MS-102 Manage compliance by using Microsoft Purview Practice Question
A company needs to automatically retain all emails sent to or from external partners for 7 years. They also need to ensure that after 7 years, the emails are permanently deleted. What should you configure in Microsoft Purview?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is confusing retention labels (manual/auto-applied per item) with retention policies (automatic, workload-wide); the requirement for 'all emails' points to a policy, not a label.
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
✓
Create a retention policy for Exchange email with a retention period of 7 years, followed by deletion.
A retention policy in Microsoft Purview can be scoped to Exchange email and configured with a 7-year retention period followed by permanent deletion. This automatically applies to all mailboxes and meets both the retain and delete requirements without user action.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create a retention label with a retention period of 7 years and publish it to all users.
Why it's wrong here
A published retention label applies manually or via policy, and its default end-of-retention action is to keep or delete based on configuration, but publishing alone does not automatically apply to all external-partner mail. Auto-apply policies or retention policies target matching items automatically.
- ✓
Create a retention policy for Exchange email with a retention period of 7 years, followed by deletion.
Why this is correct
A retention policy scoped to Exchange mailboxes applies a seven-year retention period then deletes items, satisfying both the retain and permanent-deletion requirements. Retention policies act at workload level, covering all external-partner correspondence without per-item configuration.
- ✗
Create an eDiscovery hold for all external partner communications.
Why it's wrong here
An eDiscovery hold preserves content indefinitely and cannot enforce deletion after a fixed period, so the seven-year expiry requirement goes unmet. It is tempting because holds do preserve mailbox items for litigation, and would be right when data must be retained until a case closes rather than on a scheduled retention-and-deletion cycle.
- ✗
Create a data loss prevention (DLP) policy to block deletion of emails after 7 years.
Why it's wrong here
DLP policies detect and block sharing of sensitive content; they cannot retain items or trigger permanent deletion after a fixed period. DLP would be correct for preventing external sharing of credit card numbers, not for lifecycle retention.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Microsoft Purview Data Map
Key term
Retention policy
A retention policy is a set of rules that determines how long an organization keeps its data and what happens to it when the retention period expires.
Key term
Microsoft Purview
Microsoft Purview is a unified data governance and compliance service that helps organizations discover, manage, and protect their data across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
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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
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