SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft security solutions
Your organization wants to centrally manage security policies for all devices (Windows, iOS, Android) and ensure they meet compliance requirements before accessing corporate resources. Which Microsoft solution should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse Microsoft Entra ID's identity-based Conditional Access with the device-level policy management that Intune provides, assuming Entra ID alone can enforce device compliance without Intune.
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
✓
Microsoft Intune
Microsoft Intune is the correct solution because it is a cloud-based mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) service that centrally manages security policies across Windows, iOS, and Android devices. It enforces compliance requirements—such as encryption, OS version, and jailbreak detection—before granting access to corporate resources, integrating with Conditional Access in Microsoft Entra ID.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is primarily a workflow solution designed to help organizations manage and improve their compliance posture by providing a dashboard for assessing risks, tracking progress, and simplifying complex regulatory requirements. While it helps evaluate an organization's adherence to various compliance standards, it does not directly manage or enforce security policies on individual devices. Its focus is on organizational compliance assessment and reporting, not device configuration.
- ✗
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is an enterprise endpoint security platform focused on preventing, detecting, investigating, and responding to advanced threats on endpoints. While it provides robust security features like antivirus, EDR, and vulnerability management, its core function is threat protection and remediation, not the central management and enforcement of device configuration policies such as password complexity, application deployment, or operating system settings.
- ✓
Microsoft Intune
Why this is correct
Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solution specifically designed to manage and secure devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and laptops, across various operating systems. It enables organizations to centrally deploy and enforce security policies, manage application lifecycles, and configure compliance settings, ensuring all managed devices meet organizational security and operational standards. This direct device configuration and policy enforcement capability is precisely what the question asks for.
- ✗
Microsoft Entra ID
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) is a cloud-based identity and access management service that provides capabilities for user authentication, authorization, and single sign-on to applications and resources. While it manages user and device identities and can integrate with Intune for conditional access, its primary role is not to directly configure or enforce security policies on the devices themselves. It controls who can access what, rather than how the device itself is configured.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Core Security Concepts
Key term
Conditional access
Conditional access is a security framework that evaluates signals like user location, device health, and risk level to grant or block access to resources in real time.
Key term
MDM
MDM stands for Mobile Device Management, a technology that allows IT administrators to securely manage, monitor, and enforce policies on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets from a central console.
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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.