MS-900 Practice Question: Describe Microsoft 365 pricing, licensing, and support
A user reports that they cannot access Microsoft 365 services. You check the Microsoft 365 admin center and see that their license is expired. What is the most likely result of an expired license?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume license expiration leads to immediate data deletion or account removal, but Microsoft's phased approach (grace period followed by retention) is designed to prevent accidental data loss and give administrators time to renew or reassign licenses.
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
✓
The user loses access to Microsoft 365 services after a grace period
When a Microsoft 365 license expires, Microsoft does not immediately revoke access. Instead, the user enters a grace period (typically 30 days) during which they retain access but may see warnings. After the grace period ends, the user loses access to Microsoft 365 services, and their data is preserved for a further period (usually 90 days) before being deleted. This aligns with Microsoft's licensing and data retention policies.
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 automatically purchases a new license
Why it's wrong here
Purchasing a Microsoft 365 license is an administrative billing action, not an automatic contingency when a user is blocked. Licenses must be bought through a subscription agreement or admin center, then assigned to a specific user; Microsoft never silently procures a license to fix an access outage. In the absence of an active, assigned license, the user remains without service until an admin or billing owner intervenes.
- ✗
The user's data is immediately deleted
Why it's wrong here
Data deletion does not coincide with the loss of access. Microsoft 365 services enter a retention period—Exchange Online mailboxes and SharePoint/OneDrive content typically remain recoverable for 30 days after a license is removed or the subscription expires, with certain services retaining data for up to 120 days. Deletion occurs only after that retention window elapses, so immediate deletion is incorrect.
- ✓
The user loses access to Microsoft 365 services after a grace period
Why this is correct
When a subscription expires or an admin removes a license, the account enters a grace period (typically 30 days) during which users may see warnings but still access services. Once the grace period ends, the license is disabled and the user can no longer sign in or access Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, or other Microsoft 365 workloads. The user object remains in Microsoft Entra ID, but service access is revoked until a valid license is assigned.
- ✗
The user's account is automatically deleted
Why it's wrong here
Account deletion is not automatic in this scenario. After the grace period and subsequent retention phase, the user object remains in Microsoft Entra ID; it is only marked as disabled or blocked for sign-in. To delete the user, an administrator must manually delete the user object in the Microsoft 365 admin center or Microsoft Entra ID, and even then deleted users are recoverable for 30 days. No background system process deletes the account simply because the user lost service access.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Microsoft 365 Alert Policies
Key term
User
A user is any person, system, or device that interacts with an IT service, resource, or identity system, typically authenticated through credentials and authorized to perform specific actions.
Key term
Microsoft 365 admin center
The Microsoft 365 admin center is a web-based portal where IT administrators manage users, subscriptions, security, and settings for an organization's Microsoft 365 services.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every MS-900 question from scratch — 794 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.