Introduction

With the growing importance of network security, Fortinet and its flagship product FortiGate firewall have become central to enterprise cybersecurity. As a result, Fortinet interview questions are a must-know for roles like:

• Network Security Engineer
• Firewall Administrator
• Security Analyst
• SOC Engineer
• IT Infrastructure Specialist

This detailed guide covers 60+ Fortinet interview questions, divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, including scenario-based and real-time questions frequently asked in interviews.

Section 1: Fortinet Basic Interview Questions

1.What is Fortinet?

Answer: Fortinet is a global cybersecurity company that offers security-driven networking solutions. Its key product is FortiGate, a next-generation firewall used for traffic filtering, threat protection, and VPN setup.

2.What is FortiGate?

Answer: FortiGate is a Unified Threat Management (UTM) device that provides multiple security functions like firewall, VPN, antivirus, IPS, and web filtering, all in a single platform.

3. What are the main security features of FortiGate?

• Stateful inspection firewall
• Web filtering
• Intrusion prevention system (IPS)
• Application control
• SSL VPN and IPsec VPN
• Antivirus and anti-spam
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

4. What are the different modes in which FortiGate can operate?

• NAT/Route Mode (default)
• Transparent Mode (bridge mode)

5. What is UTM?

Answer: UTM (Unified Threat Management) refers to integrating multiple security services into a single device such as firewall, antivirus, web filtering, and intrusion detection.

6. How do you access the FortiGate firewall?

Answer:

• Web UI (HTTPS)
• CLI via SSH or console

FortiManager (central management)

7. What is the default IP address and login credentials of FortiGate?

Answer:

• IP: 192.168.1.99
• Username: admin
• Password: (blank by default)

8. What is a policy in FortiGate?

Answer: A policy is a rule that defines which traffic is allowed or denied based on source, destination, service, and action.

9. What is a security profile?

Answer: Security profiles are additional filters (e.g., Antivirus, Web Filter, IPS) applied to firewall policies to scan and monitor traffic.

10. What is a VDOM?

Answer: A Virtual Domain (VDOM) allows one FortiGate device to operate as multiple virtual firewalls, each with its own configuration.

Section 2: Fortinet Intermediate Interview Questions

11. What is the difference between policy-based and profile-based mode in FortiGate?

Answer:

• Policy-based: Apply security profiles to individual policies
• Profile-based: Security features are applied based on a set of predefined profiles

12. What is the purpose of the NAT feature?

Answer: NAT (Network Address Translation) is used to translate private IP addresses to a public IP address to enable Internet communication.

13. How do you configure a static route in FortiGate?

Answer:

Go to: Network > Static Routes
Set the destination subnet, gateway IP, and interface.

14. What is Deep Packet Inspection (DPI)?

Answer: DPI is used to inspect the entire content of packets, not just headers, enabling FortiGate to detect threats embedded deep in traffic.

15. What are the log types available in FortiGate?

Answer:

• Traffic Logs
• Event Logs
• Antivirus Logs
• Web Filter Logs
• IPS Logs
• Application Control Logs

16. How do you check CPU and memory usage in FortiGate?

Answer:

Via CLI:

bash

CopyEdit

get system performance top

17. How do you create a VPN in FortiGate?

Answer:

Navigate to: VPN > IPsec Wizard or SSL-VPN Settings
Follow step-by-step configuration including encryption settings and policies.

18. Difference between IPsec VPN and SSL VPN in Fortinet?

Answer:

19. What is FortiAnalyzer?

Answer:

Answer: A centralized logging and reporting tool that integrates with FortiGate to manage security data.

20. How do you back up the FortiGate configuration?

Answer:

• Go to System > Configuration > Backup
• Choose Local, FTP, SFTP
• Save .conf file

Section 3: Fortinet Advanced Interview Questions

21. Explain session handling in FortiGate?

Answer: FortiGate creates sessions for each new connection. Each session is tracked with source/destination IP/port and protocol.

22. What is the difference between a flow-based and proxy-based inspection mode?

Answer:

• Flow-based: Fast, inspects traffic as it flows
• Proxy-based: Deeper inspection, temporarily stores content

23. How do you troubleshoot connectivity in FortiGate?

Answer:

• Ping/traceroute
• diagnose debug flow
• Logs and packet capture
• Policy lookup tool

24. How to configure SD-WAN in FortiGate?

Answer:

Navigate to Network > SD-WAN

• Add WAN interfaces
• Define health checks
• Set performance SLAs
• Create SD-WAN rules

25. How does FortiGate integrate with Active Directory?

Answer:

Through LDAP or RADIUS authentication. FortiGate uses this for user-based firewall policies and SSO.

26. What is High Availability (HA) in FortiGate?

Answer: A feature that enables failover and load balancing between two or more FortiGate units for uptime and redundancy.

27. What is Security Fabric?

Answer:

Fortinet’s Security Fabric links FortiGate with other Fortinet and third-party tools for unified visibility and response.

28. What is the command to reboot FortiGate via CLI?

Answer:

bash

CopyEdit

execute reboot

29.What is Application Control in FortiGate?

