- A
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager
Why wrong: Compliance Manager helps organizations assess and improve their compliance posture across regulations, but it does not place legal holds or search for content.
- B
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management
Why wrong: Data Lifecycle Management (retention labels and policies) can enforce retention and deletion rules, but it cannot place a legal hold that preserves content against modification or deletion, nor does it provide the search and export features needed for litigation.
- C
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard)
eDiscovery (Standard) is designed for legal and investigative needs. It can place holds on content to preserve it, search across Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, and other locations, and export results for review.
- D
Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard)
Why wrong: Audit (Standard) records user activities for security and compliance, but it does not preserve content or allow search and export of the actual items.
Quick Answer
The answer is Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard). This solution is correct because it enables compliance teams to place a legal hold on content, which preserves emails and documents in their original state even if users attempt to edit or delete them, while also providing built-in search and export capabilities for legal review. On the SC-900 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how eDiscovery (Standard) differs from eDiscovery (Premium) and from retention policies—the key trap is confusing legal hold with simple retention, but legal hold is specifically designed for litigation where preservation, search, and export are all required. Remember the mnemonic "HSE" for Hold, Search, Export: if a scenario demands all three, eDiscovery (Standard) is the answer.
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 legal team is involved in a lawsuit and needs to ensure that all emails and documents related to the case are preserved in their original state, even if users edit or delete them. They also need the ability to search for these items and export them for legal review. Which Microsoft Purview solution should the compliance team configure to meet these requirements?
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 (Standard)
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard) is the correct solution because it provides the ability to place a legal hold on content (preserving emails and documents in their original state even if users edit or delete them), perform searches across Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Teams, and export the results for legal review. This directly meets the requirements of preservation, search, and export for litigation.
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 Compliance Manager
Why it's wrong here
Compliance Manager helps organizations assess and improve their compliance posture across regulations, but it does not place legal holds or search for content.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management
Why it's wrong here
Data Lifecycle Management (retention labels and policies) can enforce retention and deletion rules, but it cannot place a legal hold that preserves content against modification or deletion, nor does it provide the search and export features needed for litigation.
- ✓
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard)
Why this is correct
eDiscovery (Standard) is designed for legal and investigative needs. It can place holds on content to preserve it, search across Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, and other locations, and export results for review.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard)
Why it's wrong here
Audit (Standard) records user activities for security and compliance, but it does not preserve content or allow search and export of the actual items.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Data Lifecycle Management (retention/deletion) with eDiscovery (preservation/search/export), or mistakenly think Audit (Standard) can preserve and export content when it only records metadata about activities.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, eDiscovery (Standard) uses the Microsoft 365 compliance center to create a case, apply an In-Place Hold (which leverages the Recoverable Items folder in Exchange Online and versioning in SharePoint/OneDrive) to preserve content, and then uses Content Search to query across all indexed data sources. The exported results are packaged as PST files for Exchange or native documents for SharePoint, ensuring chain-of-custody metadata is included for legal admissibility.
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
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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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 eDiscovery (Standard) — Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard) is the correct solution because it provides the ability to place a legal hold on content (preserving emails and documents in their original state even if users edit or delete them), perform searches across Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Teams, and export the results for legal review. This directly meets the requirements of preservation, search, and export for litigation.
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
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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. Your legal team needs to search for all emails from a specific executive that mention a project name 'ProjectX' for a litigation hold. Which Microsoft Purview tool should they use?
medium- A.Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance
- B.Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention
- C.Microsoft Purview Audit
- ✓ D.Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Why D: Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard or Premium) allows searching across Exchange, SharePoint, etc. for specific keywords and custodians. Option A is wrong because Audit only shows activity logs, not content. Option B is wrong because DLP is for policy enforcement. Option D is wrong because Communication Compliance monitors communications for policy violations, not litigation searches.
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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