SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
A company uses Microsoft 365. The compliance department requires that all financial documents be retained for 10 years and then automatically deleted, while marketing documents must be retained for 3 years and then deleted. Additionally, they want to apply a default retention policy to all SharePoint Online sites. Which Microsoft Purview solution should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse eDiscovery (which holds content for legal reasons) with Data Lifecycle Management (which automates retention and deletion based on time), leading them to select eDiscovery when the question clearly asks for automated retention and deletion schedules.
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 Data Lifecycle Management
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management (formerly Microsoft 365 Retention) is the correct solution because it allows organizations to define retention and deletion policies based on content type and location. In this scenario, the company needs to apply different retention periods (10 years for financial documents, 3 years for marketing documents) and a default retention policy for all SharePoint Online sites, which is exactly what Data Lifecycle Management's retention policies and labels provide.
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 Data Lifecycle Management
Why this is correct
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management (DLM), formerly known as Microsoft 365 Records Management, is the primary service within Microsoft Purview for managing the entire lifecycle of an organization's data. It enables the creation and application of retention labels and policies to define how long content should be kept, whether for regulatory compliance, legal hold, or business requirements, and when it should be permanently deleted. This ensures that data is retained for the necessary period and then defensibly disposed of according to established policies, directly addressing compliance department requirements for data retention and deletion.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard and Premium) provides capabilities to identify, preserve, collect, process, review, analyze, and export content in response to legal or investigative requests. While it can place content on legal hold to prevent deletion, its primary function is not to define proactive retention or deletion policies for general data lifecycle management. Instead, it's a reactive tool used to gather specific data for litigation, internal investigations, or regulatory inquiries, rather than establishing overarching data governance rules.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is a workflow-based solution designed to help organizations manage their compliance posture by providing a comprehensive view of their compliance status against various regulations and standards. It offers pre-built assessments, actionable improvement recommendations, and a compliance score to track progress. However, Compliance Manager itself does not directly create or enforce data retention or deletion policies; it merely helps assess and report on an organization's adherence to such policies, which are implemented via other Purview services.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is engineered to identify, monitor, and protect sensitive information across Microsoft 365 services and endpoints. DLP policies are configured to detect specific types of sensitive information (e.g., credit card numbers, national ID numbers) and then apply actions like blocking sharing, notifying users, or encrypting content to prevent accidental or intentional unauthorized disclosure. Its core function is data protection against exfiltration, not the systematic management of how long data is kept or when it is permanently removed from the system.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Compliance Concepts
Key term
Retention policy
A retention policy is a set of rules that determines how long an organization keeps its data and what happens to it when the retention period expires.
Key term
Microsoft Purview
Microsoft Purview is a unified data governance and compliance service that helps organizations discover, manage, and protect their data across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SC-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 SC-900 exam.