MS-900 Practice Question: Describe security, compliance, privacy, and trust in Microsoft 365
Which three options describe key capabilities of Microsoft Purview that help organizations manage compliance and data governance in Microsoft 365? (Choose three.)
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Microsoft Purview with other Microsoft 365 security services like Microsoft Entra ID (identity) or Microsoft Defender (threat protection), leading them to select options that are valid security features but not part of Purview's compliance and data governance scope.
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
✓
Automatically classify and label sensitive data across Microsoft 365 services
Microsoft Purview provides integrated data governance and compliance capabilities across Microsoft 365. It automatically classifies and labels sensitive data using trainable classifiers and exact data match, applies retention policies and labels to meet legal and regulatory requirements, and enables eDiscovery searches with legal hold to preserve content for litigation. These three capabilities directly address data classification, lifecycle management, and legal discovery.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Automatically classify and label sensitive data across Microsoft 365 services
Why this is correct
Microsoft Purview's information protection capabilities automatically detect sensitive content such as credit card numbers, health records, or custom business data by using sensitive info types and trainable classifiers. Once detected, it can apply confidentiality labels to documents, emails, and files across Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams, enabling consistent protection without manual user intervention. This is a core Purview data governance and protection feature.
- ✓
Apply retention policies and labels to preserve or delete content based on legal requirements
Why this is correct
Purview provides lifecycle governance through retention policies and retention labels that enforce how long content is kept and when it is permanently deleted to satisfy legal and regulatory requirements. For example, organizations can apply a 'Litigation Hold' label or configure retention rules for HR records to preserve emails and documents until a compliance obligation is met. This functionality is part of Purview's Records Management and compliance portfolio.
- ✓
Conduct eDiscovery searches and hold content for legal cases
Why this is correct
Purview includes eDiscovery (Standard and Premium), which allows authorized legal or compliance teams to search for content across Microsoft 365, preview results, and place custodial data on hold to prevent modification or deletion during litigation. It supports identifying, collecting, reviewing, and exporting content for legal cases, with advanced features like legal hold notifications and review sets. This is a distinct Purview workload designed for legal discovery processes.
- ✗
Manage user passwords and enforce multi-factor authentication
Why it's wrong here
Managing user passwords and enforcing multi-factor authentication are identity and access management functions performed by Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory), including Conditional Access policies. These activities govern who logs in and how authentication occurs, but they do not classify, retain, or discover data. Therefore, password management and MFA enforcement are not capabilities of Microsoft Purview.
- ✗
Monitor network traffic to prevent DDoS attacks
Why it's wrong here
Monitoring network traffic to mitigate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks is handled by network security services like Azure DDoS Protection, which operates at the infrastructure and network layers. Purview, in contrast, operates at the data and information governance layer, focusing on sensitivity, retention, and compliance. It has no visibility into or control over packet-level network traffic, so this option is not a Purview capability.
- ✗
Provide anti-malware and phishing protection in email
Why it's wrong here
Anti-malware and phishing protection for email are provided by Exchange Online Protection and Microsoft Defender for Office 365, which inspect message headers, attachments, and URLs before delivery. Purview does not filter inbound email threats; its role begins after data is stored—applying labels, retention, and eDiscovery. Thus, real-time threat protection in email lies outside Purview's scope.
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
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based cloud service from Microsoft that combines productivity tools like Office apps with security, device management, and online storage.
About these practice questions
One of 794 original MS-900 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. 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.