SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
A legal team needs to preserve all electronic documents related to an ongoing lawsuit. These documents reside in Exchange Online mailboxes, SharePoint Online sites, and OneDrive for Business accounts. The team also needs the ability to search across these locations for specific keywords and export the results for review. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse eDiscovery with Audit, thinking Audit can search and export content, but Audit only provides activity logs, not the ability to preserve or export the actual documents.
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 eDiscovery (Premium)
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium) is the correct solution because it provides end-to-end workflow for preserving, searching, and exporting content from Exchange Online mailboxes, SharePoint Online sites, and OneDrive for Business accounts. It supports legal hold to preserve data, keyword search across these sources, and export of results for review, meeting all requirements of the legal team.
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 eDiscovery (Premium)
Why this is correct
eDiscovery (Premium) provides end-to-end workflow for legal investigations, including identifying and holding relevant data, searching for specific content using keywords and conditions, reviewing results with advanced analytics, and exporting data for external review. It is the appropriate solution for litigation holds and search.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management
Why it's wrong here
Data Lifecycle Management (formerly Records Management) focuses on configuring retention labels and policies for regulatory compliance or business needs. It does not provide the ability to place a litigation hold on specific data or perform ad-hoc searches and exports for legal cases.
When this WOULD be correct
A correct scenario would be: 'An organization needs to automatically retain emails for 7 years to comply with regulatory requirements and then delete them. Which solution should they use?' In that case, Data Lifecycle Management would be correct.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is designed to identify, monitor, and protect sensitive information by enforcing policies that prevent its unauthorized sharing or transfer. While crucial for data protection, DLP policies do not provide the specific mechanisms required for placing an immutable legal hold on data, performing targeted content searches for legal discovery, or managing the comprehensive review and export workflow necessary for litigation cases. Its focus is on preventing data exfiltration, not on preserving and collecting data for legal proceedings.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to automatically detect and block emails containing credit card numbers from being sent to external recipients. Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention would be the correct solution to enforce such policies.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Audit
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Audit records user and administrator activities across Microsoft 365 services, providing logs that detail actions such as file access, modifications, or deletions. While these audit logs are invaluable for forensic analysis and understanding the timeline of events during an investigation, Audit itself is not a tool for placing a legal hold on content, performing full-text searches within documents, or managing the collection and export of actual document content for legal discovery purposes. It tracks 'who did what, when,' rather than preserving or extracting the content itself.
When this WOULD be correct
An organization needs to investigate a security incident and must review all user activities (e.g., file access, email sends) across Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive for a specific time period. Audit would be the correct solution for searching and exporting audit logs.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The SC-900 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium)Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
eDiscovery (Premium) provides end-to-end workflow for legal investigations, including identifying and holding relevant data, searching for specific content using keywords and conditions, reviewing results with advanced analytics, and exporting data for external review. It is the appropriate solution for litigation holds and search.
✗Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle ManagementWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management focuses on retaining or deleting content based on policies, not on preserving data for legal hold or performing search and export across mailboxes, SharePoint, and OneDrive for litigation purposes.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A correct scenario would be: 'An organization needs to automatically retain emails for 7 years to comply with regulatory requirements and then delete them. Which solution should they use?' In that case, Data Lifecycle Management would be correct.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse the need to 'preserve' documents with data lifecycle management's retention policies, not realizing that eDiscovery (Premium) provides legal hold, search, and export capabilities specifically for litigation.
✗Microsoft Purview Data Loss PreventionWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies prevent accidental sharing of sensitive data but do not provide legal hold, search, or export capabilities across mailboxes, SharePoint, and OneDrive for litigation purposes.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to automatically detect and block emails containing credit card numbers from being sent to external recipients. Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention would be the correct solution to enforce such policies.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse the need to protect data (DLP) with the need to preserve and search data for legal cases, as both involve data governance concepts.
✗Microsoft Purview AuditWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Microsoft Purview Audit provides logging of user and admin activities but does not support preservation, search, or export of content across mailboxes, sites, and accounts for legal hold purposes.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
An organization needs to investigate a security incident and must review all user activities (e.g., file access, email sends) across Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive for a specific time period. Audit would be the correct solution for searching and exporting audit logs.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse the search and export capabilities of Audit with eDiscovery, or think that auditing includes content preservation and search, when it only tracks activities.
Analysis generated from the official SC-900blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Microsoft Entra ID
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.
Key term
eDiscovery
eDiscovery is the process of identifying, collecting, and producing electronic information for legal cases or investigations.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every SC-900 question from scratch — 1,250 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. 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.