AZ-305 Practice Question: Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions
Your organization uses Microsoft Purview to govern data across Azure and on-premises sources. You need to ensure that sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, is automatically detected and classified in Azure Blob Storage. Which Purview feature should you configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse Microsoft Sentinel (a SIEM) with Purview's classification capabilities, or assume data lineage or catalog search can perform content inspection, when only classification scanning with sensitive information types can automatically detect sensitive data.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Data classification scanning with built-in sensitive information types
Microsoft Purview's data classification scanning can be configured to automatically detect sensitive data like credit card numbers using built-in sensitive information types (e.g., Credit Card Number). When a scan is run against Azure Blob Storage, Purview identifies and classifies the data based on these predefined patterns, enabling governance and compliance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Microsoft Sentinel
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-native SIEM/SOAR platform that ingests logs and alerts to detect, investigate, and respond to security threats across identities, endpoints, and workloads. It does not perform data governance or content inspection of PaaS data sources as a standalone function, and it lacks the built-in sensitive information types and classification policies that Purview uses to identify and label data. Sentinel might consume Purview audit events, but it is not the engine that classifies sensitive data.
- ✗
Data catalog search
Why it's wrong here
Data catalog search in Microsoft Purview lets users discover and browse registered data assets by keyword, resource set, glossary term, or owner, but it only surfaces metadata that already exists in the catalog. It does not scan the actual content of files or databases, apply classification rules, or assign sensitive information type labels like credit card numbers or passport IDs. Search is a consumption interface on top of the Purview Data Map, not an automatic classification mechanism.
- ✓
Data classification scanning with built-in sensitive information types
Why this is correct
Data classification scanning in Microsoft Purview uses system data source scanners to inspect structured and unstructured content, and it applies built-in sensitive information types (for example, credit card numbers, social security numbers, or email addresses) and custom classification rules to the sampled data. When a scan matches a defined pattern or classifier, Purview records those classification labels and can propagate them to associated assets, columns, or files, enabling downstream governance policies. Because this capability directly identifies sensitive data within the content, it is the correct answer for automatically classifying sensitive data across your data estate.
- ✗
Data lineage tracking
Why it's wrong here
Data lineage tracking in Microsoft Purview captures how data moves, transforms, and consumes across pipelines, datasets, and reports, showing the relationship between source and downstream assets. While lineage is valuable for impact analysis and auditing, it does not inspect data values or apply sensitive information types like built-in classifiers. It shows the route a dataset takes, not the nature or sensitivity of the content itself, so it cannot perform automatic classification of sensitive data.
Quick reference
Azure Blob Storage Tier Comparison
| Tier | Storage Cost | Retrieval Cost | Latency | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot | Highest | Lowest | Immediate | Active data, frequent reads |
| Cool | Lower | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / month |
| Cold | Lower still | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / quarter |
| Archive | Lowest | Highest + rehydration delay | Hours | Long-term compliance retention |
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AZ-305 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AZ-305 exam.