eDiscovery (Standard) for Legal Holds on Mailboxes and OneDrive
Your organization uses Microsoft Purview eDiscovery to manage legal holds. You need to place a hold on mailboxes and OneDrive accounts for a specific user who is involved in a litigation. Which eDiscovery solution should you use?
Quick Answer
The answer is eDiscovery (Standard) because it is the Microsoft Purview solution specifically designed to place legal holds on mailboxes and OneDrive accounts. While Content Search can locate data, it lacks the ability to preserve it, and eDiscovery (Standard) provides the core hold functionality required to prevent deletion or alteration of content during litigation. On the SC-900 exam, this question tests your understanding of the distinct roles within Microsoft Purview solutions, often appearing as a trap where candidates confuse Content Search’s search-only capability with the preservation features of eDiscovery (Standard). A common memory tip is to remember that “Standard” holds the line—it is the baseline for legal holds, whereas Premium adds advanced analytics and review. For quick recall, think: “Search finds it, Standard binds it.”
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Content search with eDiscovery (Standard) because both involve searching content, but Content search lacks the legal hold capability that is explicitly required for litigation holds.
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
✓
eDiscovery (Standard)
eDiscovery (Standard) is the correct solution because it is designed specifically for legal hold management, allowing you to place a hold on content locations such as mailboxes and OneDrive accounts for a specific user involved in litigation. This hold preserves all content in those locations, including deleted items and versions, until the hold is released. Audit, Communication Compliance, and Content search do not provide the legal hold functionality required for this scenario.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Audit
Why it's wrong here
Audit logs activities but does not place holds.
- ✗
Communication Compliance
Why it's wrong here
Communication Compliance monitors for policy violations, not legal holds.
- ✗
Content search
Why it's wrong here
Content search allows searching but does not place holds.
- ✓
eDiscovery (Standard)
Why this is correct
eDiscovery (Standard) can place holds on Exchange mailboxes and OneDrive accounts.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Compliance Concepts
Key term
Audit
An audit is a systematic, independent review of IT systems, processes, and controls to verify compliance with policies, standards, and regulations.
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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Same concept, more angles
1 more way 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 organization uses Microsoft Purview eDiscovery to manage a legal case. You need to place a hold on emails for specific users, but you want to allow the system to apply the hold automatically. Which eDiscovery solution should you use?
medium- A.Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard)
- B.Microsoft Purview Audit (Premium)
- C.Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance
- ✓ D.Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium)
Why D: Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium) is the correct choice because it provides advanced legal hold capabilities, including the ability to apply holds automatically based on specified criteria such as user mailboxes or SharePoint sites. Unlike the Standard version, Premium supports policy-based holds that can be set to trigger automatically without manual intervention, which is essential for managing legal cases efficiently.
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.