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MS-102 Deploy and manage a Microsoft 365 tenant Practice Question

You are the Microsoft 365 administrator for a company that has a Microsoft 365 E5 tenant. The legal department requires that all email messages sent to and from the tenant be retained for seven years, and that users cannot permanently delete messages before that period ends. The solution must apply to all mailboxes, including new ones created later, and must not require users to apply retention labels manually. What should you do?

⚠ Common exam trap

The trap here is choosing a retention label or litigation hold, which either requires manual application or does not automatically cover mailboxes created later.

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 in Microsoft Purview that retains Exchange email for seven years, applies to all Exchange mailboxes, and configure the policy to retain items at the end of the retention period.

A Microsoft Purview retention policy applies retention settings at the workload and location level, so Exchange email can be retained for seven years across all current and future mailboxes without user or administrator action. Configuring the policy to retain items preserves them and prevents permanent deletion during the retention period, which meets the legal department's 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.

✓
Create a retention policy in Microsoft Purview that retains Exchange email for seven years, applies to all Exchange mailboxes, and configure the policy to retain items at the end of the retention period.
Why this is correct
A retention policy in Microsoft Purview can target all Exchange mailboxes, including future ones, and applies automatically without user action. Setting the retention period to seven years and choosing to retain rather than delete keeps items and prevents users from permanently removing them before the period expires, satisfying the legal hold requirement.
✗
Enable a litigation hold on each mailbox by using Exchange Online PowerShell for all current users, and repeat the process whenever a new user is created.
Why it's wrong here
Litigation hold preserves mailbox content indefinitely but requires manual enablement per mailbox. It does not automatically apply to mailboxes created in the future, so the process would need constant maintenance, and it does not offer a defined seven-year period with automatic expiration. Retention policies provide broader and more manageable coverage.
✗
Create a data loss prevention policy that blocks users from deleting email messages that contain sensitive information.
Why it's wrong here
Data loss prevention policies detect and act on sensitive information in content, but they do not provide time-based retention for all messages. They cannot guarantee seven-year retention of every email, and they do not place items on hold. This control addresses sharing and exfiltration, not the legal retention requirement described.
✗
Create a retention label with a seven-year retention period, publish it to all users, and instruct users to apply it to their messages.
Why it's wrong here
A published retention label requires users or client rules to apply it, so coverage depends on manual action. The requirement explicitly states that users must not apply labels manually, and messages left unlabeled would not be retained for seven years. A label policy alone also does not prevent permanent deletion unless the label is configured to retain and the item is labeled.

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MS-102 Deploy and manage a Microsoft 365 tenant Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

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