questions—93 and 71 items respectively—covering topics such as SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, DDoS, protocol fundamentals, cloud security, penetration tools, and incident response, providing a comprehensive resource for anyone preparing for a security engineering role.

MaGe Linux Operations
MaGe Linux Operations
MaGe Linux Operations
164 Real Network Security Interview Questions to Ace Your Tech Interview

Recently many friends have asked how to prepare for network security technical interviews, so to help job seekers secure high‑pay positions we share two sets of interview questions, totaling 164 real questions.

93 Network Security Interview Questions

What is SQL injection?

What is XSS attack?

What is CSRF attack?

What is file upload vulnerability?

What is DDoS attack?

Important protocol distribution diagram

How does ARP work?

What is RARP and how does it work?

What is DNS and how does it work?

What is RIP and how does it work?

Disadvantages of RIP

What is OSPF and how does it work?

Difference between TCP and UDP?

What is the three‑way handshake and four‑way termination in TCP?

Difference between GET and POST

Difference between Cookies and Session

How does Session work?

Complete HTTP request process

Difference between HTTPS and HTTP

OSI seven‑layer model

Difference between long‑connection and short‑connection

How does TCP ensure reliable transmission?

Common HTTP status codes

What is SSL and how does HTTPS guarantee security?

How to prevent public key tampering?

PHP absolute path disclosure methods

Common penetration tools and the most used one

How to exploit blind XSS to reach internal servers?

What are spear‑phishing and water‑hole attacks?

What is virtual machine escape?

What is man‑in‑the‑middle attack?

How to protect a port?

Webshell detection ideas

What is GPC and how to bypass it?

Common web encryption algorithms

What else can XSS do besides stealing cookies?

Network hijacking by ISP or others

What is DNS spoofing?

Buffer overflow principle and defense

Network security incident response

Internal corporate security

Testing before product launch – angles to consider

What to do when a vulnerability cannot be fixed or disabled

How to protect against CSRF?

File upload bypass methods

Captcha exploitation points

What to test in cookies?

Examples of business‑logic password reset vulnerabilities

How to handle zip‑only upload functionality in penetration testing?

Why does an ASPX webshell have higher privileges than ASP?

Strategies when only a login page exists

Dangerous request headers

Difference between horizontal, vertical, and unauthorized privilege escalation

What is XSS? Risks and mechanism of stored XSS

Which logs to check when a host is possibly compromised?

Common Python standard libraries

Difference between reverse TCP and bind TCP

OAuth authentication issues and related vulnerabilities

How to obtain the real IP of a CDN‑protected site

How to achieve cross‑origin requests?

Difference between JSONP and CORS cross‑origin

Sorting algorithms you know

SSRF exploitation

Common backdoor methods

Open‑basedir bypass techniques

Common pitfalls in PHP code audit

Blue‑team counter‑attack tactics in red‑blue exercises

How attackers hide Linux cron jobs

Common Redis unauthenticated get‑shell methods

JWT attack techniques (header, payload, signature)

Java middleware vulnerabilities examples

DNS exfiltration usage

Middleware vulnerability summary

Privilege escalation ideas for Windows vs Linux

Python frameworks and associated vulnerabilities

Differences between mini‑program penetration and regular web penetration

Four major components for app vulnerability testing

IDS/IPS protection principles and bypass ideas

JSON CSRF exploitation

Vulnerabilities detectable in JSON payloads

XXE vulnerability principle and exploitation

How to gather information on an internal server

How to probe other internal machines after compromising a boundary host

71 Network Security Interview Questions

PHP absolute path disclosure method?

Most commonly used penetration tool?

Blind XSS to internal server exploitation

Spear‑phishing and water‑hole attacks?

What is virtual machine escape?

Man‑in‑the‑middle attack?

TCP three‑way handshake process?

OSI seven‑layer model?

Understanding of cloud security

Do you know WebSocket?

What is DDoS? Types? What is CC attack? Differences?

What is LAND attack?

How would you conduct information gathering?

What is CRLF injection?

How to prevent XSS from front‑end and back‑end perspectives?

How to protect a port?

Webshell detection ideas?

How to test an IIS site based on its version?

What is GPC and how to bypass it?

Common web encryption algorithms

What else can XSS do besides stealing cookies?

Network hijacking by ISP or others

What is DNS spoofing?

Buffer overflow principle and defense

Network security incident response

Internal corporate security

Testing before product launch – angles to consider

What to do when a vulnerability cannot be fixed or disabled

How to protect against CSRF?

File upload bypass methods?

Captcha exploitation points

What to test in cookies

Examples of business‑logic password reset vulnerabilities

How to handle zip‑only upload functionality in penetration testing?

Why does an ASPX webshell have higher privileges than ASP?

Strategies when only a login page exists

Dangerous request headers

Difference between horizontal, vertical, and unauthorized privilege escalation

What is XSS? Risks and mechanism of stored XSS

Which logs to check when a host is possibly compromised?

Common Python standard libraries

Difference between reverse TCP and bind TCP

OAuth authentication issues and related vulnerabilities

How to obtain the real IP of a CDN‑protected site

How to achieve cross‑origin requests?

Difference between JSONP and CORS cross‑origin

Sorting algorithms you know

SSRF exploitation

Common backdoor methods

Open‑basedir bypass techniques

Common pitfalls in PHP code audit

Blue‑team counter‑attack tactics in red‑blue exercises

How attackers hide Linux cron jobs

Common Redis unauthenticated get‑shell methods

JWT attack techniques (header, payload, signature)

Java middleware vulnerabilities examples

DNS exfiltration usage

How to bypass HTTP‑Only cookie restriction

Middleware vulnerability summary

Privilege escalation ideas for Windows vs Linux

Python frameworks and associated vulnerabilities

Differences between mini‑program penetration and regular web penetration

Four major components for app vulnerability testing

IDS/IPS protection principles and bypass ideas

JSON CSRF exploitation

Vulnerabilities detectable in JSON payloads

XXE vulnerability principle and exploitation

How to gather information on an internal server

How to probe other internal machines after compromising a boundary host

Images illustrating parts of the question sets are included below:

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MaGe Linux Operations
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MaGe Linux Operations

Founded in 2009, MaGe Education is a top Chinese high‑end IT training brand. Its graduates earn 12K+ RMB salaries, and the school has trained tens of thousands of students. It offers high‑pay courses in Linux cloud operations, Python full‑stack, automation, data analysis, AI, and Go high‑concurrency architecture. Thanks to quality courses and a solid reputation, it has talent partnerships with numerous internet firms.

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