Which statement best describes the expected outcome of a tabletop exercise?

• A. A tested and coordinated understanding of incident response roles and procedures.
• B. A live system outage.
• C. A compliance audit report.
• D. A vulnerability scan result.

Answer: (A)

A tabletop exercise focuses on people, roles, and procedures, using a discussion-based scenario to walk through how an incident would be handled. The best outcome is that participants demonstrate a tested and coordinated understanding of incident response roles and procedures—their responsibilities, escalation paths, and how communication should flow during an incident. This kind of exercise validates that the team knows who does what, when to escalate, and how information is shared, and it helps reveal gaps so plans can be updated and training targeted.

It’s not about causing a live outage, producing a compliance audit report, or generating a vulnerability scan result. Those are outcomes of different activities and tests.