The Check Point Certified Troubleshooting Expert - R81.20 (exam 156-587) is designed for security professionals who manage and troubleshoot CheckPoint environments in production settings. This certification validates your ability to diagnose and resolve complex issues across management servers, gateways, firewalls, VPN connections, and access control systems. This page provides a clear roadmap of exam topics, question types, and practical preparation strategies to help you build confidence and pass on your first attempt. Whether you're new to advanced troubleshooting or refining existing skills, the resources and guidance here will focus your study on what matters most.
Use this topic map to guide your study for CheckPoint 156-587 (Check Point Certified Troubleshooting Expert - R81.20) within the Check Point Certified Troubleshooting Expert path.
The 156-587 exam combines knowledge-based and scenario-driven questions to measure both your understanding of CheckPoint concepts and your ability to apply troubleshooting logic to real-world problems. Questions progress in difficulty and require you to think through cause-and-effect relationships, not just memorize definitions.
Questions emphasize practical reasoning and decision-making, so studying with real scenarios and explanations is more valuable than memorizing isolated facts.
An effective study routine maps each topic to weekly milestones and includes both focused learning and hands-on practice. Allocate 4-6 weeks for thorough preparation, depending on your current experience level. Consistency and active review, not cramming, will build the depth needed to pass confidently.
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Advanced Gateway Troubleshooting, Advanced Troubleshooting with Logs and Events, and Advanced Management Server Troubleshooting typically account for a larger portion of the exam. However, all nine domains are tested, so a balanced study approach is essential. Focus extra time on topics where you have the least hands-on experience.
In production, these domains overlap: a policy installation failure on the management server cascades to gateway synchronization issues, which then affects VPN tunnel establishment and access control enforcement. Understanding these dependencies helps you troubleshoot more systematically and recognize root causes that span multiple components. Study how each component communicates with the others, not just in isolation.
Hands-on experience is valuable for building confidence and understanding log output, but the exam does not require extensive lab work if you study logs and real scenarios thoroughly. Prioritize labs in Advanced Troubleshooting with Logs and Events and Advanced Gateway Troubleshooting, where interpreting actual output is critical. Even a few hours in a test environment reading logs and navigating SmartConsole will significantly improve your performance.
Candidates often confuse similar error messages, misinterpret log timestamps or severity levels, and jump to conclusions without considering the full troubleshooting sequence. Another frequent error is overlooking certificate or licensing issues as root causes. Read each question carefully, consider all options, and always think about what the first diagnostic step should be, not just the final fix.
In the final week, focus on weak areas identified in your practice tests rather than re-studying topics you already know well. Review scenario-based questions and log analysis items, as these require more critical thinking. Do a full timed practice test 2-3 days before your exam, review explanations, then do a lighter review of key terminology and common error codes the day before. Avoid heavy new learning in the last 48 hours; instead, reinforce confidence and pacing.
The FileApp parser in the Content Awareness engine does not extract text from which of the following file types?
What Check Point process controls logging?
The CPD process controls logging on the Security Management Server or the Log Server. It is responsible for receiving logs from the Security Gateways, storing them in the log files, and forwarding them to the SmartLog and SmartEvent servers. It also handles the communication with the SmartConsole clients and the CPM process. The CPD process runs on the Security Management Server or the Log Server as part of the Management High Availability module.
1: Check Point Processes and Daemons - CPD
Troubleshooting Expert R81.1 (CCTE) Course Outline) - Module 9: Logging and Status Troubleshooting.
The two procedures available for debugging in the firewall kernel are
i. fw ctl zdebug
ii. fw ctl debug/kdebug
Choose the correct statement explaining the differences in the two
The correct statement explaining the differences between the two procedures for debugging in the firewall kernel is D. (i) is used for general debugging, has a small buffer and is a quick way to set kernel debug flags to get an output via command line whereas (ii) is useful when there is a need for detailed debugging and requires additional steps to set the buffer and get an output via command line.
What command is usually used for general firewall kernel debugging and what is the size of the buffer that is automatically enabled when using the command?
