SC-100 Practice Question: Design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities
Your company needs to automatically classify and label sensitive documents in Microsoft 365 based on their content. Which Microsoft Purview solution should you implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse Microsoft Purview Information Protection with Data Lifecycle Management, because both involve labels, but Data Lifecycle Management handles retention and deletion, not content-based classification and sensitivity labeling.
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 (formerly Azure Information Protection) enables automatic classification and labeling of sensitive documents based on content, using trainable classifiers, exact data match (EDM), and sensitive information types. This solution applies sensitivity labels to documents in Microsoft 365 (e.g., SharePoint, Exchange, OneDrive) via client-side labeling or auto-labeling policies, meeting the requirement to classify and label by content.
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 Purview Audit
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Audit is a security log that records user and administrator actions executed in Microsoft 365, such as file access, permission changes, or sign-ins. It is fundamentally transaction logging, not a content inspection engine, and does not scan files or messages for sensitive data patterns. Consequently, while it can show that a file was labeled by another process, it cannot itself perform automatic classification or label application, so it fails the stated requirement.
- ✓
Microsoft Purview Information Protection
Why this is correct
Microsoft Purview Information Protection (IP) enables automatic classification and labeling by using sensitivity labels that can be applied based on content. Through built-in sensitive information types (e.g., credit cards, PII), trainable classifiers, or exact data match, service-side auto-labeling can scan documents and emails in Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive, then apply appropriate labels and optional encryption. This directly satisfies the need to automatically classify and label sensitive data, and it is the correct solution for the requirement.
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Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) focuses on governance timeframes, using retention labels and retention policies to keep data for a specified period or delete it at disposition. These labels are metadata that control retention actions, but DLM does not analyze or inspect content to determine its sensitivity. It can only work with labels that have already been classified by another solution like Information Protection; therefore, it is unsuitable for automatically classifying and labeling sensitive data in the first place.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management (IRM) uses behavioral indicators and analytics to identify risky activities such as unauthorized data exfiltration, leaking sensitive data, or policy violations. It does not perform content classification or apply sensitivity labels; rather, it consumes signals and existing labels to detect anomalies and generate cases. Since its purpose is risk detection and investigation, not content-based auto-labeling, it cannot fulfill the requirement to automatically classify and label sensitive data.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SC-100 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 SC-100 exam.