SSE Engineer study plan
SSE Engineer · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Security Service Edge Fundamentals
Define SSE, SASE, and Zero Trust and explain in your own words how each differs from traditional perimeter security.
Identify the four core SSE pillars (SWG, CASB, ZTNA, and FWaaS/DLP) and list at least two concrete capabilities of each.
Map each SSE pillar to the Prisma Access component that delivers it so you can connect theory to product.
Compare explicit proxy, transparent proxy, and agent-based traffic steering and state when each is used.
Your checkpoint
A one-page concept map linking SSE pillars to Prisma Access components, plus a 150-word written summary of Zero Trust principles.
Security Service Edge Fundamentals & Prisma Access Configuration and Deployment
Describe the Prisma Access architecture layers (management plane, data plane, and compute locations) and explain what runs in each.
Distinguish the Prisma Access deployment types (service connection, remote network, mobile user) and give a use case for each.
Outline the onboarding workflow from initial tenant provisioning through the first security policy commit.
List the prerequisites (licensing, DNS, certificates, and identity provider) needed before a first deployment.
Your checkpoint
A numbered onboarding checklist of at least 12 prerequisite and configuration steps with a short note on why each matters.
Prisma Access Configuration and Deployment
Configure mobile user groups, authentication profiles, and agent settings in a lab or sandbox tenant.
Build a base security policy with at least three rules that demonstrate least-privilege ordering and rule-hit logic.
Explain how configuration scopes (global versus folder-level) inherit and where policy can be overridden.
Practice a full commit and describe what each commit stage validates.
Your checkpoint
An exported configuration summary or annotated screenshot set showing mobile users, auth profiles, and a three-rule policy with commit results.
Prisma Access Configuration and Deployment & Prisma Access Connectivity and Routing
Set up a remote network and a service connection in a lab and document the required IP addressing and BGP or static routing choices.
Explain how Prisma Access advertises routes to on-premises and cloud networks and what breaks when summarization is wrong.
Diagnose at least two common connectivity failures (asymmetric routing and missing return route) using documented symptoms.
Compare IPSec tunnel versus explicit proxy for user traffic and state the trade-offs.
Your checkpoint
A routing diagram for one remote network and one service connection showing subnets, tunnels, and advertised routes, with a 200-word troubleshooting note.
Prisma Access Connectivity and Routing
Describe how DNS, decryption, and SSL inspection interact with traffic steering and where breakage typically occurs.
Explain the role of the Prisma Access infrastructure subnet and why it must not overlap with internal ranges.
Walk through how traffic flows from a mobile user through a compute location to the internet and to a private app.
Identify the settings that control compute location selection and traffic egress.
Your checkpoint
An end-to-end packet walk written in at least 250 words covering mobile user, service connection, and internet-bound traffic, plus a table of five settings that affect path selection.
Security Policy and Threat Prevention
Configure decryption policy with exceptions and explain the legal and operational reasons for each exception.
Build URL filtering, threat prevention, WildFire, and DNS security profiles and attach them to rules.
Design a rule set that applies least privilege across SaaS, internet, and private apps and justify each rule's action.
Explain how security profiles are applied in a rule and what happens when a profile is missing.
Your checkpoint
A policy design document with a rule table (at least 8 rules), attached profiles, and a one-paragraph justification per rule.
Security Policy and Threat Prevention & Operations, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting
Use logs (traffic, threat, URL, and decryption) to reconstruct what happened to a specific session.
Configure or interpret at least two alerting or reporting mechanisms for policy and threat events.
Practice identifying false positives and tune a profile without weakening coverage.
Describe the workflow for investigating a malware or phishing alert from detection to containment.
Your checkpoint
A written incident walkthrough of at least 300 words that traces one simulated threat from log evidence to a tuning action, with the exact log fields you would check.
Operations, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting & Prisma Access Configuration and Deployment
Build a personal troubleshooting checklist covering connectivity, policy, decryption, and routing failures.
Review all prior deliverables and correct at least three gaps or inaccuracies you find.
Complete a timed 60-question practice set and categorize every miss by domain.
Write a one-page exam-day strategy covering question triage and time allocation.
Your checkpoint
A scored practice-set log with domain-by-domain accuracy percentages and a remediation list for any domain below 75 percent.
Milestones
Week 2: Can explain all four SSE pillars and all three Prisma Access deployment types without notes and score at least 70 percent on a 20-question fundamentals quiz.
Week 4: Has a working lab configuration with mobile users, a remote network, and a service connection, plus a routing diagram that a peer could follow.
Week 6: Has a complete policy design document with at least 8 justified rules and attached security profiles, and can explain decryption exceptions.
Week 8: Scores at least 80 percent overall on the timed practice set with no domain below 75 percent, and every missed question has a written remediation note.