The answer is Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium) because it provides the complete end-to-end workflow required for legal investigations, including placing legal holds on custodians to preserve Exchange Online mailboxes and SharePoint sites from deletion or alteration, and then collecting that preserved data for review and analysis. This solution directly addresses the scenario’s need to identify specific custodians, apply a litigation hold, and gather content for legal discovery. On the SC-900 exam, this question tests your understanding of how eDiscovery Premium differs from the standard eDiscovery solution, which lacks advanced hold and collection capabilities. A common trap is confusing eDiscovery Premium with simply using litigation hold alone—remember that Premium adds the full lifecycle of custodian management, collection, and review. Memory tip: think “Premium = Preserve, Collect, Review” to recall its three core phases.
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. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 company is involved in a legal dispute and must preserve all emails and documents related to the case. The legal team needs to identify specific custodians (employees) and place a hold on their Exchange Online mailboxes and SharePoint sites to prevent any deletion or alteration of relevant content. Additionally, they need to collect the preserved data for review and analysis. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they use?
eDiscovery (Premium) provides end-to-end workflow for identifying, preserving, collecting, and reviewing data relevant to legal cases, including placing holds on custodians' data.
B
Microsoft Purview Audit
Why wrong: Audit provides logs of user and admin activity, but does not provide preservation or collection capabilities.
C
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management
Why wrong: Data Lifecycle Management defines retention and deletion policies, but is not designed for legal hold on specific custodians.
D
Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance
Why wrong: Communication Compliance monitors communications for policy violations, not for legal hold and eDiscovery.
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 legal investigations: identifying and placing custodians on hold (via litigation hold on Exchange Online mailboxes and SharePoint sites), preserving content from deletion or alteration, and then collecting, reviewing, and analyzing the preserved data. This directly matches the scenario's requirements for legal hold and data collection for review.
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 eDiscovery (Premium)
Why this is correct
eDiscovery (Premium) provides end-to-end workflow for identifying, preserving, collecting, and reviewing data relevant to legal cases, including placing holds on custodians' data.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Microsoft Purview Audit
Why it's wrong here
Audit provides logs of user and admin activity, but does not provide preservation or collection capabilities.
✗
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management
Why it's wrong here
Data Lifecycle Management defines retention and deletion policies, but is not designed for legal hold on specific custodians.
✗
Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance
Why it's wrong here
Communication Compliance monitors communications for policy violations, not for legal hold and eDiscovery.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is confusing the logging/auditing capability (Audit) with the preservation and collection workflow (eDiscovery), or assuming that retention policies (Data Lifecycle Management) can serve as a legal hold, when in fact they are designed for lifecycle management and do not support custodian-based holds or case-specific collection.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
eDiscovery (Premium) uses a custodian management module that maps users to their Exchange Online mailboxes, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint sites, and Teams, then applies a litigation hold via the `Set-Mailbox -LitigationHoldEnabled` cmdlet and a SharePoint preservation hold library. The hold prevents both hard deletes (purges) and soft deletes (recoverable items) by moving deleted items to the Preservation Hold library, ensuring data integrity for legal review.
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.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this SC-900 question in full detail.
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 eDiscovery (Premium) — Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium) is the correct solution because it provides end-to-end workflow for legal investigations: identifying and placing custodians on hold (via litigation hold on Exchange Online mailboxes and SharePoint sites), preserving content from deletion or alteration, and then collecting, reviewing, and analyzing the preserved data. This directly matches the scenario's requirements for legal hold and data collection for review.
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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Variation 1. A company is involved in litigation and needs to search for specific emails and documents across Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Teams. They also need to place a hold on relevant content to prevent deletion. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they use?
easy
A.Records Management
B.Data Lifecycle Management
✓ C.eDiscovery
D.Data Loss Prevention
Why C: Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (specifically eDiscovery (Premium)) is the correct solution because it is designed for legal investigations, enabling organizations to search for content across Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Teams, and to place holds on that content to preserve it from deletion or alteration. This directly addresses the litigation requirement for both search and hold capabilities.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
Question Discussion
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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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