SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
A company is subject to a legal investigation and must preserve all email communications related to the case for an indefinite period, even if users try to delete them. The compliance officer needs a solution that can place a hold on specific user mailboxes and prevent any permanent deletion of relevant content. Which Microsoft Purview feature should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse retention labels or policies with litigation hold, not realizing that retention labels apply granularly to content while litigation hold applies to the entire mailbox and is specifically designed for legal preservation scenarios.
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
✓
Litigation hold
Litigation hold is the correct feature because it places a hold on an entire mailbox, preserving all content including deleted items and versions, and prevents permanent deletion by users or automated processes. Unlike retention labels or policies, litigation hold applies to the entire mailbox and is designed specifically for legal investigations where indefinite preservation is required.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Retention labels
Why it's wrong here
Retention labels are designed to apply retention and deletion policies to *individual items* based on content classification or user action, enforcing a *defined retention period* or deletion schedule. They do not provide an *indefinite, mailbox-wide hold* that prevents *all* user deletion attempts for legal discovery purposes, which is required for specific user mailboxes in this scenario. This option is tempting because labels manage content lifecycle, and would be correct for applying specific retention or deletion rules to *types of content* for regulatory compliance over defined periods.
When this WOULD be correct
A company needs to automatically apply a retention policy to all emails containing specific keywords (e.g., 'confidential') for a period of 5 years, and users should be able to delete the emails, but the organization must be able to recover them if needed. In this case, a retention label with a retention rule would be the correct answer.
- ✓
Litigation hold
Why this is correct
Litigation hold is specifically designed to preserve all electronically stored information (ESI) within a user's mailbox, including active items, deleted items, and even items modified after the hold is placed. It places an indefinite hold on content, preventing users from permanently deleting items and ensuring data immutability for legal discovery or investigation purposes. This mechanism is crucial for meeting eDiscovery requirements by ensuring no relevant data is lost.
- ✗
Data loss prevention
Why it's wrong here
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies are designed to identify, monitor, and protect sensitive information from unauthorized sharing or exfiltration, both internally and externally. While DLP can prevent data from leaving a controlled environment, its primary function is not data preservation for legal discovery. It does not place an indefinite hold on existing mailbox content to prevent user deletion, which is the core requirement for a legal investigation.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to automatically detect and block emails containing credit card numbers from being sent to external recipients. Which Microsoft Purview feature should be used?
- ✗
Compliance Manager
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is a workflow-based solution that helps organizations manage their compliance posture by providing pre-built assessments, recommended actions, and a scoring system. It assists in tracking and improving compliance with various regulations and standards. However, Compliance Manager is a management and reporting tool; it does not directly implement data preservation mechanisms like legal holds on user mailboxes or content.
When this WOULD be correct
A company needs to assess its compliance posture against data protection regulations and track remediation actions. Compliance Manager would be correct for evaluating and improving compliance scores.
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.
✓Litigation holdCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Litigation hold is specifically designed to preserve all electronically stored information (ESI) within a user's mailbox, including active items, deleted items, and even items modified after the hold is placed. It places an indefinite hold on content, preventing users from permanently deleting items and ensuring data immutability for legal discovery or investigation purposes. This mechanism is crucial for meeting eDiscovery requirements by ensuring no relevant data is lost.
✗Retention labelsWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Retention labels are used to classify and retain data based on policies, but they do not prevent users from deleting items; they only ensure that deleted items are preserved in a recoverable state for a specified period. In this scenario, the requirement is to place a hold that prevents permanent deletion indefinitely, which is a feature of Litigation hold, not retention labels.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company needs to automatically apply a retention policy to all emails containing specific keywords (e.g., 'confidential') for a period of 5 years, and users should be able to delete the emails, but the organization must be able to recover them if needed. In this case, a retention label with a retention rule would be the correct answer.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse retention labels with holds because both involve preserving data, but they don't realize that retention labels do not block deletion by users; they only retain deleted items for a set period, whereas a hold prevents deletion entirely.
✗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 cannot place a legal hold on mailboxes to preserve content indefinitely against user deletion.
★ 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. Which Microsoft Purview feature should be used?
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse the preservation aspect of DLP (preventing data loss) with the legal preservation requirement of litigation hold, assuming DLP can also prevent deletion.
✗Compliance ManagerWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Compliance Manager is a risk assessment and compliance score tool, not a feature for placing holds on mailboxes to preserve content. It does not prevent deletion of emails.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company needs to assess its compliance posture against data protection regulations and track remediation actions. Compliance Manager would be correct for evaluating and improving compliance scores.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse Compliance Manager with a feature that enforces legal holds because both relate to compliance and legal requirements, but they serve different purposes.
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
Compliance Concepts
Key term
Labels
Labels are descriptive text or tags attached to IT resources to organize, identify, and manage them based on attributes like purpose, environment, or owner.
Key term
Compliance
Compliance is the process of ensuring that an organization follows laws, regulations, standards, and internal policies that apply to its operations and data handling.
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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.