MS-102 Deploy and manage a Microsoft 365 tenant Practice Question
Your company is required to retain all emails sent to and from executives for 7 years due to regulatory compliance. You need to implement this with minimal administrative overhead. What should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
MS-102 often tests the difference between retention policies, retention labels, and Litigation Hold; candidates may incorrectly choose Litigation Hold or journaling when the requirement is a simple retention policy with minimal overhead.
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 Microsoft Purview retention policy for the executive mailboxes
A Microsoft Purview retention policy applied to the executive mailboxes retains all emails for 7 years with minimal administrative overhead. It is a centralized, policy-based solution that does not require per-mailbox configuration or external systems. This meets the regulatory requirement efficiently.
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 Microsoft Purview retention policy for the executive mailboxes
Why this is correct
A Microsoft Purview retention policy applies a seven-year retention period to the executives' mailboxes tenant-wide, with no per-item or per-user manual work. This meets the regulatory requirement with minimal administrative overhead compared with litigation holds or labels.
- ✗
Configure Exchange journaling to export to an external system
Why it's wrong here
Journaling copies messages to an external system, which you must then provision, secure and maintain for seven years, adding administrative overhead. It is tempting because journaling captures all sent and received mail for compliance, but Microsoft Purview retention policies meet the requirement natively without external infrastructure.
- ✗
Place each executive mailbox on Litigation Hold
Why it's wrong here
Litigation Hold preserves mailbox content indefinitely but is designed for legal cases, not a defined seven-year regulatory period, and it lacks the retention-policy lifecycle controls. It is tempting because it does retain everything, yet Microsoft Purview retention policies apply the exact seven-year duration with far less administration.
- ✗
Enable the archive mailbox for each executive
Why it's wrong here
An archive mailbox only provides extra storage; it applies no retention duration and users can still delete messages, so nothing is preserved for seven years. It is tempting because archives hold older mail, but Microsoft Purview retention policies are what enforce the required retention period.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Sensitivity Labels: Admin Configuration
Key term
Retention policy
A retention policy is a set of rules that determines how long an organization keeps its data and what happens to it when the retention period expires.
Key term
Policy
A policy is a set of rules or guidelines that defines how an organization manages, secures, and operates its IT systems and services.
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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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