Answer: A UTM feature that identifies and controls application-level traffic like Skype, Facebook, BitTorrent.

30. How does FortiGate perform SSL inspection?

Answer:

• Intercepts encrypted traffic
• Uses certificate to decrypt and inspect
• Re-encrypts before sending to destination

• Also Read: Fortinet Tutorial

Section 4: Real-Time Scenario-Based Questions

31. A user is unable to access a website, how do you troubleshoot?

Answer:

• Check policy rule
• Check DNS resolution
• Use diag debug flow
• Inspect web filter logs
• Bypass security profiles temporarily

32. How do you allow only Gmail and block all other email services?

Answer:

• Use Application Control
• Allow Gmail app signature
• Block email category or specific apps like Yahoo Mail, Outlook.com

33. How to configure bandwidth control in FortiGate?

Answer:

Use Traffic Shaping policies

• Set max/min bandwidth per policy
• Apply per user/IP/application

34. How do you implement two-factor authentication?

Answer:

• Enable 2FA in User & Authentication
• Use FortiToken or Google Authenticator
• Assign 2FA to specific users/groups

35. How do you block YouTube during work hours?

Answer:

• Use Web Filter category block
• Schedule policy activation
• Use App Control to block YouTube service

Section 5: CLI-Based FortiGate Interview Questions

36. List interfaces and IP addresses?

Answer:

bash

CopyEdit

show system interface

37. Check current sessions:

Answer:

bash

CopyEdit

diagnose sys session list

38. Clear all sessions:

Answer:

bash

CopyEdit

diagnose sys session clear

39. Ping a destination:

bash

CopyEdit

execute ping 8.8.8.8

40. Check active policies:

bash

CopyEdit

diagnose firewall iprope show

41. What is the difference between implicit and explicit policies in FortiGate?

Answer:

• Explicit policies are user-defined rules in the policy table.
• Implicit deny is the default rule FortiGate applies at the end of the policy list to block any unmatched traffic.

42. How do you perform a packet capture on FortiGate?

Answer:

bash

CopyEdit

diagnose sniffer packet any ‘host x.x.x.x’ 4

• Replace x.x.x.x with target IP.
• Level 4 shows verbose output.

43. How do you troubleshoot policy lookup failures?

Answer: Use:

bash

CopyEdit

diagnose firewall policy lookup <src> <dst> <protocol> <port>

Helps find which policy would apply for a given flow.

44. How can you limit user access to the FortiGate dashboard?

Answer:
By configuring Admin Profiles under System > Administrators, you can assign read/write/none permissions per feature.

45. What is a virtual IP (VIP) in FortiGate?

Answer:
A VIP maps a public IP to a private IP to allow external access to internal resources (e.g., web server behind NAT).

46. What is the role of FortiToken?

Answer:
FortiToken is a two-factor authentication (2FA) device/token used with FortiGate for enhanced login security, especially for SSL VPN or admin access.

47. What is the purpose of Central NAT?

Answer:
Central NAT allows NAT configuration separate from policies, improving visibility and reuse. It replaces policy-based NAT for cleaner management.

48. How do you block a country using FortiGate?

Answer:

• Enable Geolocation-based policies
• Create a geographic address object (e.g., China)

Add to deny policy in IPv4 Policy

49. What are shaping policies in FortiGate?

Answer:
Traffic shaping (QoS) policies are used to limit or guarantee bandwidth for specific users, services, or applications.

50. How to test SSL VPN connectivity from CLI?

Use:

bash

CopyEdit

diagnose debug application sslvpn -1 diagnose debug enable

Then connect to the SSL VPN to monitor debug output.

51. What are blackhole routes in FortiGate?

Answer:
A blackhole route discards traffic without returning a response. Useful for dropping traffic to unallocated or malicious IP ranges.

52. What is a wildcard FQDN address?

Answer:
An FQDN address uses DNS names in policies (e.g., *.google.com). FortiGate resolves and caches these dynamically.

53. How do you integrate FortiGate with FortiSandbox?

Answer:
FortiGate can send suspicious files to FortiSandbox for analysis. Configuration is done in Security Profiles > Antivirus > Advanced.

54. What is ZTNA in Fortinet?

Answer:
Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) allows FortiGate to provide secure remote access without full VPN tunnels, using device posture and identity verification.

55. How do you detect if a FortiGate unit is under attack?

Answer:
Check for:

• Spike in session counts or CPU usage
• High IPS or antivirus hits
• DDoS logs
• Use DoS protection and rate limiting policies
• Section 6: Fortinet NSE Certification Interview Topics

Fortinet Interview Tips

• Always explain configuration steps clearly
• Mention both GUI and CLI when possible
• Show understanding of security profiles
• Use scenarios to demonstrate applied knowledge
• Learn NSE 4 topics like VDOMs, UTM, VPNs, and SD-WAN

Conclusion

Fortinet remains one of the most trusted security platforms in the industry, making FortiGate firewall expertise highly desirable in today’s job market. Whether you’re appearing for a NOC, SOC, or Cybersecurity Engineer role, this guide provides an all-around preparation path.