MS-102 Manage compliance by using Microsoft Purview Practice Question
You are a Microsoft 365 administrator for Litware Inc. The company uses Microsoft Purview Records Management. A file plan has been created with a retention label named 'Project Alpha'. You need to ensure that documents labeled 'Project Alpha' are retained for five years after the project ends, and then automatically deleted. What should you configure on the retention label?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is selecting a creation or modification trigger, which does not align with the business event of project completion.
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
✓
Set the retention period to five years and choose 'When an event occurs' as the retention trigger.
The requirement is to retain documents for five years after the project ends, which is a classic event-based retention scenario. Configuring the retention label to use 'When an event occurs' allows you to define a custom event like project completion, starting the retention period then. The label should also be set to delete items after the retention period to meet the automatic deletion requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set the retention period to five years and trigger retention based on 'When items were last modified'.
Why it's wrong here
Using last modified date would restart the retention period every time the document is edited, which could indefinitely extend retention. This does not match the requirement to retain for five years after the project ends. The trigger should be an event, not a modification date.
- ✗
Set the retention period to five years and trigger retention based on 'When items were created'.
Why it's wrong here
Triggering retention based on creation date would start the retention period when the document is created, not when the project ends. This does not align with the requirement to retain for five years after the project ends. The retention might expire too early or too late relative to the project completion.
- ✓
Set the retention period to five years and choose 'When an event occurs' as the retention trigger.
Why this is correct
Event-based retention allows you to specify a custom event, such as 'Project ends', which starts the retention period. This ensures documents are retained for five years after the project ends and then deleted. This configuration meets the requirement precisely.
- ✗
Set the retention period to five years and configure a disposition review at the end of the period.
Why it's wrong here
Disposition review adds a manual approval step before deletion, which would prevent automatic deletion. The requirement is to automatically delete after five years, so disposition review would introduce unnecessary delay and manual intervention. It does not satisfy the automatic deletion requirement.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Global Administrator Best Practices
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.
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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