AB-900 practice question 3 of 35

Contoso's compliance o[icer needs to quickly ﬁnd all email messages and documents that mention a speciﬁc external vendor across many Exchange…

Choose your answer, then check it against the explanation and the full breakdown below.

Contoso's compliance o[icer needs to quickly ﬁnd all email messages and documents that mention a speciﬁc external vendor across many Exchange mailboxes and SharePoint/OneDrive locations. They don't need case management or legal hold; they just want to run a search, preview results, and export the matching items for further review. Which tool should they use?

Answer options

Correct Answer:

Explanation

Content search is the ideal tool for this scenario. It is designed for running broad, ad-hoc searches across multiple Microsoft 365 services, including Exchange Online mailboxes, SharePoint Online sites, and OneDrive for Business accounts, from a single interface. The compliance officer can define search criteria, preview the results to validate them, and then export the matching items for external review. This meets all requirements without the unnecessary overhead of case management or legal holds found in eDiscovery tools.

Why Incorrect

A. Run separate searches in each mailbox and site: This approach is highly inefficient, not scalable, and prone to error, as it requires manual searching in disparate locations.

C. Create an eDiscovery (Premium) case and build review sets: This is excessive for the stated need. eDiscovery tools are for formal legal cases and include features like legal hold and case management, which were explicitly not required.

D. Export audit logs from Microsoft 365 and ﬁlter them o[line: Audit logs track user and admin activities (e.g., file viewed, email sent), not the actual content of the files or messages.

References

1. Microsoft. (2024). Content search in Microsoft Purview. Microsoft Learn. Retrieved from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/content-search. (The introductory paragraph states

"Use the Content search tool...to search for content such as email

documents

and instant messaging conversations in your organization.").

2. Microsoft. (2024). Get started with Content search. Microsoft Learn. Retrieved from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/get-started-with-content-search. (See the "What can you search for?" section

which lists Exchange mailboxes

SharePoint sites

and OneDrive accounts as searchable locations).

Question 3 of 35

Question breakdown

Tests: Choose the right Microsoft Purview search and discovery tool
Difficulty: Easy

Key idea: Content search runs one ad-hoc query across Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive, with preview and export, and needs no case or hold.

How to reach the answer

The search must span many mailboxes plus SharePoint and OneDrive from one place.
The question explicitly says no case management or legal hold is needed.
The workflow is search, preview, and export.
That matches Content search, which avoids the overhead of eDiscovery (Premium).

Each option

AIncorrect. Searching each location separately is slow, error-prone, and doesn't scale.
BCorrect. Content search covers all of these locations in one query and supports preview and export.
CIncorrect. eDiscovery (Premium) adds cases, holds, and review sets that the scenario says it doesn't need.
DIncorrect. Audit logs record activities, not the content of emails and documents.

Common trap: eDiscovery (Premium) sounds like the most thorough option, but its case and hold features are explicitly unnecessary here.

In practice: Compliance teams use Content search for quick investigations, such as finding every mention of a vendor or project, before deciding whether a formal case is warranted.

Remember: Use Content search for search, preview, and export with no case; use eDiscovery when you need cases, holds, or review sets.

Official documentation: Content search

Drafted with AI assistance and checked against the answer key.

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