The Application Security Engineer (AppSec) skills test evaluates a candidate’s ability to identify, prevent, and remediate application security risks throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC). It helps recruiters and hiring teams assess practical knowledge of secure design, secure coding, code review, vulnerability management, threat modeling, security testing, and application security controls.

A modern Application Security Test should measure more than general cybersecurity awareness. It should evaluate how candidates apply security principles to real software, APIs, dependencies, authentication flows, CI/CD pipelines, and production environments. The sample questions below can be used as a starting point and adapted to the seniority, technology stack, and security responsibilities of your role.

Expected Skills

• Strong understanding of secure SDLC and DevSecOps practices across design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance.
• Knowledge of common application security risks, including broken access control, security misconfiguration, software supply chain failures, cryptographic failures, injection, insecure design, authentication failures, and integrity issues.
• Experience with secure code review and identifying security weaknesses in application logic, APIs, authentication, authorization, input handling, and data flows.
• Working knowledge of threat modeling, attack surfaces, abuse cases, trust boundaries, and risk-based security prioritization.
• Familiarity with SAST, DAST, software composition analysis (SCA), dependency scanning, secret scanning, and penetration testing techniques.
• Understanding of authentication, multi-factor authentication, session management, access control, encryption, key management, and secure secrets handling.
• Ability to evaluate third-party libraries, open-source dependencies, build pipelines, and software supply chain risks.
• Knowledge of application security standards and guidance such as OWASP Top 10:2025, OWASP ASVS 5.0, and secure software development practices.
• Ability to communicate security findings clearly, explain business impact, and collaborate with engineering teams on remediation.

Test Category

Type – Multiple Choice Questions

Time – 10 mins

Language – English

Level – Entry

Difficulty – Easy

Test Questions

1. Which statement best describes stored cross-site scripting (XSS)?

• Malicious input is stored by the application and later rendered in a user’s browser
• A database query is automatically encrypted before execution
• A user is redirected only when multi-factor authentication fails
• A server blocks all requests from an unknown IP address
• None of these

2. Which option best describes multi-factor authentication (MFA)?

• Using two or more authentication factors from different factor categories
• Using the same password on two separate systems
• Requiring a username and two password entries
• Using two security questions from the same category
• None of these

3. What is the primary purpose of threat modeling during application development?

• Identify likely threats, attack paths, and mitigations before they become production issues
• Replace all penetration testing after deployment
• Measure application page-load performance
• Automatically encrypt every field in a database
• None of these

4. A man-in-the-middle attack attempts to ______.

• Intercept or alter communication between parties without their knowledge
• Store malicious JavaScript permanently in a database
• Disable only client-side validation
• Create a secure code-signing certificate
• None of these

5. Which is a valid public-key cryptography approach?

• Asymmetric encryption using a public and private key pair
• Systematic key encryption without a key
• Parallel key encryption using identical plaintext copies
• Hashing a password and then decrypting the hash
• None of these

6. Which security practice is most useful for identifying known vulnerabilities in third-party packages and dependencies?

• Software composition analysis (SCA)
• UI snapshot testing
• Load balancing
• DNS caching
• None of these

7. Which control best supports secure authorization?

• Enforcing access-control checks on the server for every protected action
• Hiding restricted buttons only in the user interface
• Trusting a role value supplied by the browser without validation
• Using the same privileged account for every user
• None of these

8. What should an AppSec Engineer do when a high-risk security issue is discovered during code review?

• Document the issue, assess impact and exploitability, work with developers on remediation, and verify the fix
• Ignore it until after the next major release
• Remove all application logs to avoid exposing the issue
• Automatically classify every finding as critical
• None of these

What Does the Application Security Test Evaluate?

For entry-level candidates, the assessment can focus on security fundamentals, common web application risks, secure authentication, encryption concepts, and basic vulnerability identification. For experienced AppSec candidates, hiring teams should expand the assessment with scenario-based questions, secure code review exercises, threat modeling tasks, API security cases, dependency risk analysis, and remediation prioritization.

The assessment should reflect the real responsibilities of the role. Candidates responsible for cloud-native applications, APIs, mobile products, or CI/CD security may need additional questions on secrets management, container security, software supply chains, infrastructure-as-code, security automation, and secure deployment controls.

Who should take the test?

The Application Security Test is suitable for candidates applying for Application Security Engineer, AppSec Engineer, Product Security Engineer, Secure Software Engineer, or related security roles. It can also be useful for developers moving into application security and experienced security professionals who want to validate or refresh their secure software development knowledge.

How can Glider AI help you with Hiring an Application Security Engineer?

Glider’s recruitment platform is built on the mission of “competency over credentials.” This helps hiring teams evaluate Application Security Engineer candidates through a structured, skills-based, and data-driven process rather than relying only on resumes or self-reported security experience.

Recruiters can use role-relevant assessments to evaluate application security fundamentals, secure SDLC knowledge, code-review reasoning, threat modeling, vulnerability analysis, and security decision-making before moving candidates into deeper technical interviews.

Glider AI’s Unique Features

• Conversational Chatbot for Talent Screening
• On-demand One-way Interviews
• Interactive, coding-enabled skill tests
• Task-based and Live Coding enabled Video Interviews
• Advanced AI proctoring
• Powerful candidate analytics

Discover Hiring Resources for Application Security Engineer

• Hiring an Application Security Engineer
• Application Security Engineer Job Description
• Application Security Engineer Interview Questions
• How to Hire an Application Security Engineer

Use the Application Security Engineer skills test together with structured interviews and practical security exercises to identify candidates who can recognize application risks, explain their impact, and work with engineering teams to build and maintain secure software.

Go ahead and spotlight your Application Security Engineer with Glider AI today!

You can always write to us at info@glider.ai to help you access the hiring resources.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an Application Security Engineer skills test?

An Application Security Engineer skills test is a pre-employment assessment used to evaluate a candidate’s knowledge of application security, secure SDLC, secure coding, vulnerability management, threat modeling, security testing, and related AppSec practices.

What skills should an AppSec assessment cover?

A strong AppSec assessment should cover common application risks, authentication and authorization, secure design, code review, threat modeling, SAST and DAST concepts, dependency security, cryptography, API security, and vulnerability remediation.

Should an Application Security Test include practical exercises?

For mid-level and senior roles, practical exercises can improve assessment quality. Secure code review, threat-modeling scenarios, vulnerability triage, API security cases, and remediation tasks can show how candidates apply security knowledge to real situations.

How do you assess senior Application Security Engineers?

Senior candidates should be evaluated on architecture and threat modeling, secure SDLC leadership, risk prioritization, application and API security, software supply chain controls, security tooling, developer enablement, and their ability to communicate and remediate complex findings.

Which standards are useful when designing an AppSec skills test?

Hiring teams can use current application security guidance such as the OWASP Top 10:2025, OWASP ASVS 5.0, and secure software development frameworks to help align assessment topics with modern AppSec responsibilities.

Conclusion

A well-designed Application Security Test helps hiring teams move beyond credentials and evaluate whether candidates understand how to secure software throughout the SDLC. By combining security fundamentals with current AppSec risks, secure code review, threat modeling, security testing, and scenario-based evaluation, recruiters can identify Application Security Engineers who are better prepared to protect modern applications and work effectively with development teams.