SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
Which THREE capabilities are part of Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management?
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
✓
Retention labels
Data Lifecycle Management in Microsoft Purview focuses on managing data through its lifecycle, including retention, deletion, and records management. The key capabilities are retention policies (C), retention labels (A), and records management (E). Data Loss Prevention (B) is a separate capability for preventing data leaks, not lifecycle management. eDiscovery (D) is about discovering and exporting data for legal purposes, not lifecycle management. Therefore, the correct options are A, C, and E.
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 this is correct
Retention labels in Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management enable organizations to classify content and apply specific retention settings directly to individual items, such as emails or documents. These labels can be applied manually by users, automatically based on conditions, or through event-based triggers, ensuring that data is retained or deleted according to regulatory or business requirements throughout its lifecycle. They also facilitate the declaration of records, making content immutable for compliance.
- ✗
Data Loss Prevention policies
Why it's wrong here
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies are designed to identify, monitor, and protect sensitive information across various locations within Microsoft 365, preventing its unauthorized sharing or transfer outside the organization. While crucial for security and compliance, DLP focuses on preventing data exfiltration or misuse rather than governing the long-term retention or deletion of data as part of its lifecycle. Therefore, DLP is a distinct capability from Data Lifecycle Management, which manages data from creation to disposition.
- ✓
Retention policies
Why this is correct
Retention policies within Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management are used to apply broad retention and deletion settings to content at a container level, such as entire SharePoint sites, Exchange mailboxes, or Teams channels. These policies ensure that data is retained for a specified period to meet compliance obligations and then automatically deleted when no longer needed, reducing data sprawl and associated risks. They provide a foundational layer for managing data across multiple locations without requiring individual item classification.
- ✗
eDiscovery
Why it's wrong here
eDiscovery capabilities in Microsoft Purview are specifically engineered to identify, preserve, collect, process, review, and analyze electronically stored information (ESI) for legal or investigative purposes. This functionality is primarily reactive, responding to legal holds or investigations, rather than proactively managing the retention and disposition of data throughout its routine operational lifecycle. While eDiscovery relies on data being retained, it is a distinct legal process tool, not a core component of data lifecycle management itself.
- ✓
Records management
Why this is correct
Records management in Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management provides specialized controls for managing high-value, business-critical, or regulatory records, ensuring their immutability and auditable disposition. This capability allows organizations to declare content as a record, preventing its modification or deletion, and manage its lifecycle according to strict regulatory schedules, including disposition reviews. It is essential for meeting stringent compliance requirements by providing a defensible process for managing official records.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Microsoft Entra ID
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
Data lifecycle management
Data lifecycle management is the process of managing data from its creation to its deletion, ensuring it is stored, used, and disposed of in a way that meets security, compliance, and business needs.
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.