MS-102 Manage compliance by using Microsoft Purview Practice Question
A legal hold is required for all emails in a user's mailbox related to a litigation case. The administrator needs to ensure that the mailbox content is preserved even if the user tries to delete emails. Which Microsoft Purview feature should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Litigation Hold with eDiscovery case holds or retention policies, but Litigation Hold is the simplest and most direct feature for preserving an entire mailbox indefinitely for legal purposes, without needing to create a case or define retention rules.
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
✓
Litigation Hold
Litigation Hold is the correct choice because it is a Microsoft Purview feature specifically designed to preserve all mailbox content, including deleted items and original versions of modified items, for legal or compliance purposes. When enabled, it places the user's entire mailbox on hold, preventing permanent deletion by the user or automated processes, and ensures that all data related to a litigation case is retained indefinitely until the hold is removed.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Litigation Hold
Why this is correct
Litigation Hold is a dedicated hold feature in Exchange Online (under Microsoft Purview) that preserves an entire mailbox in-place, including all deleted and edited items, by maintaining copies in the Recoverable Items folder. It applies instantly and remains in effect until explicitly removed, making it the precise mechanism for legally requiring every email in a user's mailbox to be retained. Unlike policy-based deletion or case-scoped holds, Litigation Hold is designed for indefinite, mailbox-wide legal preservation without requiring a separate eDiscovery case.
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eDiscovery (Standard) case hold
Why it's wrong here
eDiscovery (Standard) case hold is incorrect because, while it can preserve content, it is primarily part of the broader eDiscovery workflow for identifying, collecting, and reviewing items relevant to a specific case. It is not the dedicated feature for placing a comprehensive, mailbox-wide hold to prevent a user from deleting *all* emails related to a litigation case. This option is tempting as eDiscovery cases do involve holds; however, a Purview Litigation Hold is the precise mechanism designed to place an entire mailbox on hold, preserving all content, including deleted items, to meet such a legal obligation.
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Retention policy
Why it's wrong here
Retention policies are configured with time-based rules that automatically retain, delete, or archive content after a specified period, and they do not by default preserve all mailbox items indefinitely for a legal matter. A retention policy can delete a user's email permanently once the retention period expires unless careful 'keep forever' settings are applied, but even then it lacks the litigation-specific preservation semantics of a hold. Because the requirement is a legal hold for all emails, a retention policy is insufficient and could result in data loss or non-compliance.
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In-Place Hold
Why it's wrong here
In-Place Hold is a legacy hold mechanism from older Exchange Server and early Exchange Online that was managed through the In-Place eDiscovery & Hold console; Microsoft has deprecated it in favor of Litigation Hold for cloud mailboxes. It can preserve mailbox content, but it does not cover all modern item types and requires a separate eDiscovery search-based workflow to configure and maintain, making it impractical and unsupported for new deployments. Litigation Hold supersedes In-Place Hold by providing a simpler, comprehensive, and fully supported mailbox-wide legal hold without legacy limitations.
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Related to this question
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Microsoft 365 Tenant Setup
Key term
Mailbox
A mailbox is a storage location on a mail server where incoming and outgoing email messages are kept for a user or group.
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.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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