MS-900 Describe Microsoft 365 apps and services Practice Question
Your organization uses Microsoft 365 E5 and wants to implement a solution that automatically detects and protects sensitive data in SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Exchange Online. Which Microsoft 365 service should you configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
MS-900 often tests the distinction between Purview Information Protection and Defender for Cloud Apps; candidates may confuse the two, but only Purview provides automatic labeling and protection for Microsoft 365 data.
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
✓
Microsoft Purview Information Protection
Microsoft Purview Information Protection is the service within Microsoft 365 E5 that provides sensitivity labels and data loss prevention (DLP) to automatically detect and protect sensitive data across SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Exchange Online. It allows you to classify and encrypt data based on sensitive information types.
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 Defender for Cloud Apps
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a Cloud Access Security Broker providing shadow-IT discovery, session controls and anomaly detection across cloud apps; it does not apply data-classification labels or encryption to files at rest. It is tempting because it surfaces sensitive data, but that is for cloud-app governance, not in-place protection.
- ✗
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft 365 Copilot is a generative AI assistant that surfaces and summarises content; it neither classifies sensitive data nor enforces protection policies across SharePoint Online, OneDrive and Exchange Online. It is tempting because it references organisational content, but it is a productivity layer, not a compliance control.
- ✗
Microsoft Intune
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Intune is mobile device and endpoint management, enforcing configuration and compliance on devices; it does not inspect or label data residing in SharePoint Online, OneDrive and Exchange Online. It is tempting because it applies protection policies, but those govern endpoints, not cloud-resident content classification.
- ✓
Microsoft Purview Information Protection
Why this is correct
Microsoft Purview Information Protection applies sensitivity labels with encryption, and its auto-labelling policies detect sensitive data across SharePoint Online, OneDrive and Exchange Online. This satisfies the requirement for automatic detection and protection in those three workloads, whereas Defender for Cloud Apps governs access rather than labelling content.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Hybrid Exchange and Mail Migration
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.
Key term
SharePoint Online
SharePoint Online is a cloud-based collaboration platform from Microsoft that lets teams create, store, organize, and share content securely from anywhere.
About these practice questions
This MS-900 question is part of Courseiva's 794-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.