MS-102 Manage compliance by using Microsoft Purview Practice Question
A compliance officer needs to retain all documents in a SharePoint Online site associated with the Finance department for 7 years, and after that automatically delete them. During the retention period, users must not be able to edit or delete the documents. Which solution should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse 'Retain as records' (which only prevents deletion after the retention period) with 'Retain as regulatory records' (which prevents editing and deletion during the entire retention period), leading candidates to incorrectly choose Option A.
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 label with 'Retain as regulatory records' and publish it to the site, then use auto-apply based on site location
A retention label with 'Retain as regulatory records' locks the document against editing or deletion during the retention period, and auto-applying the label based on site location ensures all documents in the Finance site inherit the 7-year retention and automatic deletion. This meets the compliance officer's requirement for immutable retention and automatic disposal without manual user intervention.
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 policy scoped to the site with 'Retain as records' action
Why it's wrong here
A site-scoped retention policy cannot use a 'Retain as records' action because that action is a property of retention labels, not policies. Even with a standard retain policy, items are preserved against deletion but remain freely editable, which does not satisfy a compliance requirement to lock documents. To enforce both immutability and retention, you must apply a retention label configured with the 'Regulatory record' setting.
- ✓
Create a retention label with 'Retain as regulatory records' and publish it to the site, then use auto-apply based on site location
Why this is correct
A regulatory records label is the only way to make content both uneditable and undeletable; publishing the label to the site makes it available, and an auto-apply policy scoped by site location automatically assigns it to every document, eliminating reliance on manual user action. Once applied, the label blocks editing and deletion by users and even administrators, and the retention period cannot be shortened. This fully satisfies the compliance requirement for retaining all documents with record integrity.
- ✗
Create a sensitivity label with 'Retain as records' and apply it manually
Why it's wrong here
Sensitivity labels are designed for information protection (encryption, access restriction, and visual marking) and do not contain any retention or records-management actions. There is no 'Retain as records' setting in a sensitivity label, so it cannot mark documents as records or enforce deletion/editing locks. Additionally, manual label application is impractical for 'all documents' and would likely miss items, failing the compliance requirement.
- ✗
Create a litigation hold for the site
Why it's wrong here
Litigation hold preserves all content indefinitely by holding versions and preventing purge, but it does not restrict users from editing documents or adding new versions. It also lacks any finite retention period, so it cannot automatically delete content after 7 years, and it does not place a record classification on files. Litigation hold is therefore a preservation tool, not a records-management solution.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Exchange Online Administration
Key term
Compliance
Compliance is the process of ensuring that an organization follows laws, regulations, standards, and internal policies that apply to its operations and data handling.
Key term
Retention label
A retention label is a tag applied to emails, documents, or files in Microsoft 365 that tells the system how long to keep the item and what to do with it when the time is up.
About these practice questions
This MS-102 question is part of Courseiva's 241-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This MS-102 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 MS-102 exam.