---
title: Security question management
summary: Maintains security-question answers for a user and the active question catalog used during registration and recovery.
status: draft
owner: SAIF Doc Gen
last_reviewed: 2026-07-30
library: SAIF.Business.External.Users
reference_type: package
operation_id: OP-EU-03
trigger: Caller loads question choices, loads a user's answers, or saves a `clsUserSecurityQuestion` row.
---

# Security question management

This operation manages the per-user security-question answers stored in `EXT_USER_SECURITY_QUESTION` and the question catalog loaded from `EXT_USER_SEC_QUESTION_CODE`. It supports initial account setup, subsequent edits, and password-recovery style retrievals.

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| **Operation ID** | OP-EU-03 |
| **Trigger** | User-account workflows load question choices or save question answers |
| **Inputs** | User ID, security-question code, answer text, culture code |
| **Outputs** | Persisted security-question row(s) or localized active question choices |
| **Primary components** | `clsUserSecurityQuestionCollection.GetAllSecurityQuestions`, `clsUserSecurityQuestionCollection.GetUserSecurityQuestionsByUserID` |
| **Entry point** | `Business\SAIF.Business.External.Users\clsUserSecurityQuestion.vb` |

## Steps

1. **Allocate a question row when a new answer is created.** `Create` pulls the next `EXT_USER_SEC_QUESTION_SEQ` value so the answer row can be inserted later.
2. **Load the current answers for a user.** `GetUserSecurityQuestionsByUserID` selects all stored answers for a user, joins the code table for question text and expiration, and returns a collection keyed by `UserID` ([SQL-028](../sql/SQL-028-saif-business-external-users.md), [EXT_USER_SECURITY_QUESTION](../database-tables.md#ext_user_security_question), [EXT_USER_SEC_QUESTION_CODE](../database-tables.md#ext_user_sec_question_code)).
3. **Load the active question catalog for selection UIs.** `GetAllSecurityQuestions` returns non-expired question codes and localized text by filtering the code table to rows whose expiration date is null or in the future ([SQL-029](../sql/SQL-029-saif-business-external-users.md), [EXT_USER_SEC_QUESTION_CODE](../database-tables.md#ext_user_sec_question_code)).
4. **Validate each answer before persistence.** The question object requires a non-empty answer, a non-empty question code, and a question code that still appears in the active catalog.
   - If the selected question code is expired or absent from the active catalog, validation fails and reports the expired-question message.
5. **Validate the collection-level rules.** The collection rejects duplicate question codes and, when editing existing rows, requires the collection count to remain at three questions.
6. **Insert a new answer row.** `BeforeInsert` stamps create/update metadata and writes the question code, answer text, and owning user ID into `EXT_USER_SECURITY_QUESTION` ([SQL-008](../sql/SQL-008-saif-business-external-users.md), [EXT_USER_SECURITY_QUESTION](../database-tables.md#ext_user_security_question)).
7. **Update an existing answer row with optimistic concurrency.** `BeforeUpdate` binds the same values plus `UPDATE_NUM`; a zero-row result becomes a DB-contention error ([BR-EU-05](../business-rules.md#br-eu-05-optimistic-concurrency-via-update_num), [SQL-049](../sql/SQL-049-saif-business-external-users.md), [EXT_USER_SECURITY_QUESTION](../database-tables.md#ext_user_security_question)).
8. **Delete an answer row by sequence number.** `BeforeDelete` removes the row using `EXT_USER_SEC_QUESTION_SEQ_NUM` ([SQL-055](../sql/SQL-055-saif-business-external-users.md), [EXT_USER_SECURITY_QUESTION](../database-tables.md#ext_user_security_question)).

## Process flow

The following diagram visualizes this operation's control flow.

```mermaid
flowchart TD
    Start([Question load or save request]) --> Choice{Load choices or answers?}
    Choice -->|Choices| Catalog[Load active question catalog]
    Choice -->|Answers| Answers[Load stored user answers]
    Answers --> Edit[User adds, edits, or removes answers]
    Catalog --> Edit
    Edit --> Validate[Validate answer text, code, duplicates, and count]
    Validate --> Persist[Insert, update, or delete row]
    Persist --> Done([Return saved questions])
```

## Failure and edge-case behavior

- An expired question code can still exist on a stored row, but the next edit forces the user to replace it with an active code.
- Collection validation prevents the same question from being answered twice.
- Updates fail with DB-contention messaging when `UPDATE_NUM` no longer matches the stored row ([BR-EU-05](../business-rules.md#br-eu-05-optimistic-concurrency-via-update_num)).

## Related documentation
- [Operations and processes](../operations-processes.md)
- [Business rules](../business-rules.md)
- [SQL catalog](../sql/index.md)
- [Database tables](../database-tables.md)

## Sources
- `Business\SAIF.Business.External.Users\clsUserSecurityQuestion.vb`
- `Business\SAIF.Business.External.Users\clsUser.vb`