SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
A consulting firm is involved in a legal investigation. They need to preserve all emails and documents from two specific employees (custodians) related to a contract dispute. The data must be collected and stored in a secure location for legal review without modifying the original data. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse eDiscovery (Premium) with Audit (Premium) because both involve investigation, but Audit only logs events and does not preserve or collect the actual data for legal review.
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
✓
eDiscovery (Premium)
eDiscovery (Premium) is the correct solution because it is specifically designed for legal investigations, allowing you to identify, preserve, collect, and analyze data from custodians (e.g., employees) without altering the original data. It places a legal hold on mailboxes and sites, ensuring that emails and documents related to the contract dispute are stored in a secure review location for legal review, meeting the requirement of non-modification.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Data Lifecycle Management
Why it's wrong here
Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) focuses on automating the retention, deletion, and archival of data based on predefined organizational policies or regulatory requirements. While crucial for data governance and compliance, DLM primarily manages data through its lifecycle stages rather than providing the specific capabilities for placing legal holds, identifying custodians, or collecting data for a targeted legal investigation and review set.
- ✓
eDiscovery (Premium)
Why this is correct
eDiscovery (Premium) is the correct solution as it provides comprehensive capabilities specifically designed for legal investigations. This service allows organizations to identify and preserve relevant custodians, place immutable legal holds on data across various Microsoft 365 services, collect data from diverse sources, and process it into a secure review set for legal analysis without altering the original content, ensuring defensibility in litigation.
- ✗
Audit (Premium)
Why it's wrong here
Audit (Premium) provides detailed logging of user and administrator activities across Microsoft 365 services, offering forensic insights into 'who did what, when, and where.' While essential for security investigations and understanding past events, it focuses on activity records and event logs rather than the preservation, collection, or structured review of content required for a legal hold or eDiscovery process.
- ✗
Communication Compliance
Why it's wrong here
Communication Compliance is designed to help organizations detect, investigate, and act on policy violations in internal and external communications, such as harassment, sensitive information sharing, or regulatory non-compliance. It leverages AI and machine learning to proactively identify risks and facilitate remediation workflows, but it does not offer the specific legal hold, targeted data collection, or review set functionalities necessary for a formal legal investigation.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Microsoft Entra ID
Key term
eDiscovery
eDiscovery is the process of identifying, collecting, and producing electronic information for legal cases or investigations.
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.
About these practice questions
One of 1,250 original SC-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 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.