CIS-DF Certification Exam Guide + Practice Questions

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Comprehensive CIS-DF certification exam guide covering exam overview, skills measured, preparation tips, and practice questions with detailed explanations.

CIS-DF Exam Guide

This CIS-DF exam focuses on practical knowledge and real-world application scenarios related to the subject area. It evaluates your ability to understand core concepts, apply best practices, and make informed decisions in realistic situations rather than relying solely on memorization.

This page provides a structured exam guide, including exam focus areas, skills measured, preparation recommendations, and practice questions with explanations to support effective learning.

 

Exam Overview

The CIS-DF exam typically emphasizes how concepts are used in professional environments, testing both theoretical understanding and practical problem-solving skills.

 

Skills Measured

  • Understanding of core concepts and terminology
  • Ability to apply knowledge to practical scenarios
  • Analysis and evaluation of solution options
  • Identification of best practices and common use cases

 

Preparation Tips

Successful candidates combine conceptual understanding with hands-on practice. Reviewing measured skills and working through scenario-based questions is strongly recommended.

 

Practice Questions for CIS-DF Exam

The following practice questions are designed to reinforce key CIS-DF exam concepts and reflect common scenario-based decision points tested in the certification.

Question#1

Configuration Management requires an accurate inventory of devices to be reflected in the CMDB.
Which are common use cases for using Agent Client Collector (ACC)? (Choose 2 options)

A. Servers in the data center
B. Network devices in the DMZ
C. Devices in secure environments
D. Devices that intermittently connect to the network

Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation (200C300 words):
The Agent Client Collector (ACC) in ServiceNow is designed to collect inventory data from endpoints that are not consistently reachable by traditional Discovery methods. ACC is especially valuable where credential-based, network-based discovery is impractical or impossible.
Devices in secure environments (Option C), such as isolated networks, restricted zones, or highly regulated environments, often block inbound discovery traffic. ACC runs locally on the device and securely sends inventory data outward, making it ideal for these scenarios.
Devices that intermittently connect to the network (Option D), such as laptops, remote endpoints, or roaming devices, are another core use case. Traditional Discovery requires the device to be reachable during scheduled scans, which is unreliable for mobile or off-network assets. ACC ensures inventory data is collected whenever the device is online.
Option A (data center servers) is better served by agentless Discovery, which provides deeper infrastructure and relationship data.
Option B (network devices in the DMZ) are typically discovered using SNMP and network discovery, not ACC.
ACC complements Discovery as part of a layered ingestion strategy, ensuring accurate inventory coverage across diverse environments.
Therefore, the correct answers are C C Devices in secure environments and D C Devices that intermittently connect to the network.

Question#2

What is the difference between Data Certification and Attestation policies when managing a CI?

A. Attestation requires correcting specific attributes of a CI, while Data Certification tracks acknowledgement the CI still exists
B. Attestation can be scheduled, while Data Certification cannot be scheduled
C. Attestation can be assigned to a group or an individual, while Data Certification can only be assigned to an individual
D. Attestation tracks acknowledgement the CI still exists, while Data Certification requires validating specific attributes of a CI

Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation (200C300 words):
Within ServiceNow CMDB governance, Attestation and Data Certification serve distinct but complementary purposes. The key difference lies in what is being validated.
Attestation is focused on existence and ownership confirmation. When a CI is attested, the assigned user or group is asked to confirm that the CI still exists, is still relevant, and is still owned or managed by the appropriate team. No detailed attribute-level validation is required. This lightweight process is commonly used to prevent “ghost CIs” from lingering in the CMDB.
Data Certification, on the other hand, is more rigorous. It requires the certifier to validate specific attributes of the CI, such as lifecycle status, support group, environment, or service relationships. Certification ensures data correctness and completeness, which directly impacts CMDB Health scores and downstream processes like Change and Incident Management.
Options A, B, and C incorrectly describe these mechanisms or their assignment and scheduling capabilities. Both attestation and certification can be scheduled and assigned flexibly, but their validation depth is what truly differentiates them.
Therefore, Option D correctly describes the distinction: attestation confirms existence, while data certification validates CI attributes.

