MS-900 Practice Question: Describe security, compliance, privacy, and trust in Microsoft 365
A Litware security team must ensure that when an employee leaves, their mailbox is preserved for five years and remains searchable by the eDiscovery team, but the mailbox must not consume an Exchange Online license. Which Microsoft 365 capability should they configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is believing that any hold by itself keeps a mailbox alive for free, when in fact the license must be removed only after a Microsoft Purview retention policy or eDiscovery hold is in place to create an inactive mailbox.
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
✓
Configure an inactive mailbox by applying a Microsoft Purview retention policy to the account
Inactive mailboxes exist precisely for the departure scenario: a hold or retention policy preserves the content, the license is removed, and the mailbox persists as a searchable, non-licensed object. Litigation Hold alone still needs a license, shared mailboxes carry no retention guarantee, and exporting to PST moves data out of the searchable store. The inactive mailbox therefore satisfies both the preservation and the licensing constraints.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Configure an inactive mailbox by applying a Microsoft Purview retention policy to the account
Why this is correct
An inactive mailbox is created when a mailbox is placed on retention or eDiscovery hold and then its Exchange Online license is removed. Microsoft Purview keeps the content in place, the mailbox remains fully searchable by eDiscovery, and retention settings enforce the five-year period before permanent deletion, exactly matching the scenario without ongoing license cost.
- ✗
Export the mailbox to a PST file and store it in SharePoint Online
Why it's wrong here
Exporting to PST and storing it in SharePoint Online removes the content from Exchange Online, so native eDiscovery searches of mailboxes no longer return those messages. The organization becomes responsible for indexing, access control, and legal defensibility of the file, and the five-year retention must be enforced manually rather than by a Microsoft 365 retention policy.
- ✗
Place the mailbox on Litigation Hold, then remove the Exchange Online license
Why it's wrong here
Litigation Hold preserves mailbox content, but a mailbox must retain an Exchange Online license for the hold to remain effective. Removing the license puts the mailbox into a soft-deleted state where the hold stops applying and content can be purged after the deleted mailbox retention period, so the five-year preservation goal is not reliably achieved.
- ✗
Convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox and remove the license
Why it's wrong here
A shared mailbox does not require a license when it is under 50 GB, and it is searchable, but this approach fails the five-year requirement because the mailbox has no retention guarantee and can be deleted by any administrator. It also depends on the recipient object remaining, so it is not a defensible preservation mechanism for legal hold.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Data Governance and Retention
Key term
eDiscovery
eDiscovery is the process of identifying, collecting, and producing electronic information for legal cases or investigations.
Key term
Exchange Online
Exchange Online is Microsoft's cloud-based email, calendar, and contact hosting service that is part of the Microsoft 365 suite, allowing organizations to manage corporate messaging without maintaining their own mail servers.
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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-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.