MS-102 Deploy and manage a Microsoft 365 tenant Practice Question
An organization has just purchased Microsoft 365 subscriptions and wants to add their custom domain 'fabrikam.com' to the tenant. Which record must they add to their DNS provider to verify domain ownership?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse the TXT record used for verification with the MX record required for email routing, mistakenly thinking they can skip verification by adding an MX record directly.
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
✓
TXT record
To verify domain ownership in Microsoft 365, you must add a TXT record provided by the Microsoft 365 admin center to your DNS hosting provider. This TXT record contains a unique verification string that Microsoft checks to confirm you control the domain. MX, CNAME, and SRV records are used for mail routing, service aliasing, and service location, respectively, but they do not serve the purpose of domain ownership verification.
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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MX record
Why it's wrong here
MX records direct email to a designated mail server using priority and hostname fields. They are part of mail routing, not ownership verification, because they contain no token value that Microsoft can match to your subscription. During verification, Microsoft queries for a specific TXT record, so an MX record would be ignored for that purpose, and changing it prematurely could break incoming mail flow.
- ✓
TXT record
Why this is correct
A TXT record is the standard method Microsoft 365 uses to verify domain ownership because it can hold an arbitrary text string. Microsoft gives you a unique verification token during the domain setup wizard; when you publish it as a TXT record, Microsoft queries your DNS zone and confirms the exact token exists. This proves you control the domain without affecting existing services, and you can remove the record after verification succeeds.
- ✗
CNAME record
Why it's wrong here
CNAME records alias one hostname to another, commonly used to route subdomains like www or mail to a canonical name. They are not used for Microsoft 365 domain verification because the verification process expects a TXT record type, and a CNAME's RDATA format is a target name, not a custom token string. Additionally, a CNAME cannot coexist with other record types at the same name, making it unsuitable for carrying the required verification token.
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SRV record
Why it's wrong here
SRV records define the hostname and port for specific services, such as SIP or LDAP, using priority, weight, and target fields. Their data structure is designed for service discovery, not for holding an arbitrary verification token, so Microsoft's verification check that looks for a TXT record will not match an SRV record. Even if an SRV record existed, it would be ignored during ownership validation and would only matter later if you're configuring services like Skype for Business.
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Related to this question
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Microsoft 365 Tenant Setup
Key term
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based cloud service from Microsoft that combines productivity tools like Office apps with security, device management, and online storage.
Key term
Custom domain
A custom domain is a personalized internet address (like contoso.com) that you can use with cloud services instead of the default domain provided by the service provider.
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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.