- A
eDiscovery (Standard) case hold
eDiscovery (Standard) enables creating a case and placing a hold on custodians' mailboxes, SharePoint sites, OneDrive, and Teams, preserving all data for legal purposes.
- B
Data Lifecycle Management retention policy
Why wrong: Retention policies are designed for managing data lifecycle at a broad scope (e.g., all mailboxes), not for placing targeted holds on a specific user's data across services.
- C
Sensitivity label with retention marking
Why wrong: Sensitivity labels can apply retention markings, but they must be manually or automatically applied to each item, and they do not provide a unified hold across all user data.
- D
Audit log search
Why wrong: Audit logs record activities but do not preserve or hold data; they are used for investigation after an event.
MS-900 Practice Question: Describe security, compliance, privacy, and trust in Microsoft 365
This MS-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe security, compliance, privacy, and trust in microsoft 365. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A legal team needs to preserve all data belonging to a former employee who is involved in litigation. The preservation must cover Exchange Online email, SharePoint sites, Teams messages, and OneDrive files. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they use to enforce the preservation?
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
eDiscovery (Standard) case hold
eDiscovery (Standard) case hold is the correct solution because it allows legal teams to place a legal hold on all data sources associated with a specific user, including Exchange Online mailboxes, SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts, and Teams messages. This preserves the data in its current state, preventing modification or deletion, which is essential for litigation. Unlike other options, eDiscovery holds are designed specifically for legal preservation scenarios and can target multiple workloads simultaneously.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
eDiscovery (Standard) case hold
Why this is correct
eDiscovery (Standard) enables creating a case and placing a hold on custodians' mailboxes, SharePoint sites, OneDrive, and Teams, preserving all data for legal purposes.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Data Lifecycle Management retention policy
Why it's wrong here
Retention policies are designed for managing data lifecycle at a broad scope (e.g., all mailboxes), not for placing targeted holds on a specific user's data across services.
- ✗
Sensitivity label with retention marking
Why it's wrong here
Sensitivity labels can apply retention markings, but they must be manually or automatically applied to each item, and they do not provide a unified hold across all user data.
- ✗
Audit log search
Why it's wrong here
Audit logs record activities but do not preserve or hold data; they are used for investigation after an event.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse a retention policy (which is automated and rule-based) with a legal hold (which is manual, case-specific, and preserves data for litigation), leading them to choose Data Lifecycle Management instead of eDiscovery.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
When a legal hold is applied via an eDiscovery case, Microsoft 365 uses a hidden, non-editable copy of the data (the 'preservation vault') to ensure that even if a user deletes items, they remain accessible to eDiscovery managers. This hold overrides any retention or deletion policies configured in Data Lifecycle Management, making it the authoritative mechanism for litigation scenarios. In practice, the hold is applied at the mailbox level via the `Set-Mailbox -LitigationHoldEnabled` cmdlet for Exchange, and for SharePoint/OneDrive, it preserves all versions and changes in the site's preservation hold library.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this MS-900 question test?
Describe security, compliance, privacy, and trust in Microsoft 365 — This question tests Describe security, compliance, privacy, and trust in Microsoft 365 — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: eDiscovery (Standard) case hold — eDiscovery (Standard) case hold is the correct solution because it allows legal teams to place a legal hold on all data sources associated with a specific user, including Exchange Online mailboxes, SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts, and Teams messages. This preserves the data in its current state, preventing modification or deletion, which is essential for litigation. Unlike other options, eDiscovery holds are designed specifically for legal preservation scenarios and can target multiple workloads simultaneously.
What should I do if I get this MS-900 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This MS-900 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-900 exam.
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