The answer is Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium). This solution is correct because it is purpose-built for legal investigations, enabling you to place a legal hold on custodians’ mailboxes, SharePoint sites, and Teams messages while preserving the data in its original state—no modifications are made during collection or export. On the SC-900 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how eDiscovery (Premium) differs from standard eDiscovery or other compliance tools like Data Lifecycle Management; a common trap is confusing it with Audit or Retention policies, which do not support custodian-based legal hold or secure export for review. Remember the memory tip: “Premium for preservation and export” — if the question involves locking down specific users’ data for a lawsuit without altering it, think Premium.
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 lawsuit. The legal team needs to preserve all emails, documents, and Teams messages from five key employees (custodians) that are related to a specific project. The data must be collected securely and provided for legal review without modifying the original data. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they use?
Why wrong: Data Lifecycle Management manages retention and deletion policies, not the preservation and collection of data for legal review.
B
eDiscovery (Premium)
eDiscovery Premium provides end-to-end workflow for custodial holds, data collection, and review without modifying the original data.
C
Records Management
Why wrong: Records Management marks items as records to prevent deletion but does not provide the comprehensive collection and review capabilities needed for eDiscovery.
D
Communication Compliance
Why wrong: Communication Compliance detects inappropriate or policy-violating communications, not preserving and reviewing data for litigation.
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 organizations to identify, preserve, collect, and export relevant data (emails, documents, Teams messages) from custodians without altering the original data. It supports legal hold, advanced search, and secure export for legal review, meeting the lawsuit requirements.
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.
✗
Data Lifecycle Management
Why it's wrong here
Data Lifecycle Management manages retention and deletion policies, not the preservation and collection of data for legal review.
✓
eDiscovery (Premium)
Why this is correct
eDiscovery Premium provides end-to-end workflow for custodial holds, data collection, and review without modifying the original data.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Records Management
Why it's wrong here
Records Management marks items as records to prevent deletion but does not provide the comprehensive collection and review capabilities needed for eDiscovery.
✗
Communication Compliance
Why it's wrong here
Communication Compliance detects inappropriate or policy-violating communications, not preserving and reviewing data for litigation.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse Data Lifecycle Management or Records Management with eDiscovery, but those solutions manage retention and deletion policies rather than providing the custodial hold, search, and export capabilities required for legal preservation and review.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
eDiscovery (Premium) uses a workflow that includes custodian management, legal hold notifications, and advanced indexing (e.g., OCR, metadata extraction) to ensure all relevant content is searchable. It leverages Microsoft Graph APIs to collect data from Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams, preserving the original data in-place via litigation hold while creating a review set for export. In real-world litigation, this ensures defensible data collection and chain-of-custody documentation, critical for court 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 cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
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: eDiscovery (Premium) — eDiscovery (Premium) is the correct solution because it is specifically designed for legal investigations, allowing organizations to identify, preserve, collect, and export relevant data (emails, documents, Teams messages) from custodians without altering the original data. It supports legal hold, advanced search, and secure export for legal review, meeting the lawsuit requirements.
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 →
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 is involved in litigation and needs to preserve all Exchange Online mailboxes and SharePoint sites related to the case. The legal team also requires the ability to search, review, and export relevant content. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they use?
medium
✓ A.Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium)
B.Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance
C.Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management
D.Microsoft Purview Audit (Premium)
Why A: Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium) is the correct solution because it provides end-to-end workflow for preserving, searching, reviewing, and exporting content from Exchange Online mailboxes and SharePoint sites. It supports legal hold placement on custodians and data sources, advanced search with keyword and proximity queries, review sets with analytics, and export in a format suitable for litigation. This directly matches the requirement to preserve all relevant mailboxes and sites while enabling the legal team to search, review, and export content.
Variation 2. A company is involved in litigation. The legal team needs to preserve all relevant electronic documents that reside in Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business. They must prevent users from deleting or modifying these documents while the lawsuit is active. Additionally, they need to search across these locations for specific keywords and export the results for review. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they use?
medium
✓ A.Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard or Premium)
B.Microsoft Purview Audit
C.Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management (retention policies/labels)
D.Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Why A: Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard or Premium) is the correct solution because it provides end-to-end workflow for legal holds (preservation), content search across Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business, and export of results. The legal hold feature prevents deletion or modification by locking the original content, while the search and export capabilities meet the keyword search and review requirements.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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