AZ-802 Deploy and Manage AD DS Practice Question
An administrator accidentally deleted an Organizational Unit (OU) containing several hundred user accounts. You need to recover the OU and its contents with the least amount of administrative effort and without taking any domain controllers offline. What should you use?
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
✓
The Active Directory Recycle Bin.
The Active Directory Recycle Bin is the most efficient way to recover deleted objects because it preserves all attributes and the original Distinguished Name. Unlike traditional backups, it does not require a reboot into Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM), making it the ideal choice for rapid recovery in modern environments.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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An authoritative restore using an existing System State backup.
Why it's wrong here
An authoritative restore is a complex process that requires rebooting a domain controller into Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) and using the ntdsutil tool. This causes significant downtime and administrative overhead compared to the modern Recycle Bin, which can be performed while the server is online.
- ✓
The Active Directory Recycle Bin.
Why this is correct
The Active Directory Recycle Bin allows for the recovery of deleted objects without needing to restore from backup media or restart domain controllers. It is the fastest method for recovery and ensures that all object attributes, including group memberships and SIDs, are perfectly preserved upon restoration.
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A non-authoritative restore of the entire domain database.
Why it's wrong here
A non-authoritative restore would bring the DC back to a previous state, but the deletion would immediately be replicated back from other domain controllers. This would not result in the recovery of the deleted OU and would likely cause further data inconsistency issues within the environment.
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The LDP.exe utility to manually reanimate the tombstone.
Why it's wrong here
Reanimating tombstones using LDP.exe is a legacy method that only recovers the object's identity, losing most attributes like group memberships and passwords. This is much less effective than using the Recycle Bin, which was specifically designed to replace tombstone reanimation for administrative object recovery.
About these practice questions
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
This AZ-802 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-802 exam.