MS-102 Manage compliance by using Microsoft Purview Practice Question
You are the Microsoft 365 administrator for Fabrikam Inc. The compliance team needs to investigate a suspected data leak involving a former employee. They must preserve all mailbox content and SharePoint Online documents related to the employee for litigation. They also need to search for specific keywords across these locations. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse retention or compliance monitoring tools with eDiscovery, which is specifically built for legal hold and investigative search.
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
✓
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard) with a case hold and a search.
The requirement is to preserve mailbox and SharePoint content and search for keywords as part of a litigation investigation. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard) provides case management, hold capabilities for Exchange and SharePoint, and search functionality. It is designed for legal investigations, unlike DLP, Records Management, or Communication Compliance, which serve different purposes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Records Management with a retention label applied to the employee's content.
Why it's wrong here
Retention labels are used for records management to retain or delete content based on a retention schedule. They do not provide the ability to search for keywords or to place a legal hold for litigation purposes. While they can preserve content, they lack the investigative search features needed here.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) with a policy for the employee's mailbox.
Why it's wrong here
DLP policies are designed to prevent sharing of sensitive information, not to preserve content for litigation or to search across locations. They do not provide hold capabilities or keyword search across multiple workloads. Therefore, DLP cannot fulfill the legal hold and search requirements.
- ✓
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard) with a case hold and a search.
Why this is correct
eDiscovery (Standard) allows you to create a case, place a hold on Exchange mailboxes and SharePoint sites, and perform searches for keywords. It supports the required preservation and search capabilities for litigation. This is the appropriate solution for the described scenario.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance with a policy monitoring the employee's communications.
Why it's wrong here
Communication Compliance monitors communications for policy violations such as harassment or sensitive language, but it does not preserve content for litigation or allow searching across SharePoint documents. It is focused on real-time detection of inappropriate messages, not on legal hold and eDiscovery searches.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Auto-Labeling Policies for Sensitive Content
Key term
eDiscovery
eDiscovery is the process of identifying, collecting, and producing electronic information for legal cases or investigations.
Key term
Communication Compliance
Communication Compliance is the set of policies, tools, and practices used by organizations to monitor, capture, and review electronic communications in order to meet regulatory, legal, and internal governance requirements.
About these practice questions
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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
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.