Question#3

A CMDB Administrator needs to create a new CI class for an Internet of Things (IoT) Sensor in ServiceNow.
What are the recommended practices for this activity? (Choose 2 options)

A. Delete an unused class and replace it with the new one
B. Install or update the CMDB CI Class Models Store application and verify the class does not already exist
C. Add a new class under an appropriate parent class
D. Modify an existing class

Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation (200C300 words):
Creating new CI classes is a high-impact configuration activity and must follow strict Data Foundations and CSDM-aligned best practices to avoid long-term technical debt and upgrade risk.
Option B is a recommended first step. Before creating any new CI class, administrators should install or update the CMDB CI Class Models Store application and verify whether an appropriate class already exists. ServiceNow frequently delivers new CI classes through updates and class model packages, and duplicating an existing or planned class can lead to fragmentation and governance issues.
Option C is also correct. When a new class is truly required, it should be added under an appropriate parent class to inherit attributes, behaviors, and discovery patterns. For an IoT Sensor, this might be under a hardware or device-related parent class, ensuring consistency and minimizing customization.
Option A is incorrect and dangerous―deleting unused classes can break dependencies and historical data.
Option D is also discouraged; modifying existing classes to repurpose them violates upgrade-safe design principles and can negatively impact discovery, integrations, and reporting.
By verifying existing models first and extending the class hierarchy correctly, organizations maintain a clean, scalable, and upgrade-safe CMDB.
Therefore, the correct answers are B and C.

Question#4

The Incident Process Owner asks which classes of CSDM are used on the Incident form.
Which classes are appropriate?

A. Application Service
B. Business Application
C. Service Offering
D. Service Portfolio

Explanation:
In the Common Service Data Model (CSDM), the Incident form is designed to capture operational impact and enable effective incident routing, prioritization, and communication. To achieve this, CSDM prescribes using classes that represent how services are delivered and consumed, not how they are planned or governed.
Application Service (Option A) is an appropriate class on the Incident form because it represents the technical service that is running in production and is directly impacted during an incident. Application Services are service-mapped, relate to underlying infrastructure, and support impact analysis, root cause investigation, and automated assignment. This makes them ideal for associating incidents with technical outages or degradations.
Service Offering (Option C) is also appropriate because it represents how a service is consumed by users or business units. Service Offerings allow Incident Management to understand who is affected, enable targeted communications, and support SLA/OLA alignment. For example, an email service offering for a specific department clearly identifies the impacted consumer group.
Business Application (Option B) is not recommended on the Incident form. Business Applications are logical representations used for portfolio, ownership, and governance purposes, not day-to-day operational incident handling. Using them directly on incidents can reduce precision and automation.
Service Portfolio (Option D) is a strategic construct used for service lifecycle management and is never associated with operational incidents.
Therefore, according to CSDM best practices, the correct classes used on the Incident form are Application Service and Service Offering, making Options A and C the correct answers.

Question#5

The CMDB Configuration Management team has successfully developed a healthy and trusted CMDB. They have integrated discovered infrastructure data, accurately referenced non-discoverable data (such as change and support group information), and made the CMDB service-aware using Service Mapping.
Which field on an Incident form is automatically populated after a CI is selected that references an appropriate support group?

A. Managed by Group
B. Approval Group
C. Assignment Group
D. Change Group
E. Support Group

Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation (200C300 words):
In a mature CMDB implementation within ServiceNow, CI operational attributes are leveraged to automate ITSM workflows. One of the most important outcomes of accurate Configuration Management is automatic incident routing.
When a CI is selected on an Incident record, ServiceNow evaluates the CI’s Support Group attribute. If populated correctly, the platform automatically copies this value into the Assignment Group field on the Incident. This ensures incidents are routed to the correct resolver group without manual triage, reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR).
The Support Group is a CI attribute, not an incident field that drives workflow directly. The Assignment Group is the operational field used by Incident Management to assign ownership. Managed by Group, Approval Group, and Change Group are used in other governance and lifecycle contexts and are not auto-populated during incident creation.
This behavior is a direct result of Data Foundations best practices: maintaining accurate CI-to-support-group relationships to enable automation and consistency across ITSM processes.
Therefore, the correct answer is C C Assignment Group.

Disclaimer

This page is for educational and exam preparation reference only. It is not affiliated with ServiceNow, CIS-Data Foundations (CMDB and CSDM), or the official exam provider. Candidates should refer to official documentation and training for authoritative information.

Exam Code: CIS-DFQ & A: 69 Q&AsUpdated:  2026-02-24

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