SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
Your organization wants to automatically retain all customer emails for 7 years and then delete them. Which Microsoft Purview feature should you configure?
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
✓
Data Lifecycle Management retention policy
Data Lifecycle Management includes retention and deletion policies for Exchange Online. Option B is wrong because Information Protection is about classification. Option C is wrong because Audit is for logging. Option D is wrong because eDiscovery is for search and hold.
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 retention policy
Why this is correct
A Data Lifecycle Management retention policy is the correct solution because it allows an organization to define how long content should be retained and, optionally, when it should be deleted across various Microsoft 365 services. These policies can be applied broadly to entire locations, such as all Exchange mailboxes or SharePoint sites, ensuring automatic and consistent retention of all customer data according to organizational or regulatory requirements.
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Information Protection sensitivity labels
Why it's wrong here
Information Protection sensitivity labels are primarily used for classifying data, applying visual markings, and enforcing protective actions like encryption or access restrictions. While sensitivity labels can be configured to apply a retention label to content, their core function is not to establish an organization-wide, automatic retention policy for all customer data, nor do they directly define retention periods for content lifecycle management.
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Audit log retention
Why it's wrong here
Audit log retention specifically pertains to preserving records of user and administrator activities within Microsoft 365 services for security, compliance, and forensic investigations. It ensures that logs detailing who did what, and when, are kept for a specified period. This mechanism does not, however, retain the actual customer data content itself, such as emails, documents, or chat messages, making it unsuitable for managing the lifecycle of primary business data.
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eDiscovery hold
Why it's wrong here
An eDiscovery hold, also known as a litigation hold, is a legal preservation mechanism that prevents content from being permanently deleted until the hold is released. It is typically a targeted, reactive measure applied to specific custodians or content in response to a legal or investigative requirement. An eDiscovery hold does not establish proactive, time-bound retention periods or manage the eventual disposition of data across an organization, which is the purpose of a retention policy.
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Microsoft Entra ID
Key term
Microsoft Purview
Microsoft Purview is a unified data governance and compliance service that helps organizations discover, manage, and protect their data across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
Key term
Organization
An Organization is a top-level container in Google Cloud that represents your company or entities and serves as the root node for all your cloud resources, policies, and access control.
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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.