- A
Microsoft Purview Retention Labels with a disposition review that requires manual approval at the end of the retention period
Why wrong: A disposition review with manual approval does not guarantee automatic deletion; it would require someone to manually approve each item.
- B
Microsoft Purview Retention Policy with a record label to mark items as regulatory records
Why wrong: Marking items as regulatory records makes them immutable and prevents modification or deletion, even after the retention period, so automatic deletion would not occur.
- C
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management using a retention policy configured to retain items for 7 years and then delete them automatically
A retention policy can be set to retain content for a specified period and then automatically delete it, meeting both the preservation and automatic deletion requirements without manual steps.
- D
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery with a hold policy to preserve the documents indefinitely
Why wrong: eDiscovery hold is for preserving data for legal investigations; it does not enforce a retention period with automatic deletion.
Quick Answer
The answer is Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management using a retention policy configured to retain items for 7 years and then delete them automatically. This solution is correct because it enforces a fixed retention period that preserves the original version of a document even if a user modifies or deletes it, thanks to the preservation lock capability, and then triggers automatic, permanent deletion without requiring manual approval. On the SC-900 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how Data Lifecycle Management differs from records management—the key trap is confusing it with a retention label, which requires manual application, whereas a retention policy applies automatically to all content in SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. Remember the mnemonic "Policy for Places, Label for Cases": a retention policy covers entire locations like sites or teams, while labels are for individual items requiring manual or auto-classification. This directly addresses the regulation’s demand for hands-off, time-based destruction across the specified workloads.
SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
This SC-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe the capabilities of microsoft compliance solutions. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A financial services company must comply with a regulation that requires all audit-related documents to be retained for 7 years and then permanently deleted. The compliance officer wants to ensure that even if a user modifies or deletes a file, the original content is preserved for the full 7 years, and at the end of the period the files are automatically destroyed without any manual approval. The company uses Microsoft 365 and stores these documents in SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. Which Microsoft Purview solution should the compliance officer configure?
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 using a retention policy configured to retain items for 7 years and then delete them automatically
Option C is correct because Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management allows you to create a retention policy that retains items for a fixed period (7 years) and then automatically deletes them without any manual intervention. This meets the regulatory requirement for automatic destruction at the end of the retention period, and the policy applies to both SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams, preserving the original content even if a user modifies or deletes the file.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 Retention Labels with a disposition review that requires manual approval at the end of the retention period
Why it's wrong here
A disposition review with manual approval does not guarantee automatic deletion; it would require someone to manually approve each item.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Retention Policy with a record label to mark items as regulatory records
Why it's wrong here
Marking items as regulatory records makes them immutable and prevents modification or deletion, even after the retention period, so automatic deletion would not occur.
- ✓
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management using a retention policy configured to retain items for 7 years and then delete them automatically
Why this is correct
A retention policy can be set to retain content for a specified period and then automatically delete it, meeting both the preservation and automatic deletion requirements without manual steps.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery with a hold policy to preserve the documents indefinitely
Why it's wrong here
eDiscovery hold is for preserving data for legal investigations; it does not enforce a retention period with automatic deletion.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse retention policies with record labels or eDiscovery holds, mistakenly thinking that marking items as records or placing them on hold satisfies the automatic deletion requirement, but these options either require manual approval or preserve data indefinitely, failing the 'automatically destroyed' condition.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management uses retention policies that apply to SharePoint Online document libraries and Teams channel messages/files. When a retention policy is configured with a retention period and a deletion action, it creates a 'preservation hold' that captures the original version of any modified or deleted item, storing it in the Preservation Hold library. After the retention period expires, the system automatically purges the data via a background process that runs every 7 days, ensuring compliance without manual intervention.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SC-900 question test?
Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions — This question tests Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management using a retention policy configured to retain items for 7 years and then delete them automatically — Option C is correct because Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management allows you to create a retention policy that retains items for a fixed period (7 years) and then automatically deletes them without any manual intervention. This meets the regulatory requirement for automatic destruction at the end of the retention period, and the policy applies to both SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams, preserving the original content even if a user modifies or deletes the file.
What should I do if I get this SC-900 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Same concept, more angles
1 more ways this is tested on SC-900
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company must retain all customer service emails in Exchange Online for 7 years for regulatory purposes. After 7 years, the emails must be automatically deleted. Additionally, employees must not be able to permanently delete these emails before the retention period ends. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they configure?
medium- ✓ A.Data Lifecycle Management (retention policies and labels)
- B.Communication Compliance
- C.eDiscovery (Premium)
- D.Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Why A: Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) via retention policies and labels in Microsoft Purview is the correct solution because it allows you to define a retention period of 7 years for Exchange Online emails and then automatically delete them. Additionally, DLM retention policies prevent users from permanently deleting emails before the retention period ends by locking the items in a 'preservation hold' state, ensuring regulatory compliance.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
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